Our Notes & References

Very rare, large, exhaustive and extremely fine, detailed gouache and manuscript tables of the Russian Imperial army’s uniforms in the mid 19th century, probably with imperial provenance.

Tsar Nicholas I’s fascination with all things military, evident from a young age, found an outlet in his own creativity, in addition to his political decisions: “the theme of military uniforms was one of the future emperor’s favourites in his drawings. He meticulously and flawlessly drew details—cuffs, buttonholes, collars—demonstrating an impeccable knowledge of military dress”, according to The Russian State Library, which holds an undated set of five “issues”, titled Tables of Uniforms for the Separate Guards Corps and Army Troops, “with handwritten notes in pencil by His Imperial Majesty”, each containing multiple sheets of drawings with captions, presented in a manner similar to the present set. The tsar’s sustained interest in the precise depiction of uniforms likely fostered the tradition of producing such tables, particularly in response to frequent reforms and the establishment of new units.

The present set consists of five folding sheets of varying sizes, the larger being rather impressive, with very detailed, manually rendered illustrations of the insignia and colours of regiments of the Russian Imperial army, some shown with horses, all alongside inscriptions in Cyrillic, in pen, black ink, and gouache heightened with gold and silver, and with slightly visible traces of pencil. On closer inspection, subtle variations in the lettering of titles, captions, and labels on the versos, and also individual lines and shapes, spacing between images, and colouring, reveal the precise execution of a very fine hand.

The largest sheet (almost a metre in length) is entitled “Uniforms of the Imperial Russian Army: Artillery” and presents an orderly sequence of three Grenadier Brigades, twenty one Field Brigades, a Caucasian Grenadier Brigade, seven Horse Brigades, and Horse divisions and reserves. The other sheets, in descending order of size, show the vivid and colourful “Uniforms of the Regular Cavalry and Cossack Troops”, “Uniforms of the Imperial Russian Guard and Troops Attached to it”, and “Uniforms of the Imperial Russian Army: Infantry and Garrisons”.

The smallest table (29.5 x 40 cm), “Uniforms of various departments of military administration”, includes the Ministry of Defence (extending even to veterinarians and paramedics) and the full vestments of the clergy.

It also usefully illustrates several military educational institutions, among them the Poltava Cadet Corps (opened in 1840 and reformed in 1863); the Kyiv Cadet Corps, whose establishment was decided already in 1833, but it opened only in 1851-52 and was renamed and reformed in 1857; the Kazan Cadet Corps, founded in 1834 but never opened and ultimately cancelled in 1858; and the Second Moscow Cadet Corps (opened in December 1849 and reorganized in 1863). This data helps us dating the set to the 1850s.

Besides, a 2020 Moscow edition named Opisanie obmundirovaniia… [Description of the Uniforms and Weapons of the Lower Ranks of the Russian Army. 1843], shows some Tablitsy mundiram… [Tables for Uniforms, Standards and Flags…] whose layout and style closely resemble those of the present set. Once a part of “His Majesty’s own library, it is now in the Hermitage”, and is tentatively dated to 1852 as it reflects “changes to uniform colours, unit names, and divisional structures introduced in December 1851–52”.

Without specified dimensions, the tables consist of 26 manuscript leaves with uniform headings, each including numbers and corresponding banners and historical notes on the units. While a few tables parallel those in our set, small differences recur—most notably in headdresses—and certain roles are added or omitted. For instance, the first table in the Hermitage copy, titled “Military Administration Departments”, opens with similar roles, but excludes a section on military educational institutions, which instead appear in a separate table (leaf no. 14), listing the same institutions noted above but organised by geographical region.

Besides the Hermitage example, we could find a small handful of comparable manuscript tables at the Russian State Library (RGB), primarily as individual sheets, likewise folded and mounted on fabric, with rounded labels. Among them are two items titled “Table of Illustrations of Uniforms of Various Departments of the Military Administration of the Imperial Russian Army”: the first, compiled by Major Kafka and created in “[St. Petersburg], [183-?]” (30 x 40 cm), and the second dated “[185-?]”, (36 x 49 cm), with printed text on different paper mounted on the sides. Both slightly resemble in their content the present plate of “Uniforms of various departments of military administration”, but also exclude examples of uniform for military educational institutions. Two other RGB sheets, not digitised, are titled “Uniforms, Banners and Standards of the Imperial Russian Army Divisions”, and are dated to the 1850s and 1860s.

Such manuscript tables are very rare on the market. We could find only one other example of a comparable table depicting Russian military uniforms at auctions (Russia, 2007): Tablitsa mundiram i shtandartam… [Table of Uniforms and Standards of the Imperial Russian Reserve Cavalry], a single, large sheet (82 x 49.3 cm) including notes on the history of regimental establishments and their banners along the sides. Likely created after one of the tables of the Hermitage set, it was catalogued as a hand-coloured chromolithograph on fabric and (wrongly?) dated to the second quarter of the 19th century.

With provenance.

All the plates have stamps of the Library of Academy of Material Culture History, whose origins lie in the Imperial Archaeological Commission, founded by decree of Emperor Alexander II in 1859. In 1918, it became the Russian State Archaeological Commission, which in 1919 was reorganised as the Russian Academy of Material Culture History and, in 1926, as the State Academy of Material Culture History. From 1920 onwards, the library’s holdings expanded through expropriations from private collections and libraries of dissolved scholarly societies, including the Russian Archaeological Society, the Russian Historical and Genealogical Society, and the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. In 1937, the State Academy was transformed into the Institute of Material Culture History within the USSR Academy of Sciences.

The present plates were likely sold to the West after 1919, but before the renaming in 1937, during the period of active sales of Russian cultural assets to finance rapid industrialisation.

It is worth noting that the other books we handled with the same provenance were always remarkable copies, bearing hallmarks of the best aristocratic or imperial ownership, without any clear indication however. Besides, we could find out that these particular tables were once housed in finely gilt leather boxes with the Imperial Eagle stamped. These boxes, together with the highest quality of draughtsmanship and the similarities with the Tsar’s set kept at the Russian State Library, point towards an imperial provenance of the present set.

Provenance

Biblioteka Akademii Ist. Mater. Kult. [Library of Academy of Material Culture History] (stamps on versos, each numbered in purple ink “D.1760”).

Bibliography

Klochkov D. A. Opisanie obmundirovaniia i vooruzheniia nizhnikh chinov rossiiskoi armii. 1843, Russkie vitiazi, 2020.