Costumes, Fashion & Military

In manuscript of the highest quality

Mundiry Imperatorskoi Rossiiskoi Armii [Uniforms of the Imperial Russian Army]

[Skt. Peterburg, 1850s]. £8,500

Superb set of very rare military tables in fine manuscript and gouache with gold and silver highlights. Of probable imperial provenance.

Image for MALINOVSKII. Istoricheskoe opisanie....oruzheiskoi palaty... First edition. Moscow, 1807. #2

One of the most impressive early illustrated Russian books

MALINOVSKII, Aleksei (editor)

Istoricheskoie opisanie drevniago rossiiskago muzeia pod nazvaniem masterskoi i oruzheiskoi palaty… [A Historical Account of the Museum of Ancient Russia known as the Workshop and Armoury Chamber. Part I (all published)]

Imp. Moskovsk. Univ., Moskva, 1807. £10,000

First edition of this important book, the first catalogue of the first Kremlin Museum. A large-format edition and one of the best early Russian illustrated books.

Image for PAJOL. Armée Russe. First edition, complete. Paris, 1856. #3

A French officer pays artistic homage to the military style of his opponent

PAJOL, Charles Pierre, Comte de (Lieut.-colonel)

Armée Russe

Auguste Bry et Lemercier, Paris, 1856. £32,500

A remarkable visual record of Russian military uniforms just before the Crimean War. With beautiful full-page plates. Scarce, especially complete as here. With fine provenance: from the French Bibliothèque Impériale.

Image for F. BASTIN. L'Armée russe. First edition, complete. Paris & Russia, 1840s #2

Extremely rare colourful costumes

BASTIN, F[erdinand] (artist)

L'Armée russe [manuscript title]

Lemercier, Paris, for Daziaro, Paris and Russia, [1840s]. £4,500

Extremely rare lithographed plates with original hand-colour, mostly showing officers' costumes of the Russian Imperial Guard. A complete copy, in attractive condition.

Image for U.P.A. Vporiad. The Drill. 1946 edition, probably Germany. #2

How to fight various invaders

[UKRAINE]

Vporiad. Peredruk vydannia U.P.A. 1943 [The Drill. A Reprint of Publications by the UPA. 1943]

[Germany], 1946. £750

Extremely rare book explaining Ukrainian nationalists how to fight in the 1940s. Only one other copy traced.

Image for N.B. [BOGATOV] and PEROV. Russian Types. Chromolithographs, first edition; Moscow, 1889. #2

No other set traced

N.B. [presumably Nikolai Alekseevich BOGATOV] and Vasilii PEROV (artists)

Russkie tipy [Russian types]

Kushnerev i Ko, Moskva, [ca. 1889]. £375

Lovely set of depictions of various peoples of the Rusisan empire, most probably published for the Paris 'Exposition Universelle'. Of great rarity, as we couldn't find any other example. With (most of) the original printed envelope.

Image for MORNAY, DUBOURG & CLARK. A Picture of St. Petersburg. First edition, London, 1815. With original hand-colour and finely bound. #2

Saint Petersburg in colours

MORNAY (artist)

A Picture of St. Petersburg, represented in a Collection of Twenty interesting Views of the City, the Sledges, and the People. Taken on the Spot, at the twelve different Months of the Year: and accompanied with an Historical and Descriptive Account

Howlett and Brimmer, and Dove for Edward Orme, London, 1815. £14,500

A finely bound copy of this cornerstone of any Russian, or indeed colour-plate collection, showing the Northern Capital in colours and in all seasons, as Napoleon would have seen it if....

Image for C. S. HARDINGE. Sketches in the Camp before Sebastopol. First edition, London, 1855. #2

Uncommon folio views

HARDINGE, Charles Stewart

Sketches in the Camp before Sebastopol

Henry Graves, London, 1855. £2,950

Attractive and quite rare lithograph work showing scarce scenes of the Crimean War. First edition, in its first binding.

Image for WARNERY, C.E. de. Remarques sur le militaire des Turcs et des Russes. Uncut. Breslau, 1771. #2

As issued

WARNERY, [Charles-Emmanuel] de

Remarques sur le militaire des Turcs et des Russes

Korn, Breslau (now Wroclaw, in Poland), 1771. £1,250

Excellent example of this detailed account of the forces in presence during the 1768-74 war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

Image for L. BAKST. Feia kukol. First edition of the postcards, 1904. #2

Charming ballet costumes in postcards

BAKST, Leon

Feia kukol [La Fée des poupées]

Ilin, Skt. Peterburg, 1904. £2,750

A complete set of these lovely postcards showing ballet costumes by the master of the genre, who would later be central to Diaghilev's 'Ballets Russes'.

