Beschreibung:

ALEXANDER III — Description du Sacre et du Couronnement de... Alexandre III et l'Imperatrice Marie Féodorovna en l'année 1883 . [Opisanie Sviashchennago Koronovaniia Ikh Imperatorskikh Velichestv Gosudaria Imperatora Aleksandra Tret'iago i Gosudaryni Imperatritsy Marii Feodorovny vseia Rossii.] [St. Petersburg]: Expe´dition pour la Confection des Papiers de l'Etat, 1883. The first edition, in sumptuously gilt original cloth, of the rare coronation album of Alexander III, illustrating the ceremonies and events in Moscow in May 1883. Printed for members of the imperial family and foreign dignitaries participating in the celebrations, this impressively illustrated work was never offered for public sale and is accordingly scarce. Fekula 2112 ('very rare'). Folio (660 x 510mm). 27 chromolithographic plates, including the title, after Simakov, Makovskii, Sokolov, Savitskii, Karazin, Polenov, Kramskoi, Vereshchagin, Makorov, Bogdanov, Grigor'ev, Aleksandrovskii, Surikov and Samokish, decorative initials and illustrations in the text, many chromolithographed, text printed in black, blue and red (occasional spotting, some offsetting from plates onto the text, adhesion to text from two plates). Original dark green morocco-backed cloth, upper cover richly gilt incorporating the Russian imperial eagle, spine with imperial regalia blocked in gilt, lower side blocked in blind, white moiré endpapers, edges gilt (a few faint marks, extremities slightly rubbed).