Lot 155: A Russian silver-gilt, lacquer and enamel triptych iconPavel Ovchinnikov, Moscow, circa 1890

Pavel Ovchinnikov, Moscow, circa 1890
the central panel painted with Christ Pantocrator, the left wing with St. