A unique exhibition opens today at the Upper Bathhouse of the Catherine Park in cooperation with the ROSPHOTO State Museum & Exhibition Centre, which tells how photography came to Tsarskoye Selo, how the tsar’s court influenced a fashion for photography, and how the Romanov family helped boost the quality of daguerreotypes and photographs in Russia.

After the first pewter-plate photograph was taken by Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1826 and then his partner Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre invented a photographic process using silver on copper plate in 1839, the daguerreotype came to Russia during the reign of  Tsar Nicholas I and was called “writing with light”.

Photography became a favourite hobby of the Tsar’s family which, like any other, loved its life chronicled in pictures. The photographs of the “most august family” used for the press and postcards were taken by professionals, who wore awarded the title “Supplier to the Imperial Court and Photographer” after 8–10 years of flawless service.

During Alexander III’s reign, photography bloomed and competed with portrait painting. Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their children, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich took photography lessons from professional “light-writers”. Particularly noteworthy in the current exhibit are a touching photograph of the little Tsarevich Alexei standing together with a guard near a snow-covered Alexander Palace and an album of photographs taken by Anna Vyrubova, Tsarina Alexandra’s lady-in-waiting and close friend.

In 1860 the architect Ippolito Monighetti built an addition to the Llama Pavilion in the Alexander Park, which was used by the Romanovs as a photography studio and laboratory. After the Tsar’s special permission of 1866, photographic ateliers opened in the town of Tsarskoye Selo: Mikhail Kozlovski’s on Konyushennaya St, the workshop of Wilhelm Lapré on Moskovskaya St, and the photographic studio “K.E. von Gann and Co” of Alexander Yagelsky on Shirokaya St.

Besides showing part of the museum’s exhaustive photographic collection, the exhibit gives visitors a chance to feel as if they are in a Tsarskoye Selo photographic studio of the past.

The Exhibition is open through September 30, 2012, from 11.00–19.00 (tickets until 18.00). Closed on Thursdays and Fridays. Admission for adults is 100 rubles.

© Tsarskoye Selo Palace Museum-Preserve. 20 June, 2012

 

In the 1870s, a young American woman had a passionate relationship with Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich (1850-1918), the first-born son of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich and Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, and a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I.

Her account of the 28 months in Russia is a love story, not only of her love for the Grand Duke, but also for Russia itself. She had written a book accounting her story, and only a few copies of her book survived. Now, Eva and Daniel McDonald bring this story to readers in Fanny Lear: Love and Scandal in Tsarist Russia.

Harriet Clarissima Ely Blackford, also known as Fanny Lear, was an American courtesan in the late 19th century – a strong, independent woman who refused to accept the restrictions placed on women by society at the time.

In her short, adventure-filled life, Harriet’s travels took her from Philadelphia to the social heights of Europe and ultimately to Tsarist Russia, where an affair with the Tsar’s nephew culminated in her arrest and expulsion from Russia. Various diplomatic reports from the U.S. State Department detail the scandalous events and the dire implications of this ill-fated love affair.

Once out of Russia, she reportedly wrote this account in English over the course of 11 days and then supervised its translation into French. Published under the title Le Roman d’une Americaine en Russie, it was an instant bestseller. Her story brought on diplomatic pressure from Russia that caused her expulsion from France and Italy, although she continued to be a prominent figure in the social and celebrity sections of the European media during the 1870s and ’80s.

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© Paul Gilbert - Bookseller. 19 June, 2012

A new monument to Emperor Alexander III will be unveiled in the Siberian city of of Novosibirsk on the night of June 22/23. Organisers have announced that the ceremony will be "nothing short of impressive, complete with the unveiling of the monument to the thunder of guns."

For more information on this new monument to Alexander III, please refer to the following news clips on this blog;

||| First Glimpse of New Monument to Alexander III in Siberia |||

||| Monument to Alexander III Planned for Novosibirsk |||

© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 18 June, 2012

Estate Auctions Inc. is offering a rare opportunity to own a unique and very hard to find Kremlin Service Plate. "We continue to be astonished at the rare unique items that come through our doors. Our clients appreciate the out of the ordinary and quirky items and this plate certainly falls into that category." says Norb Novocin, Owner of Estate Auctions Inc. of Delaware.

