A Silver-Mounted Presentation Photograph Album
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A Silver-Mounted Presentation Photograph Album

INDISTINCTLY MARKED, POSSIBLY, CYRILLIC MAKER'S MARK 'NF', ST PETERSBURG, 1903-1908

Details
A Silver-Mounted Presentation Photograph Album
Indistinctly marked, possibly, Cyrillic maker's mark 'NF', St Petersburg, 1903-1908
Rectangular, the brown leather cover applied with pierced dedicatory silver plaque engraved with a map of the Chinese Eastern Railway and applied with a repoussé chased dragon and Chinese motifs, the pierced plaque with the Cyrillic letters 'OKVZhD' and inscribed 'To the honourable Peter Mikhailovich Romanov in good memory from your Co-Servicemen on the Chinese Eastern Railway 1 Jan. 1897 - 1 Jan. 1905', with Chinese fret chased hinged clasp, the reverse with four silver circular Chinese fret feet, the silk-lined interior stamped in gold 'A. Petersen, Demidov per. 9 S.P.burg' with the Imperial warrant, containing 21 photographic folios, each with gold bevelled apertures and edges, the cards painted with watercolour scenes of Chinese vignettes signed in Cyrillic 'I. Grabovski', 'P. Subbotin' and 'A. Liubimov', marked on cover
11¾ x 16¾ in. (29.5 x 41 cm.) long
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.

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Alexis de Tiesenhausen
Alexis de Tiesenhausen

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Lot Essay

The Chinese Eastern Railway

The Chinese Eastern Railway (Kitaisko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga) was a single-tracked branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway that provided a shortcut from Chita via Harbin across northern inner Manchuria to Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean. Construction began in 1897 and the route was effectively completed in 1902. Regular passenger traffic from St Petersburg to Vladivostok across the Trans-Siberian Railway started in July 1903.

The Chinese Eastern Railway figured prominently in international relations. Russia was granted the right to build the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria following the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). However, after Russia pressed China for a monopoly of rights in Manchuria, China forged an alliance with Japan and the United States against Russia.

During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Russian lost the Liaodong Peninsula and much of the rail line to Japan. The section of the line from Changchun to Lüshun fell under Japanese control and became part of the South Manchuria Railway. Over a decade later, during the Russian Civil War, the Russian part of the Chinese Eastern Railway came under the administration of the White Army.

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Liubimov

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Liubimov (1879-1955) was a painter, graphic artist, and caricaturist who studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He worked in Repin's studio at the Academy of Arts between 1901 and 1909 and later became a prominent Soviet painter. Lubimov was famous for his illustrations, which appeared in numerous Russian satirical magazines between 1905 and 1907. His work is represented in prominent collections, such as the State Russian Museum and the Kiev Museum of Russian Art.

Ivan Mikhailovich Grabovskii

Ivan Mikhailovich Grabovskii (1878-1922) was a painter and graphic artist, who studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture between 1894 and 1901. From 1903, Grabovskii exhibited at the Academy of Arts, where he studied under Repin and Chistyakov. His acclaimed satirical drawings were published in numerous Russian magazines, such as 'Pulemet', which featured his 1905 work 'His Highness All-Russian Proletarian' on the cover. Grabovskii's work is represented in the State Russian Museum and other prominent collections.

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