FERSMAN, Alexander

[182] pp.

2023

11 1/4" x 8 1/2"

Fine

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The spectacular gem and jewellery collection of the Romanov dynasty is documented in Russia’s Treasure of Diamonds and Precious Stones, documenting Russia’s regalia and crown jewels at the time of the overthrow of the tsarist government in 1917.

Published in 1925-26 by the Bolshevik government, only 350 copies were printed in three versions: Russian, French and English. The catalogue project was overseen by noted mineralogist A.E. Fersman, with the help of specialists, experts and jewellers including Agathon Fabergé from the House of Fabergé.

Of the 406 separate pieces in the treasure, 110 are documented as having come from the reign of Catherine II (1762-1796) and her son Paul I (1796-1801). The treasure is comprised of the Imperial Sceptre set with the approximately 190 carat (ct) Orlov diamond, the Imperial Globe set with an approximately 200 ct Ceylon (Sri Lanka) sapphire, the Great Imperial Crown featuring an approximately 402 ct spinel, the Imperial Nuptial Crown, chains, stars, crosses, emblems, diadems, necklaces, brooches, rings, earrings, as well as loose diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, spinels, pearls and alexandrites.

The Fersman catalogue states that the jewels, considered national property, would never be “sold or done away with.” Because the new Soviet Union desperately needed capitol, however, copies of the catalogue were sent to potential jewellery buyers anyway. Although the treasure was later removed from the market, some of the pieces were sold to a syndicate and eventually wound up at auction at Christie’s London on March 16, 1927. The majority of the collection remains in Russia at the Kremlin Diamond Fund in Moscow

This is the first time that the original 1925 four-part folio, has been published in book format, a facsimile of the copy from the private collection of Paul Gilbert.