Image for KHOLMSTON-SMYSLOVSKII, B. Articles & speeches. Buenos Aires, 1953 #2

A noted military theorist in Argentina

KHOLMSTON-SMYSLOVSKII, [Boris]

Izbrannye stati i rechi [Selected Articles and Speeches]

Dorrego for Rossiisk. voenno-natsionalnoe osvobodit. dvizh. im. Gen. A.V. Suvorova, Buenos Aires, 1953. £195

A volume of essays by a Russian anti-communist general, published in South America, where he advised the Argentinian president.

Image for GD. DUKE NIKOLAI MIKHAILOVICH. General-Adiutanty Aleksandra I. Skt. Peterburg, 1913. #2

In a binding of fine quality

ROMANOV, Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich

General-Adiutanty Imeratora Aleksandra I [Adjutants-Generals of the Emperor Alexander I]

Eks. Zagotovleniya gos. bumag, Skt. Peterburg, 1913. £2,750

Attractive example of this fine production of Russian military history.

Image for ERMOLOV, Aleksei. Zapiski o Voine 1812go. London, 1863. #2

50 years later... still forbidden in Russia

ERMOLOV, Aleksei Petrovich, also YERMOLOV

Zapiski Alekseia Petrovicha Ermolova o voine 1812 goda [Notes of Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov about the war of 1812]

[Prince Peter Dolgoroukov, London, for] Tchorzewski, Londres and S. Gerstmann, Bruxelles, 1863. £1,250

Important eye-witness account of Napoleon's invasion of Russia: scarce first edition published in London because banned in Russia.

Image for BAKST, LEVINSON, A. Sleeping Princess, first edition, 1923. #1

Very clean, in the publisher's slipcase

[BAKST] – LEVINSON, André

The Designs of Léon Bakst for the Sleeping Princess

London, Benn Brothers, 1923. £1,950

One of the great books on Bakst's talent - the only one devoted to a specific ballet. A copy remarkable for its cleanliness, especially of the fragile original binding.

Image for HARDING and ALEXANDER. Costume of the Russian Empire. London, 1811 #1

With a focus on Siberian costumes

HARDING, E[dward] (publisher) [and William ALEXANDER]

Costume of the Russian Empire. Costume de l'empire russe. Illustrated by upwards of seventy richly coloured engravings. Representé en plus de soixante-dix gravures superbement colorées

T. Bensley for Stockdale, London, 1811. £2,500

A lovely example of this famous hand-coloured costume book showing the wide variety of 'Russian' dresses, from Western Russia to Central and Eastern Siberia.

Image for Watercolour portrait of Hadji Murat. Tbilisi, 1852. #2

Contemporary portrait

French school of the 19^th century

Portrait de Hadji Mourad

Tiflis, 30 January 1852. £4,750

Extremely rare contemporary portrait of a famous Caucasian rebel - described by Gagarin and Tolstoy.

Image for Samokish, Vasilkovskii and Evarnitskii, Iz ukrainskoi stariny, complete first edition, 1900 #2

Celebrating Ukraine's past in folio and in colour

SAMOKISH, N.S. and S.I. VASILKOVSKII (artists), text by D.I. EVARNITSKII

Iz ukrainskoi stariny. La Petite Russie d'autrefois

Marks, Skt. Peterburg, 1900. £3,750

Beautiful portfolio showing 20 folio colour plates of Ukrainian Cossacks's scenes, costumes and heroes - with a vibrant text in Russian and French by an important Ukrainian scholar.

Image for KONDAKOV, Russian jewellery, Imperial copy of the first edition, Skt. Peterburg, 1896. #2

Ancient jewellery in the Grand Duke's library

KONDAKOV, Nikodim Pavlovich

Russkie klady. Issledovaniie drevnostei velikokniazheskogo perioda [Russian Treasures. A Study of Antiquities of the Grand Dukedom Period]. Vol. 1 [all published]

Tip. Glavnogo Upravl. Udelov, Skt Peterburg, 1896. £6,500

Grand Duke Alexey's copy of the first scholarly work on ancient Russian jewelry: an excellent example of the first edition, finely illustrated.

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