Russia
[PETER THE GREAT] - [KREKSHIN, Petr Nikiforovich (attributed to), and Andrey Artamonovich MATVEEV].
[Two manuscript works on the Streltsy revolts:] Kniga sluchivshikhiya v Rossii del, s pervykh let [...] Petra Velikago. [And] Istoria [...] o smutnom vremeni priklyuchivshemsya ot vozmushcheniya byvshikh moskovskikh streltsov [...]. [The Book of Events That Occured in Russia Since the First Years of the Reign of Peter the Great. [And]Memoirs of the Streltsy Riot].
[Western Russia, ca. third quarter of 18th century]. 2 works in one volume 4to (22 x 18.5 cm). 133 ll. numbered, Cyrillic manuscript in red (titles) and black, some red initials, paper with watermark: Yaroslavl coat-of-arms and Cyrillics initials SFYa; light marginal finger soiling, marginal unobstrusive wormtracks, old bookseller entry tipped-in to upper fly-leaf. Contemporary calf over bevelled wooden boards, deep diamond-shaped centrepiece and gilt rollwork to upper cover, blind-tooled lines to lower cover, spine with raised bands, clasp; rebacked preserving spine, rubbed and skillfully repaired, gilt oxydized, a clasp missing. Provenance: Fedor Vasilevich Karzhavin [Theodore Karjavine] (stamp to first leaf); Vladimir Strichewsky, Paris, 1931 (booklabel to upper pastedown).
Very fresh, unusual item in a fine binding: two manuscripts on Peter's main civil revolts, then still unpublished, from Karzhavin's library, then owned by the 1920-30s film director Strichevskiy. Together with a copy of a circular in French prepared by the College of Foreign Affairs and endorsed by Karzhavin. Dated 'St. Petersbourg le 1. Fevrier 1771', it informs all Russian ambassadors abroad, and in particular Stakelberg, the Russian ambassador in Madrid, that a currier who had been robbed 'upon his entry to this capital' and lost the entire suitcase. Written in 18th-century secretarial cursive and probably by two hands, both manuscript works relate the first Streltsy revolts of 1682 and 1689, that Peter, once tsar, severely quashed until 1707. The first work is apparently based on the narrative by Krekshin (1684-1763), unpublished before 1788, and the second is a copy of Matveev's histroy of the Streltsy uprisings, published only in 1782. Count Matveev was Russian ambassador in The Hague and Vienna, and his father Artamon, an important diplomat and enlightened favorite of Tsar Alexis I, had been killed by the Streltsy in 1682. Both authors were warm supporters of Peter's reforms and power - and as such the present item is well representative of Peter's revival in the first years of Catherine the Great's reign. With a fine provenance: son of a wealthy Old Believer merchant, Karzhavin was educated in Paris in 1753-65, and served at the Russian embassy there. In 1765, he returned to Russia and obtained a position at the College of Foreign Affairs. In 1771-2, he served as an assistant architect at the Moscow Kremlin. The following year, he left for Holland and then France where he studied medicine and natural history. Involved with trade, he arrived in 1777 to America, going to Virginia, Boston, Martinique... He taught school, practiced medicine, and served as translator to Virginia's French Consul. On April 15, 1787, he left Virginia, made a brief visit to Paris, and then returned to Russia. In the 1797, he obtained a position as an "Anglo-American translator" at the Admiralty.
Price: £ 17500
US Dollar Price: $ 25370
Stock Number: 76109