Beschreibung:

[RUSSIA. MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS]. Album of 12 watercolours depicting uniforms for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . [Russia: mid 19h-century]. Exceptional suite of watercolours depicting uniforms for various offices in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gathered and bound for Count Anatoly Nikolaevich Demidov, Prince of San Donato. The suite includes twelve watercolours on large sheets (and two additional smaller bands, tipped in rather than bound, relating instead to details of uniforms for the Lycée Jaroslav). Whole uniforms are illustrated by full-length figures portrayed front and back, whilst close-up representations of braid and embroidery are magnified to sophisticated detail. The gilt of the embroidery is sometimes rendered in vivid colouring, or, when intricacies must come to the fore, the watercolour simply accents the precision of the drawing. Each panel bears a caption in French on the recto and one in Russian on the verso, detailing the role of the elements represented in the panel. The suite was gathered and bound for Count Anatoly Nikolaevich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato, the Russian diplomat, industrialist and arts patron, scion of the ancient noble Demidov family. He spent most of his life in Europe, and famously promoted the understanding of Russian history through funding an onerous scholarly expedition to Russia in 1837-38, which resulted in his four-volume Voyage dans la Russie méridionale et la Crimé e . Folio (460 x 330), 12 large + 2 small and loosely inserted watercolours illustrating uniforms in full or in detail, each with manuscript caption in French on the recto and in Russian on the verso (occasional faint spotting mostly to the margins.) Contemporary black morocco, sides panelled in blind, blindstamped centrepiece with the monogram and coronet of Count A. N. Demidov (spine rubbed in places, a few abrasions to the sides). Provenance : Count Anatoly Nikolaevich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato (1813-1870, his arms and monogram on the binding).