Pavlovsk's most prominent owner, the Empress Maria Feodorovna, combined unlimited resources with exquisite taste and real talent as an artisan. The results are admirably documented in this handsome two-volume collectors set. Outdoors, vistas to delight from every vantage point; inside, one ravishing interior after the other, all filled with furniture, art and objects of the finest quality and often great historical interest. Best of all, the set captures the unique spirit of Pavlovsk. Opulent enough for a royal residence, the palace was nevertheless built on a sufficiently modest scale that even the twenty-first century reader can imagine himself or herself living happily ever after in its rooms and green spaces.

Two volume hard cover set housed in a sturdy pictorial slipcase and sealed