Russian Arms And Armour

Edited by Yuri Miller

Published by Aurora Art Publishers, Leningrad, 1982

First Edition

With 164 plates of which 133 are in colour

This volume contains reproductions of Russian arms and armour from the outstanding collection of the Armoury in the Moscow Kremlin, which includes almost all the most perfect works created by the talented Russian armourers and gunsmiths over the course of several centuries. Pieces of weaponry from the Armoury form the basis of this volume, but they are supplemented by works from the collection of the Historical Museum, encompassing a period from the 16th to the middle of the 20th century and notable for its systematic character and completeness. 

The Armoury was already used as a storehouse for weapons and especially valuable objects as early as the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century. In the course of the 16th and 17th centuries it became a major centrę for the manufacture of all sorts of arms and armour. 

A firmly rooted, genuine national school of the art of arms production with its own principles and traditions developed in the Armoury. Here such skilled Russian armourers and gunmakers as Konon Mikhailov, Dmitry Konovalov, Nikita Davydov, Grigory Viatkin, Ilya Prosvit, Vasily Titov, and Penoisha Isayev worked, creating arms and armour which were true artistic masterpieces. The Armoury Museum established in 1806 is one of the oldest in Russia. From 1851, the Armoury was housed in a new building constructed specially for the museum on the territory of the Kremlin.

The Armoury collection is mainly formed of weapons produced by its craftsmen in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as arms and armour manufactured at Tula, Zlatoust, and St Petersburg.

The Armoury collections were repeatedly enlarged. In 1810 more than 3,000 pieces of arms and armour were added from the Rustkammer, one of the first Russian museums in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov) near St Petersburg. In the 19th century, arms and armour preserved in the Trinity-St Sergius Monastery near Moscow and the St Petersburg Diamond Workshops were moved to the Armoury.  At the present time, the Armoury houses and exhibits more than 7,000 pieces which are fully representative of the whole range of Russian fine arms and armour.

In brown embossed pictorial hardcovers, with gilt titles to the spine, in 208 pages, with the dustjacket. The Dustjacket: There is no sunning. There is some shelfwear, mainly to the top and bottom of the spine. There is no foxing. The Book: There is very light shelfwear. There are no previous owners' names or inscriptions. There is the very lightest of scattered foxing to the first two leaves. All plates are bright, fresh, and crisp. There is no sunning. There are no missing, loose, creased, stained or damaged pages. The spine and binding are solid. It is complete and original. 

Measures 25cm x 32cm.