The fine plates, by Dreger after Solntsev, are superb examples of Russian lithography at its best. They document many aspects of Russian culture through its artefacts, with over 500 illustrations after Solntsev of church paraphilia, royal regalia, arms and armour, costumes, table-wares and architectural decorations. It is an influential work which was intended to showcase Russian art as an equal to the other great European traditions. The eminent art historian Vladimir Vasilevich Stasov remarked that 'our contemporary Russian style is based on the drawings of Solntsev'. The work was commissioned by Nicholas I, to which he allocated one thousand gold roubles, at the instigation of Aleksei Nikolaevich Olenin, President of the Academy of Arts and Director of the Public Library. Its publication was supervised by Count Stroganov, president of the Society of Russian History and Antiquity for more than four decades, with the assistance of Mikhail Zagoskin, Ivan Snegirev, and Aleksandr Velt'man. Only 600 sets were published, and just thirty years after publication Solntsev noted that the volumes were very rare. Burtsev 337; Colas 138; Fekula 6194 ('printed in a small tirage and is rare complete'); Obol'ianinov 724. (6)