Live Auction 7461Russian Works of Art Including The Rothschild Fabergé Egg
A five-leaved photograph frame in leather case
Lot 21

A five-leaved photograph frame in leather case

19TH CENTURY

Closed28 November 2007

Price Realised

GBP 34,100

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A five-leaved photograph frame in leather case
19th century
The rectangular folding frames of purple velvet, containing four glass photographs of Aleksander II and a fifth of the Tsar, Princess Catherine Dolgorukova and two of their children, Prince George Yourievskii and Princess Olga Yourievskaia , in a leather case, the cover with the Imperial double-headed eagle, apparently unmarked
the frame 9¾ in. (24.7 cm.) high

Tsar Alexander II.
Princess Yourievsky.
Hotel Drouot, Paris, Souvenirs, Objets d'Art, Bijoux du Tsar Alexandre II, 6 June 1931, lot 154.

Specialist note

Princess Catherine Dolgorukova (1847-1922) was the daughter of Prince Michael Dolgorukov and long term mistress of Tsar Aleksander II (1818-1881) whom he married morganatically in 1880 and Catherine was then created Princess Yurievskaia. They had four children: Prince George Yurievskii (1872-1913), Princess Olga Yurievskaia (1874-1925), Prince Boris Yurievskii (February-April 1876) and Princess Catherine Yurievskaia (1878-1959), two of whom are portrayed in this frame.
As explained in the foreward of the 1931 Drouot catalogue, the collection was put together by a collector who from 1905 patiently acquired personal objects belonging to Aleksander II which were either given to his morganatic wife as per his will (later sold after her death in 1922) or acquired from his close friend such as general Rileev or Count Adlerberg.