![ELIZABETH, Empress of Russia -- Krönungs-Geschichte oder umstaendliche Beschreibung des solennen Einzugs. [Obstoiatel'noe Opisanie Torzhestvennykh Poriadkov Blagopoluchago Vshestviia v tsarstvuiushchii grad Moskvu i Sviashchenneishago Koronovaniia Imperatritsy Elizevet Petrovny.] St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1745.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2012/CKS/2012_CKS_06769_0027_001(elizabeth_empress_of_russia_--_kronungs-geschichte_oder_umstaendliche061438).jpg?w=1)
![ELIZABETH, Empress of Russia -- Krönungs-Geschichte oder umstaendliche Beschreibung des solennen Einzugs. [Obstoiatel'noe Opisanie Torzhestvennykh Poriadkov Blagopoluchago Vshestviia v tsarstvuiushchii grad Moskvu i Sviashchenneishago Koronovaniia Imperatritsy Elizevet Petrovny.] St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1745.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2012/CKS/2012_CKS_06769_0027_002(elizabeth_empress_of_russia_--_kronungs-geschichte_oder_umstaendliche062746).jpg?w=1)
![ELIZABETH, Empress of Russia -- Krönungs-Geschichte oder umstaendliche Beschreibung des solennen Einzugs. [Obstoiatel'noe Opisanie Torzhestvennykh Poriadkov Blagopoluchago Vshestviia v tsarstvuiushchii grad Moskvu i Sviashchenneishago Koronovaniia Imperatritsy Elizevet Petrovny.] St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1745.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2012/CKS/2012_CKS_06769_0027_000(elizabeth_empress_of_russia_--_kronungs-geschichte_oder_umstaendliche044730).jpg?w=1)
Details
ELIZABETH, Empress of Russia -- Krönungs-Geschichte oder umstaendliche Beschreibung des solennen Einzugs. [Obstoiatel'noe Opisanie Torzhestvennykh Poriadkov Blagopoluchago Vshestviia v tsarstvuiushchii grad Moskvu i Sviashchenneishago Koronovaniia Imperatritsy Elizevet Petrovny.] St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1745.
2° (478 x 305mm). 76 pages of text in German, captions and most artists's signatures in Russian. Mezzotint frontispiece portrait of Elizabeth Petrovna by Johann Stenglin after Louis Caravaque and 49 plates by I. A. Sokolov, G. A. Kachalov and C. A. Wortmann, 16 folding, of which one is a mezzotint. (Occasional light browning and occasional light spotting, a few old marginal repairs, plate 16 shaved by the binder's knife, plate 45 strengthened on verso at the folds). Contemporary, possibly Russian morocco, sides with gilt roll-tooled border and corner tools, spine label lettered in gilt (spine neatly and expertly repaired, free endpapers supplied at a later date, gilt mostly perished, a few worm tracks in endpapers and blanks). Provenance: Vasilii Alekseevich Bil'basov (by repute) -- Princes of Liechtenstein (bookplate) -- H.P. Krauss -- A. Herenroth.
THE BIL'BASOV-LIECHTENSTEIN COPY OF THE RARE ELIZABETH CORONATION ALBUM: 'THE FINEST EXAMPLE OF RUSSIAN ENGRAVING IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH' (Rovinskii). First edition, German-language issue, in contemporary morocco; the margins in this unusually tall copy are wider than both the Gourary and Hauk copies. The Lichtenstein copy was almost certainly first in the library of the great historian Vasilii Alekseevich Bil'basov (1837-1904) -- Prince Franz I purchased the Bil'basov library en bloc in 1907. Despite the date on the title, work continued until 1746 when editions in Russian, German, French and Latin were published simultaneously, under the supervision of N. Iu. Trubetskoi. 'It is one of the most richly illustrated Russian baroque books which it took three years to produce; the collaboration in it between native and imported foreign artists is fascinating' (Martin Breslauer, cat. 103, no. 84). The present copy, as often, has plates 1-4 in SK's second variant with the engraver's name, and plate 5 in the second variant with Grimmel's name. Bitovt 1001; Fekula 2111 ('it has been called THE MOST SUMPTUOUS RUSSIAN BOOK OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES'); Obol'ianinov 1846; Rovinskii Portraits IV-31, Engravings II-949-952; SK 4789; Sopikov 7539. See Kasinec & Wortman, 'Russian coronation albums', Biblion 1 (1992), pp. 82-86.
2° (478 x 305mm). 76 pages of text in German, captions and most artists's signatures in Russian. Mezzotint frontispiece portrait of Elizabeth Petrovna by Johann Stenglin after Louis Caravaque and 49 plates by I. A. Sokolov, G. A. Kachalov and C. A. Wortmann, 16 folding, of which one is a mezzotint. (Occasional light browning and occasional light spotting, a few old marginal repairs, plate 16 shaved by the binder's knife, plate 45 strengthened on verso at the folds). Contemporary, possibly Russian morocco, sides with gilt roll-tooled border and corner tools, spine label lettered in gilt (spine neatly and expertly repaired, free endpapers supplied at a later date, gilt mostly perished, a few worm tracks in endpapers and blanks). Provenance: Vasilii Alekseevich Bil'basov (by repute) -- Princes of Liechtenstein (bookplate) -- H.P. Krauss -- A. Herenroth.
THE BIL'BASOV-LIECHTENSTEIN COPY OF THE RARE ELIZABETH CORONATION ALBUM: 'THE FINEST EXAMPLE OF RUSSIAN ENGRAVING IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH' (Rovinskii). First edition, German-language issue, in contemporary morocco; the margins in this unusually tall copy are wider than both the Gourary and Hauk copies. The Lichtenstein copy was almost certainly first in the library of the great historian Vasilii Alekseevich Bil'basov (1837-1904) -- Prince Franz I purchased the Bil'basov library en bloc in 1907. Despite the date on the title, work continued until 1746 when editions in Russian, German, French and Latin were published simultaneously, under the supervision of N. Iu. Trubetskoi. 'It is one of the most richly illustrated Russian baroque books which it took three years to produce; the collaboration in it between native and imported foreign artists is fascinating' (Martin Breslauer, cat. 103, no. 84). The present copy, as often, has plates 1-4 in SK's second variant with the engraver's name, and plate 5 in the second variant with Grimmel's name. Bitovt 1001; Fekula 2111 ('it has been called THE MOST SUMPTUOUS RUSSIAN BOOK OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES'); Obol'ianinov 1846; Rovinskii Portraits IV-31, Engravings II-949-952; SK 4789; Sopikov 7539. See Kasinec & Wortman, 'Russian coronation albums', Biblion 1 (1992), pp. 82-86.
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