[Rarebooks] FS: English Antique Silver in Russia & Kremlin - 1909 Catalog

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

“The Old English Plate of the Emperor of Russia”

By E. Alfred Jones.
Privately printed by W.H. Smith & Son at the Arden Press, Letchworth, 
and at XCV Fetter Lane, London, in 1909

Noted silver historian E. Alfred Jones’ catalog of the English (and some 
European) silver in the Czar’s collection held at the Winter Palace and 
the Kremlin. This remarkable collection of pieces, dating from the late 
16th century to the mid-18th, comprised the gifts of a succession of 
English monarchs to the Czars of Russia, and preserved many pieces which 
might have been melted down and lost during the Commonwealth period, had 
they remained in England.

An elegantly composed and very handsomely printed book.

Charles Oman, in his book, “The English Silver in the Kremlin 
1557-1663”, calls Jones' work “an admirable catalogue”, remarking “only 
occasionally did [Jones] fail to observe an important detail”. Oman does 
note that Jones lacked access to the Kremlin archives which would throw 
much light upon the way these pieces came to Russia, but with the 
Russian Revolution these archives (and the silver itself) would remain 
closed to Westerners for another 50 years after Jones worked there.

E[dward] Alfred Jones [1872-1943] was a prolific writer on antique 
silver. Born in Llanfyllin, Wales, Jones served in the Royal Welsh 
Fusiliers before launching his career as a researcher and writer on all 
things antique and antiquarian, most especially silver. One of his 
specialties became the compilation of sponsored volumes on the silver of 
specific localities, or diocese, including the Tower of London, Windsor 
Castle, the Cambridge colleges, and American churches, and catalogs of 
private collections, such as that of the Duke of Devonshire, Baroness 
James de Rothschild, and the Emperor of Russia. Jones also wrote about 
furniture, tapestry, enamels, other art objects, and about Loyalists 
from the American Revolution. Jones was a member of the Livery of the 
Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, a Fellow of the Royal Historical 
Society, and member of the National Art Collections Fund and of the 
Contemporary Art Society, and was awarded honorary M.A. degrees from the 
University of Wales and Oxford University. Jones died on August 23, 
1943, from injuries received from a fall during a blackout.

Hardcover. 10.5”x12.5”, lvi + 115 pages, plus 50 black & white plates. 
Quarter leather and brown cloth, with gilt spine title, as issued. 
Covers rubbed along the edges, leather scuffed, spine head with minor 
chipping, tips slightly bumped. Contents clean and fine, hinges tight. 
$150 net.

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Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
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