Live Auction 7905Russian Art
A Set of Commemorative Medals depicting Russian Grand Dukes, Tsars, Emperors and Empresses
Lot 437

A Set of Commemorative Medals depicting Russian Grand Dukes, Tsars, Emperors and Empresses

RUSSIAN, LAST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY AND LATER

Closed29 November 2010

Price Realised

GBP 20,000

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A Set of Commemorative Medals depicting Russian Grand Dukes, Tsars, Emperors and Empresses
Russian, last quarter 18th century and later
Each circular copper medal with a portrait of a Grand Duke, Tsar, Emperor or Empress of Russia, from Riurik to Elizabeth I, some signed, the reverses with an identifying description beneath the Imperial crown and numbered 1-57, within later plastic display container set within black shadow box trays with red interiors
the medals 1½ in. (4 cm.) diam., the trays 8¼ x 14 7/8 x 1 in.(21 x 37.8 x 2.5 cm.) (57)

Specialist note

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 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.