After much research Mr. Novocin discovered that a set of 12 plates, which matches this single plate currently listed on eBay, sold at Sotheby's in 2004 for $78,000. Again in 2008, a set of 6 sold for $34,000. A single plate available outside of a high end auction house is very rare but for the opening bid to be less than a dollar... you may never see that again.

The plate is from a service that was commissioned for use in the Great Kremlin Palace, the official Moscow residence for the Imperial family, when the process of renovating, and ultimately rebuilding, the palace began in 1837. The task of designing the new service fell to the talented student and future professor of the Academy of Arts Fedor Solntsev, who had been studying and recording Russian antiquities. He drew upon 17th century metalwork as a model; in the case of this plate, the source was a sumptuous gold plate made for Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich by masters of the Moscow Kremlin Armory in 1667. See Tamara Kudriavtseva, Russian Imperial Porcelain, St. Petersburg, 2003, pp. 130-132.

The auction closes Monday, June 18th at approximately 10:00 PM EST. Interest in this rare and historic plate continues to increase as the closing draws near.

© SFGate. 17 June, 2012

The investigation into one of the worst crimes of the 20^th century, lasted nearly a century. Between 1918 and 2011, a series of investigations into the murders of Emperor Nicholas II and his family took place in Russia. This is the subject of an exhibition which recently opened in the Exhibition Hall of the Federal Archives in Moscow.

The exhibition offers a comprehensive look into the last months of the Russian Imperial family at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, their murders by the Bolsheviks, the  investigations into their deaths, and the search and identification of their remains many years later. This unique exhibit explores the difficulties, confusion and contradictions which have plagued researchers into the Ekaterinburg tragedy for decades.

The following video offers a summary of the exhibition. Click on the link below which provides a short article, as well as another video and more than 40 additional photograph from the exhibition. The exhibit runs until July 29th in the Exhibition Hall of the Federal Archives which is located at ul. B. Pirogovskaya, 17 in Moscow. Admission is free!

||| Click Here to View More Than 40 Photos from the Exhibit |||

© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 16 June, 2012

From 1505 to 1689, Russia’s tsars chose their wives through an elaborate ritual: the bride-show. The realm’s most beautiful young maidens—provided they hailed from the aristocracy—gathered in Moscow, where the tsar’s trusted boyars reviewed their medical histories, evaluated their spiritual qualities, noted their physical appearances, and confirmed their virtue. Those who passed muster were presented to the tsar, who inspected the candidates one by one—usually without speaking to any of them—and chose one to be immediately escorted to the Kremlin to prepare for her wedding and new life as the tsar’s consort.

Alongside accounts of sordid boyar plots against brides, the multiple marriages of Ivan the Terrible, and the fascinating spectacle of the bride-show ritual, A Bride for the Tsar offers an analysis of the show’s role in the complex politics of royal marriage in early modern Russia. Russell E. Martin argues that the nature of the rituals surrounding the selection of a bride for the tsar tells us much about the extent of his power, revealing it to be limited and collaborative, not autocratic. Extracting the bride-show from relative obscurity, Martin persuasively establishes it as an essential element of the tsarist political system.

A Bride for the Tsar: Bride-Shows and Marriage Politics in Early Modern Russia is published by Northern Illinois University Press.

Russell E. Martin is professor of history at Westminster College and codirector of the Muscovite Biographical Database in Moscow.

© Northern Illinois University Press. 15 June, 2012

Russia’s new culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky has proposed the changing the name of two streets in Moscow in honour of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna.

Speaking at the opening of the exhibition Russia in the Holy Land, which marks the 130th anniversary of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in Moscow, he said that the names of the Romanov family members “should replace the names of terrorists and murderers.”

Medinsky believes that changing the names of these streets will help educate the citizens of Moscow about two members of the Romanov dynasty, each of whom made a major contribution to the history of the city and its inhabitants.

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich - the son of Emperor Alexander II, from 1891 was the military governor-general of Moscow. He headed the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, was the honorary chairman of the Russian Historical Museum, and a trustee of the Moscow Theological Academy. He was assassinated by terrorists on February 17, 1905. His remains were exhumed in 1995 and reburied in a vault of the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow.

