A SET OF SIXTY-TWO GILT-BRONZE MEDALS DEPICTING RUSSIAN GRAND DUKES, TSARS, EMPERORS AND EMPRESSES

RUSSIA, LAST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY AND LATER

Details

A SET OF SIXTY-TWO GILT-BRONZE MEDALS DEPICTING RUSSIAN GRAND DUKES, TSARS, EMPERORS AND EMPRESSES
RUSSIA, LAST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY AND LATER
Circular, the set comprising numbers one through sixty-two, each depicting a relief portrait of a Grand Duke, Tsar, Emperor or Empress of Russia, from Riurik to Nicholas I, the reverse numbered and inscribed with brief history of the represented monarch, within later wood case with shadow box trays
The medals 1½ in. (3.8 cm.) diameter (62)

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Lot Essay

This celebrated series of medals depicting Grand Dukes, Tsars, Emperors and Empresses of Russia was first struck around 1770. The inscriptions on the medals are taken from Mikhail Lomonosov's Short Russian Chronicle, and the portraits are based on a series of 32 carvings in green jasper by Johann Dorsch from the 1740s. The series became widely known both in Russia and abroad; the June 1779 issue of The Annual Register reported that Princess Vorontsov-Dashkov donated a set to the library of the University of Edinburgh.

For further information, see V. P. Smirnov, Opisanie Russkikh Medalei, Otdel Pervyi, Medali XVIII Stoletiya, St Petersburg, 1908, pp. 1-22, and L. Gavrilova, Russian Historical Thought and Medal Art in the Era of Catherine II, St. Petersburg, 2000, pp. 43-48.

A comparable set of medals was sold at Christie's, London, November 29, 2010, lot 437.

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