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Lot 235 - A198 Books & Autographs - Wednesday, 29. September 2021, 02.00 PM

RUSSIA - Alexander II

Description du Sacre et du Couronnement de leurs Majestes Imperiales l'Empereur Alexandre II et l'Imperatrice Marie Alexandrovna. With lithographed title page in red and gold, 18 full-page chromolithographs, 2 lithographed plans and 30 engraved, mounted illustrations by Malapeau, Walter after Bagantz, Zichy, Sorieul, Timm, Blanchard, Teichel and others printed by Lemercier. Also 1 further large-format engraved panorama in 4 parts by Müller printed by Lemercier, the latter separately framed.
St Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1856. Imperial folio (90 × 68 cm). 125 pp. Original monumental dark green morocco binding with gilt spine and a supralibros coat of arms of the Imperial family on the front cover, 2 chased brass clasps, gilt edges (spine loose, corners rubbed and bumped, lightly scuffed, scratched and somewhat stained in places, slightly chipped edges).

Lipperheide 2787 - Burtsev 286 - Rossiiskaia Gosudarstvennaia Biblioteka 165 - Vereshchagin 625 - Vinet 782 - Brunet Supplement, 375 - Fekula 2019: ‘one of the most spectacular and ambitious Russian imprints of the century, it was never offered for sale and is a great bibliographic rarity. A magnificent publication’. - First edition. - One of 200 copies of the French edition (GA 400). - Complete with the usually lacking panorama with a view of Moscow. - Monumental magnificent work on the coronation of Tsar Alexander II and Marie Alexandrovna. ‘The volume is of such immense size, that the term “elephant folio” has no meaning, and, indeed, this may be the largest book that ever issued from the printing press’ (Sacherevell Sitwell ‘Valse des fleurs: A Day in St. Petersburg and a Ball at the Winter Palace in 1868’, London 1941, p. 64). No expense was spared in the production of the book: special capital letters were cast and printed on paper imported from China. Among the illustrations are 18 exquisitely printed chromolithographs after Zichy, Timm and other court artists of intense colour that has survived to this day: ‘Not works of art, but fascinating in their improbability.’ (Sitwell, p. 65). It took four years to prepare for publication (the year of printing given is fictitious, the work was not published before 1861), and cost an astonishing 123,000 rubles to produce. The album was prepared not only for members of the court, but also for the diplomatic elite and the aristocracy of Europe. Two hundred copies were published in Russian and two hundred in French, the latter as gifts for important figures of the court and foreign guests attending the ceremony. - Text printed in brown. With the usually lacking panorama of Moscow (image size 19.5 × 224 cm), taken from our copy and framed separately in true gilding (30.5 × 240 cm). - Lightly foxed in places, the panorama lightly foxed in the white margins, endpapers with minor staining by spores, 1 plate torn in the white margin (outside the image, ca. 4 cm), isolated text leaves torn or loosened at the binding, block slightly cracked. - Provenance: Privately owned in Switzerland for several generations.


CHF 40 000 / 60 000 | (€ 41 240 / 61 860)