Bound for a Russian Princess

Towards the end of last year I highlighted a collection of Russian satirical journals and postcards from the 1905 Revolution. Today’s post continues the Russian theme by examining the provenance of an early twentieth-century set of the complete works of Tolstoy.

The set was published in St. Petersburg by P. V. Lukovnikov in 1913 and 1914. It consists of four volumes bound in two. The first two volumes are from the twenty-first edition and volumes three and four from the twenty-sixth and forty-sixth editions respectively. The attractive binding is three-quarter green morocco with marbled boards and pastedowns. In the upper-left corner of the front board on both volumes is a gilt-stamped ownership mark: the Cyrillic letters ‘Λ Β’ (‘L V’) with a crown above:

Through a colleague of the antiquarian book dealer Simon Beattie, the ownership stamp has been identified as belonging to Princess Lydia Leonidovna Vyazemsky Vasilchikova (1886–1948). The set is from Vasilchikova’s private library in St. Petersburg and was likely bound by A. A. Schnell, a master bookbinder working for the Russian Imperial Court.

Portrait of Princess Lydia Leonidovna Vyazemsky Vasilchikova (www.genealogics.org)

The Family
Lydia’s father was Prince Leonid Dmitrievitch Vyazemsky (1848–1909), a general in the Russian cavalry, Governor of Astrakhan, and member of the Council of the Empire. On 12 May 1909, Lydia married Prince Illarion Sergeyevich Vasilchikov (1881–1969), who belonged to one of Russia’s oldest aristocratic families and served as a member of the Fourth Duma under Tsar Nicholas II.

Lydia, however, was not a stereotypical staid wife of a politician. According to Beattie’s contact, she studied English at Oxford, was fluent in several European languages, and was fond of horse riding and photography. She served as a Red Cross nurse close to the Eastern Front during the First World War, and was awarded four medals, including two St George medals for bravery.

In 1919, the Vasilchikovs fled the upheaval and violence of the 1917 Revolution aboard the SS Princess Ena, sent to Russia by Britain's George V to rescue his aunt the Empress Marie Feodorovna. Destitute, the Vasilchikovs travelled across Europe as refugees to the family's Lithuanian estates. During the Second World War, two of their children, Tatiana and Marie, moved to Berlin in 1940 to find work and were employed by the Foreign Ministry’s Information Office. The sisters later published books about their experiences: Tatiana: Five Passports in a Shifting Europe (1976) and Marie’s Berlin Diaries: 1940–1945 (1988).

The Library
Unfortunately, little information exists regarding the Vasilchikov family libraries, except that they owned several collections in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and throughout their numerous estates. It was learnt through Beattie’s contact that many family members were killed after the 1917 Revolution, and their books sold or intentionally destroyed during the 1920s and 1930s; a sad fate that befell many of Russia’s aristocratic families and their collections during those turbulent early decades of the Soviet Union.

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Polnoe sobranīe sochinenīĭ gr. A.K. Tolstogo (St. Petersburg: [P. V. Lukovnikov], 1913-1914); from the personal library of Princess Lydia Leonidovna Vyazemsky Vasilchikova; donated to the Melbourne University Library by Mrs. O. P. Hohlov in 1968.

Covered in Silk & Satin: Embroidered Bookbindings

Among the decorative and fine bindings held by Melbourne UL Special Collections are two examples of fabric/ textile bindings with embroidered decorations.

Embroidered book covers were popular during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though earlier examples, such as the fourteenth-century embroidered binding on the British Library’s Felbrigge Psalter (Sloane MS 2400), do survive.

Textile bindings were produced primarily by professional embroiderers, but were also made by individual female owners. They were very much in vogue in England during the first half of the seventeenth century, particularly as covers for small devotional books, such as this copy of The Book of Common Prayer (London, 1629) that measures just eleven centimetres in height. The cover is made of white satin over blue silk, with birds and flowers embroidered with different coloured silk set within frames of gold thread, with gold thread borders on the spine and both sides.

Along with silk and satin, velvet was another popular textile for book covers. The Special Collections copy of L’Office de la Vierge Marie pour tous les temps de l’anee (Paris, [1636?]), bound with Pierre Coton’s Dévotes oraisons pour tous chrestiens et catholiques (Paris, 1637), is in a contemporary green velvet binding, heavily embroidered with floral motifs in silver thread and sequins, bordered on three sides by silver wire.

Resources
Much has been written on embroidered bindings. The British Library’s English Embroidered Bookbindings webpage provides a brief history of the subject and includes a select bibliography for further reading. One of the texts listed, Cyril Davenport’s English Embroidered Bookbindings (London, 1899), can be read on-line.

In addition to the resources noted by the BL, one can add the relevant sections in Bernard Middleton’s A History of English Craft Bookbinding Techniques (London, 1978; pp. 121–124), David Pearson’s English Bookbinding Styles, 1450–1800 (New Castle [DE], 2004; pp. 20–22), and Marianne Tidcombe’s Women Bookbinders, 1880–1920 (New Castle [DE], 1996; pp. 77–90).

Embroidered bindings can also be found throughout social media. They have been blogged about elsewhere (e.g. The Collation, Echoes from the Vault); there are pages in Pinterest (page 1 and page 2) and on Flickr (University of Glasgow Library); and one binding has even made its way onto YouTube compliments of the Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University.

Further examples can be seen on the Princeton University Hand Bookbinding website, and over 120 specimens can be found in the British Library’s Database of Bookbindings.

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The Booke of Common Prayer (London: Imprinted by Bonham Norton and John Bill, 1629), bound with The Whole Booke of Psalmes (London: Imprinted [by Felix Kingston] for the Company of Stationers, 1630)

L’Office de la Vierge Marie pour tous les temps de l’anee (Paris: Robert Denain, [1636?]), bound with Pierre Coton’s Dévotes oraisons pour tous chrestiens et catholiques (Paris: Marin Vaugon, 1637)