Books on Royal Russia.
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An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum.
J. Pomeroy, R. Blakesley, V. Matveyev, E. Renne.

      An Imperial collection of 15 women artists that explores how women as patrons, painters, and subjects contributed to the cultural history of Russia. Eminent families formed significant collections and created artistic commissions that brought women artists to Russia and extended the influence of western European art to the royal court of the Tsars. Text combines running biographical narratives for the painters, the sitters and the society they inhabited, arranged in more or less chronological sections. It covers 18th and 19th century works with full-color images that feature a multitude of women in satin and curls, but the often generic-seeming portraits have a complex iconography that the authors carefully unpack. Published to coincide with St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary. This book will appeal to anyone interested in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women artists, the history of Russian patronage of the arts, and Russian imperial history and culture. Pomeroy is curator of painting and sculpture at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Blakesley is a lecturer in art history at Cambridge. Merrell: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 2003. 224 pages. Large deluxe format hardcover with dustjacket.
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A Lifelong Passion - Nicholas & Alexandra.
Their Own Story.
Andrei Maytunas and Sergei Mironenko.

The authors, one a historian, the other the Director of the Russian State Archives, draw heavily on the hitherto private correspondence of the Tsar and Tsarina to create a harrowingly intimate account of their lives. Nicholas and Alexandra are brought to life through the dignity of their own unforgettable words. Index, sources and historical afterward. Brand new book. 667 pages. Illustrations. Published in 1997.
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Nicholas & Alexandra:
The Last Imperial Family of Tsarist Russia.
Sergei Mironenko, Galina Komelova, Alia Barkvoets, George Vilinbakhov, Mikhail Piotrovsky (Introduction), and Alia Barkovets.

      Published to accompany a landmark exhibition in Wilmington, Delaware, this wonderful book documents the largest collection of Russian Imperial family treasures ever to leave Russia. The full-color illustrations and reproductions show you Russia's last Imperial family as you've never seen them before. It's all here: the Faberge eggs, family photographs, jewelry, icons, love letters, coronation paintings, satin ball gowns, soldiers' uniforms, crowns, and other treasures. More than 100 curators, historians, and art historians have drawn on a wealth of previously unpublished material. With more than 630 irreplaceable works of art, costumes, photographs, and private and state documents, and drawing from Nicholas and Alexandra's own personal letters and diaries, it reveals their luxurious world and loving family life as well as the tragedy of their last years. Included is a family genealogy, and a tour of the palace rooms. 400 pages, oversize heavy softcover.
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Moscow: Treasures and Traditions.
W. Bruce Lincoln, Olga Gordeeva, John Bowlt, et al.

      The richness of Moscow's artistic legacy and the effects of various political, social and religious changes on the city's creative climate over the past 500 years are recorded here in 12 essays by primarily Russian curators and academics. Topics include the capital's cultural heritage from the 1300s, the influence of European and Oriental styles on the traditional clothing of Moscow, Russian art from 1910 onward, painting, metalwork, jewelry, porcelain and armor. The book offers the general reader an idea of the scope of the arts in Russia's greatest city. 281 pages, softcover printed on heavyweight paper (almost 3 lbs). Over 180 brilliant color photographs and lavish illustrations. A real gem of a book!
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Collecting Russian Art & Antiques.
Marina Bowater.

      The author, a Russian porcelain scholar and collector, has run commercial galleries in London for many years. She discusses with great enthusiasm many collectible arts from both Imperial and soviet Russia. Included in her discoussions are Russian porcelain (of course), icons and paintings, the Imperial Russian Easter egg, Mir Isskustvo, glasshouses, jewelry, folk crafts, woodwork and sculpture, lacquer boxes from Palekh, Russian malachite and more. 176 pages, hardcover with dustjacket. Black and white illustrations, index.
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Russian Tsars.
The Rurikids. The Romanovs.
Kenneth MacInnes (Translator), Irina Kharitonova (Editor), Irina Lvova (Editor), Boris Antonov (Author).

A comprehensive look at Russian absolutism in the form of statehood in 862, the dynasty of Rurikid princes (1462-1598), the Time of Troubles (1598-1613), and finally the coronation of Michael Romanov in 1613 through the Romanov dynasty which ended in 1918. Russia: Ivan Fiodorov Art Publishers, 2005. 176 pages with full color on each page. Includes a full-color fold-out genealogy of the Russian Royal Families. [#RT-Bk1]

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Gifts to the Tsars, 1500-1700: Treasures of the Kremlin.
Barry Shifman and Guy Walton (editors).

     Focusing on the diplomatic gifts presented to Russian tsars from Ivan the Terrible (1500) to Peter the Great (1700), this is a detailed and well-researched catalog of a traveling exhibition which at the time of publication (2001) was ensconced in the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Exquisite photography of the 95 gifts selected for the exhibition, together with seven essays. The photos reveal the splendor of Russian court life, while the essays focus on different aspects of diplomacy and Russian foreign relations, as well as on treasures ranging from gold and silver to furs and textiles to jewelry and decorative arts. The catalog is arranged by the gifts' country or empire of origin, and each section is accompanied by brief introductory remarks about each of the treasures on view. The book concludes with short biographies of each of the tsars, patriarchs, and donors. Essential for any collection on Russian culture and history and is highly recommended for art collections in general. Large format softcover. NY: Harry Abrams, 2001. 336 pages.
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Beauty in Exile:
The Artists, Models, and Nobility Who Fled the Russian Revolution
and Influenced the World of Fashion.
Alexandre Vassiliev.

      Before and after the Russian Revolution, thousands of Russian emigres fled for their lives to the European capitals. This unique book reviews the influence of Russian emigres upon women's fashions during the early 20th century with over 840 black-and-white photographs and illustrations. The text describes successful accomplishments of dozens of Russian fashion houses during the 1920s and 1930s in Paris, Constantinople, Berlin, and Harbin in far-off China. Forced to support themselves, noble Russian refugees employed what they knew best: elegance, style, and good taste. The author is himself a costume and set decorator and fashion historian. NY: Harry Abrams, 2000. 480 pages. Deluxe format hardcover with dustjacket.
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Illustrated History of the Russian Empire: The Coronation Book.

The definitive book on the Russian Empire. The original lavish printing from the first, and only, edition published in 1971 by the Russian Youth Committee in NY. Edited by N. Chakireff. From the Table of Contents: On Holy Coronations, Illustrated History of the Russian Empire, The End of the Time of Troubles, Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov, Reign of the Tsar Feodor Romanov, The Reign of Peter the Great and Catherine I, The Tsar Martyr-Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, and more. Lavishly illustrated in color and black and white. Full gilt edging (all three sides) and gold illustrated stamped covers. Gold stamped endpapers with the cipher of Nicholas II. Text in both Russian and English. 10"x14". Mint condition. Not currently available.
Back Cover
Endpapers

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