Oct 20, 2009 - Sale 2190
/

Sale 2190 - Lot 286

Price Realized: $ 3,120
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 2,000
RUSSIAN BINDING WITH HISTORIATED SILVER FITTINGS (BINDING.) [Gospels in Church Slavonic.] 4 engraved plates of the Evangelists. Woodcut decorations and initials. [8], 207 leaves. First page of each Gospel partly printed in red. 8vo, early 19th-century Russian crimson velvet over wooden boards with embossed silver center- and cornerpieces with purity mark 84, maker's mark TC, and St. Petersburg town mark, silver catches and clasps, blue textured paper endleaves, joints restored, one clasp imperfect; scattered minor marginal repairs not affecting text; gilt edges. (Moscow, 1803)
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

The front cover centerpiece shows the resurrected Christ, and the cornerpieces the four Evangelists. The rear cover centerpiece depicts Instruments of the Passion (cross, crown of thorns, spear, and sponge) on Golgotha above the skull and crossbones of Adam, who was buried there according to legend; the cornerpieces are decorated with shell, drawer-handle, and floral motifs.
An inscription on the front endleaf by the Paymaster of HMS Driver dated 17 August 1854 states that this book was taken as booty after the capture of Bomarsund Fortress on Åland Island by Anglo-French forces (i. e., during the Baltic campaign of the Crimean War). According to another inscription, the book was subsequently in the collection of the Honorable Mrs. William Ashley, "late of St. James Palace."