Deluxe chromolithographic photograph album with nickel-plated cast brass frieze of a troika to upper board

St. Petersburg: N.V. Gayevsky, 1889. Lavish photograph album produced in imperial St. Petersburg, featuring a remarkable three-dimensional brass frieze of a family crossing the winter countryside, pulled by a troika whose shining nickel-plated horses appear to leap off the binding, headed straight toward the reader. Inside the album, the window mats are decorated with vibrant chromolithographic scenes of rural Russian life by illustrator Nikolai Karazin, a favorite of Alexander III. Subjects include woodland and mountain landscapes, snow-covered cottages, scenes of planting and harvest, hunting and fishing vignettes, farm laborers preparing dinner over (truncated) an open fire, a mother resting in the fields with her young children. Weighing almost ten pounds, the album is effectively a work of sculpture, complete with the original card of instructions to the owner, explaining how to polish the binding after handling. A fine copy, never used, of an extraordinary production, in the original publisher's padded box. Deluxe photograph album, measuring 12.5 x 9 inches: eighteen heavy hinged card leaves. Original publisher’s forest green morocco, upper board with full-cover nickel-plated cast brass frieze of a troika in high relief, in an ornamental frame. Spine ruled in blind; lower board with four nickel-plated brass feet; boards secured with locking clasp; all edges aluminum “gilt.” Endleaves unprinted, covered in coated white moiré-patterned paper. Preliminary single chromolithographic and gilt leaf with pictorial vignettes and printed calling card reading “N. Karazin;” verso unprinted. Fifteen double-sided window leaves with chromolithographic scenes and gilt details, most signed in the stone by Karazin; versos unprinted. First windowed leaf with gilt-edged oval card loosely inserted in frame, with printed conservation instructions for binding. Red morocco-gilt label of publisher and binder N.V. Gayevsky to lower corner of final leaf. Housed in publisher’s worn drop-side box covered in maroon morocco-grain paper; interior lined with brown plaid cloth, box lid padded. (Inventory #: 1004066)