Plate from the service of Catherine Armenian Church in St. Petersburg

Plate is made for Dulevo factory of M. S. Kuznetsov, and judging by the stamp and the font of the monogram, made in the late nineteenth or in the first years of the twentieth century. However, details of the decoration in the Rococo style, gives us an explicit reference to the eighteenth century, when he could have founded the institution, which belonged to the dishes. In addition to monograms «EC" on the plate is a stylized monogram of Catherine II, but in a very strange performance – without the Imperial crown. We have analyzed quite extensive source base to decipher as the meaning of the abbreviation «PEPPER" and its possible combinations with the Imperial monogram, but to get a definite answer and failed. Most persuasive is the theory that EC stands for «Catherine's Church", and the monogram refers to the time of its Foundation.

Available in both capitals (St. Petersburg and Moscow) temples with the same name it seems to us the most appropriate of the Armenian Church. Catherine, moreover, the history of its Foundation is closely connected with the name of the Empress. Despite the fact that Armenian community appeared in St. Petersburg not later than 1710, her long time not been able to acquire their own Church. 22 may 1770 on the petition of the head of the Armenian community of I. L. Lazarev (Lazaryan) «with other Armenians" was followed by an oral decree of Catherine II «to permit them to build in St. Petersburg the Church." The place that was allotted to on Grand Avenue, which now bears the name Nevsky. The above-mentioned I. L. Lazarev donated for the construction of a whopping amount of 30 thousand rubles, that allowed to build and sanctify the Church in 1772 without interest and the identity of Lazarus, who did much to strengthen the Armenian community in Russia. Starting his career with the St. Petersburg trade in precious stones, he in a short time became a famous jeweler, was well received in the capital house of the highest nobility. Lazarev contributed to the purchase of a diamond «Eagles" in 1774, which decorates the sceptre of Catherine II; and to this day remains the largest diamond in the Diamond Fund of Russia. In the same 1774 Lazarev was appointed Advisor to the Empress of the Eastern Affairs, later took the position of Advisor to the State Bank. At death he left a capital of 12 million rubles, part of which was bequeathed to the opening of a school for poor Armenian children (subsequently, the Lazarev Institute of Oriental languages, now a branch of the Institute of Oriental studies, RAS). Thus, the Builder of churches was a person of outstanding and very close to the Empress Catherine the great. According to some, he participated in the development of the project of reconstruction of the Armenian state under Russian protectorate.

In our opinion many merits to Catherine II and the trust of the Empress appeared to his descendants a reason to use the Imperial monogram, and in «unofficial" version, without a crown (the use of the official monogram was strictly regulated). Again, our interpretation is purely conjectural, but even if it is wrong, a plate of previously unknown monogram, and a monogram without a crown is a unique item.