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Lot Essay
The rifle was completed circa 1900 and its present specifications conform to those entered in the makers books. It was built for one of the last of the great Demidov-San Donato family:-
Elim Pavlovich Demidov-San Donato was an enthusiastic hunter and in 1898 he published his reminiscences Hunting Trips in the Caucasus in which he concentrated on the Kuban region. In 1897 he spent six months in Siberia hunting the Ovis Ammon and recorded this period in After Wild Sheep in the Altai and Mongolia (London, 1900), and later published A Shooting Trip to Kamchatka (London, 1904). He also recorded further shooting trips in the Sierra Nevada, the Galician Carpathians and in Sardinia.
Elim Pavlovich inherited from his father the remains of the famous estates of Prince Anatolii Demidov of San Donato, he later became councillor at the Russian Embassy in Paris in 1912, and in 1914 he was appointed as Russian Ambassador to Athens. He died at Nice in 1943.
Elim Pavlovich Demidov-San Donato was an enthusiastic hunter and in 1898 he published his reminiscences Hunting Trips in the Caucasus in which he concentrated on the Kuban region. In 1897 he spent six months in Siberia hunting the Ovis Ammon and recorded this period in After Wild Sheep in the Altai and Mongolia (London, 1900), and later published A Shooting Trip to Kamchatka (London, 1904). He also recorded further shooting trips in the Sierra Nevada, the Galician Carpathians and in Sardinia.
Elim Pavlovich inherited from his father the remains of the famous estates of Prince Anatolii Demidov of San Donato, he later became councillor at the Russian Embassy in Paris in 1912, and in 1914 he was appointed as Russian Ambassador to Athens. He died at Nice in 1943.