Russian sovereigns had been inundated with items. We have chosen the easiest of those: probably the most horrifying, the heaviest, probably the most worthwhile, and others.
1. The most horrifying: Ivan the Terrible’s lions
The Alevisov ravine across the Kremlin in Moscow, Fedor Alekseev, early nineteenth century
Public Domain
In 1557, Queen Mary I Tudor of England despatched Ivan IV the Terrible a lion and a lioness. The present was so vital that the animals had been transported underneath the non-public supervision of Osip Nepeya, Moscow’s envoy to England. The second of bringing the lions to Moscow was even pictured within the ‘Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible’ (1567).
Ivan the Terrible positioned the lions close to the Voskresensky Gates of the Kitay-Gorod wall, the gate via which wealthy visitors of the town, together with overseas ambassadors, entered the Red Square. The lions had been imprisoned within the dried-up moat that ran across the Kremlin partitions they usually had been so well-known that even the Voskresensky Gates had been later referred to as the ‘Lions’ Gates’. The lions lived lengthy in Moscow and would have lived for much longer, if not for the fireplace in 1571, when Moscow was set ablaze by Crimean Khan Devlet Giray. After the fireplace, the lions had been discovered lifeless on the Red Square.
2. The heaviest: the elephants of Elizabeth Petrovna
The elephants despatched by the persian Shah, the 1740s engraving
Public area
Persian ruler Nader Shah Afshar gave as many as 14 elephants to Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter the Great’s daughter, in 1741. Personally for her, “only” seven elephants – 5 extra of the animals had been a present for the younger Ivan VI, who reigned within the Russian Empire from October 1740 and the remaining two – for his mom and regent, Anna Leopoldovna.
The elephants had been despatched to Elizabeth Petrovna as a wedding proposal. Nader Shah sought a dynastic marriage to cooperate with Russia towards Turkey. It appeared to the Persian ruler that Peter’s daughter, excommunicated from the throne, would possibly take into account his proposal, which he backed up not solely with elephants, but in addition with a pile of jewels. Of course, it was towards all the principles of European diplomacy to make a proposal on this means. The present was accepted, however the Persian ambassador was not even allowed to see Elizabeth. Getting married was out of the query – in October 1741, when the elephants got here to St. Petersburg, Peter’s daughter was already planning for a coup d’etat to grab energy.
The elephants had been settled within the heart of St. Petersburg – Karavannaya Street bears its title as a result of a caravanserai, a facility for elephants, had stood on it. Later, the elephants had been moved to what’s now Vosstaniya Square and had been taken to the Neva River for watering alongside Suvorovsky Prospect, then referred to as Elephant Street.
3. Most elaborate: The ‘Temple of Glory’ clock for Catherine the Great
The ‘Temple of Glory’ clock made by Michael Maddox, Kremlin Museums
Viktor Velikzhanin/TASS
The distinctive clock was created towards the top of Catherine the Great’s reign, after 1793, and celebrates her achievements. The clock was made by Michael Maddox, an English engineer who was invited to tutor the inheritor, Paul Petrovich, in physics and mechanics again in 1766. Maddox stayed in Russia and have become well-known by founding one of many first public theaters, the Petrovsky Theater in Moscow.
The ‘Temple of Glory’ clock made by Michael Maddox, Kremlin Museums
Valentina Mastyukova/TASS
Not all components of the clock have survived and the mechanism now works solely partially. When the clock was in full working order, it gave a complete efficiency each three hours. The solar’s halo across the dial would start to shimmer, due to the motion of the crystal cylinders, whereas, on the identical time, the entrance flaps of the field, behind which a mechanical waterfall was hid, would open. The eagles crowning the columns opened their beaks and dropped actual pearls into the mouths of their chicks. The clock was additionally outfitted with a metallophone that would play 12 totally different tunes.
4. The most costly: the ‘Orlov’ diamond for Catherine the Great
The Orlov diamond within the Scepter of Imperial Russia
Yuri Somov/Sputnik
This largest of diamonds present in India is so previous that it has had many names, together with ‘The Great Mughal Diamond’ (after the empire of the Indian Shahs to whom it belonged) and ‘Mount Sinai’. The diamond was present in India within the early seventeenth century. It was there till 1738, when Nadir Shah invaded India and took the treasure to Persia. From there, the stone made its means by obscure means to Europe, the place it was present in London in the course of the 18th century.
It is alleged that the stone was introduced to the empress by her favourite visitor, Count Grigory Orlov, on November 24, 1773, at a reputation day occasion. The Prussian envoy Count Victor von Solms described the occasion: “Everyone who appeared in the hall, despite the late fall, gave her huge bunches of flowers and some also gave her a souvenir specially prepared for the occasion. One Count Grigory showed up empty-handed. Noticing the discrepancy of his appearance to the general mood, he slapped his forehead and said: “I’m sorry, mom! You have such a vacation as we speak and I, an previous idiot (Orlov was 39 years – Ed.), utterly forgot. Well, do not be offended, I’ve one thing right here… It might come in useful… Don’t refuse to just accept it.” And, with these words, the count took a flat box from his vest pocket containing a precious diamond.
The truth is much more prosaic – this “present” Catherine gave to herself. The diamond was bought from an Armenian merchant Lazarev for 400 thousand rubles – a huge sum, which even the favorite of empress could not possess. The diamond was bought by installments for seven years and the empress paid for it from the state treasury. In the same year, 1774, the ‘Orlov’ diamond was inserted in the top of the imperial scepter of the Russian Empire, in which it remains to this day. Its estimated weight is about 190 carats (39 grams). The ‘Orlov’ is a rarity among historic diamonds, for it retains its original Indian rose-style cut.
5. Most valuable as a work of art: ‘The Ivory Eagle’ for Nicholas II
“The Eagle on The Pine”
Mikhail Fomichev, TASS, the State Museum of Oriental Art
‘The Eagle on Pine’ sculpture and its display had been created by Emperor Meiji of Japan as a present to Nicholas II of Russia on the event of his coronation in 1896. The eagle was created by well-known Japanese sculptor Kaneda Kenjiro. Now, it is likely one of the important reveals on the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow, the place the sculpture has its personal corridor. The base of the sculpture is made from wooden and coated with ivory feathers – over 1,500 separate components in all. The head and adjoining feathers are carved from a single piece of elephant tusk and the fowl’s claws and eyes are constructed from horn.
The eagle in Japan, simply as in European heraldry, symbolizes energy and authority. Obviously, it was the eagle that was chosen as a present to the monarch of the nation whose coat of arms depicts the double-headed eagle. The pine, on which the fowl sits, signifies longevity, whereas the rocks (on the display) are a want for inexhaustible fortitude and a protracted and affluent reign.