A highlight of Webb's 20 June Fine Jewellery sale will be the exquisite Imperial Period Faberge box which was brought into Webb's last month by a Vendor who was unaware of the item's significance. The item, among others, was consigned to Webb's weekly affordable sale - where low value collectible items are sold at little or no reserve.

The discovery, by Webb's Head of Antiques, James Hogan and Jewellery specialist Chris Devereux caused much excitement, not least for the Vendor!

As Chris Devereaux states; "such pieces appear in the market only very rarely, and are highly sought after, it is anticipated to gain the interest of collectors and connoisseurs both nationally and internationally and I estimate it will sell for between $10,000 - $20,000, if not more"

The exquisite late Imperial Faberge Box is made from panels of lapis lazuli framed in yellow gold, the lid is engraved crystal bordered by seed pearls and the thumb-piece set with diamonds. In Cyrillic script, an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD, it bears the marks for Faberge, the mark for workmaster Henrik Wigstrom, and a mark for St. Petersburg 1908-1917, 56 zolotniks (14ct) together with a further scratched inventory number 20203.

The fabulous jewels and objects of virtue created by the workshops of Peter Carl Faberge are some of the most desired and collectable items in the world. The reason is two-fold: firstly they demonstrate a level of craftsmanship that is unrivalled, and secondly the history of Faberge is intimately and forever linked with the romance surrounding the splendour of the Russian Imperial court.

© Voxy.co.nz. 13 June, 2012

Princess Marie of Greece and Denmark was born on March 3^rd, 1876 at Athens, Greece. She was the fifth child and second daughter of King George I of Greece and his consort, Queen Olga, (née Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia). Marie was the granddaughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, great-granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I, niece of Queen Alexandra of Great Britain and Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, and first cousin and confidant of Tsar Nicholas II.

On 30 April 1900, Marie married Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia. After her marriage, she took the name Grand Duchess Marie Georgievna. Together, they had two daughters: Princess Nina Georgievna (1901-1974), and Princess Xenia Georgievna (1903-1965).

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, was the third son of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, and Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna (née Princess Cecilie of Baden). He was also a first cousin to Emperor Alexander III. He served as a General in the Russian Army during the First World War. During the Russian Revolution, he was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks and shot by a firing squad in 1919, along with his brother, Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich, and his cousins Grand Dukes Paul Alexandrovich and Dimitri Konstantinovich.

The Grand Duchess spent most of her life abroad: Russia, England, Italy—and on her return to Greece in 1940, she vowed never again to be driven into exile. During the Second World War, as the German army advanced on Athens and the Royal Family prepared to flee, Grand Duchess Marie passed away in 1940, at the age of 64.

Given her position in life, her travels, and the personal tragedies that she endured during her lifetime, she was to bear witness to some of the world’s most monumental historical events, and writes of them with skill and candor in her memoirs.

A Romanov Diary spans 50-years in the life of Royal Europe (1884-1934) during one of the most turbulent periods of history. In her memoirs, Grand Duchess Marie writes of emperors, kings, queens and royal cousins in their everyday private lives, as well as their intricate relationships which determined the course of history.

Some of the most compelling portions of A Romanov Diary are the letters written by her husband, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, from prison after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. These letters were smuggled from prison, and detail events up to shortly before the Grand Duke’s murder in 1919. Grand Duchess Marie has set forth extensive portions of these letters, and the last days of the Romanov dynasty come alive.

After being out of print for nearly 20 years, a new edition of A Romanov Diary: The Autobiography of the Grand Duchess Marie Georgievna has been published by Gilbert’s Books, the publishing division of Royal Russia.

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© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 12 June, 2012

On Friday, June 8th, a bronze bust of Emperor Nicholas II was installed at the city of Taormina, a small town on the east coast of Sicily in Italy.

The event was organized by the International Cultural Foundation of Russia and marks an official visit of the Russian emperor to Taormina in the late 19th century. 

The bust of the last tsar rests on a column made of red marble in the Giovanni Colonna Duca di Cesaro public gardens in Taormina.

The ceremony was attended by members of military and civilian authorities of Russia and Italy, and received the blessing of two bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. This was followed by an outdoor concert performed by the student orchestra of the Navy of the Russian Federation and the local Plectrucm Orchestra of Taormina.

© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 12 June, 2012