TREASURES OF RUSSIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19633, 20 July 1935, Page 17 (Supplement)

TREASURES OF RUSSIA.

ON SHOW IN LONDON.

A £20,000 TIARA. v The exhibition of Russian Art, which . the Duchess of Kent opened in London, is tremendously evocative. Russia to the average Westerner is a land of legend whose spendid semibarbarism was brought nearer by inspired ballet masters and dancers or great musicians and singers. The ' leading figures of her remoter history arc associated in our minds with the weavings of. fantastic tales. How surprising therefore to behold •in London a gilt cup which Boris Godunov handled and a large silver wine ladle which once was a gift from Ivan the Terrible 1

Can wc imagine any but a Russian Empress having a jasper cane handle carved into the figure of a siren bearing her own features to give it to her lover? .... Here is the cane handle presented by Empress Elizabeth to Count Alexei Razumovsky.

Vodka Cup of Ruby. The next Empress, Catherine the Great, gavo an ornate chalice to a convent in memory of her favourite, Prince Potemkin .... Here is the chalice.

.Memories of the unrivalled luxury of the Czarist Court in its heyday ■glitter from a glass case which contains a £20,000 tiara lent by Q.ueen Marie of Rumania, an equally .gorgeous sapphire and diamond necklace lent by the Princess Royal, and the pear-shaped Pelicgrine pearl, which, legend lias it, is the sister to the pearl Cleopatra dissolved in a glass of vinegar.

■Did you know that vodka was considered best drunk out of a ruby? Look for the vodka cup, oft, the size and shape of an eye-bath, cut out of a single ruby. Faberge, the Jeweller, provided that luxurious Court with a thousand and one trinkets made of the rarest materials. There is a wonderful array of them (many from the Queen’s collection at Sandringham) Including some of his celebrated caster eggs.

On the eve of the Revolution of 1917 tho old luxury persisted. A patlietio easter egg sent by the Czar to his mother in 1916 holds miniatures of the giver and of the Czarevitch, both so soon to disappear amid scenes of horror. Anglo-Russian links. The exhibition provides Ihe most ■complete survey of Russian art obtainable outside Russia. The icons alone deserve a visit. What are described as Anglo-Rus-sian links fill a small room. The most interesting are compositions by Alexander Cozens, Itoe able British watercolour painter, who was almost certainly a natural son of Peter the Great. There are also several portraits by George Daw. R.A., who worked a great deal in Russia; a curious view of St Petersburg by J. A. Atkinson; and a fine likeness by Valentin Serov of Nicholas 11., the last Czar, wearing th« Royal Scots Greys. The exhibition is In aid of the Russian Red Cross.