Koivisto chalice

In the summer of 1777, Gustav III travelled from Stockholm to St. Petersburg on the king’s Order of the Seraphim galley. High winds and stormy seas forced the ship to seek shelter on the shore of Koivisto Island, near the coast of the Karelian Isthmus, a few dozen nautical miles from St. Petersburg.

The king and his retinue attended a service at Koivisto Church. When the identity of the high-ranking guest was discovered after the trip, pastor Bogislaus Hornborg wrote to Stockholm, asking that the church be given a portrait of the king as a memento of his visit.

On 12 December 1777, pastor Hornborg received word from Stockholm that the king had decided to donate a communion chalice and paten to Koivisto Church. The 20-carat gold objects were handed over to the pastor at a ceremony in Vyborg and taken into use exactly one year after the king’s visit.

The Koivisto chalice was made by the court engraver Pehr Suther, who had trained as a goldsmith in Stockholm and Paris in the 1740s and been working in Stockholm since 1750. In terms of style, the Koivisto chalice represents the pinnacle of design of its era: its model was taken from Jacques Delafosse’s collection of model drawings published in Paris in 1771.

The giving of luxurious gifts as a sign of recognition and esteem had already been common since the Renaissance. The use of gifts, particularly in diplomacy, was not a reflection of the giver’s personal taste, but rather a sign or at least a symbol of the giver’s power and authority.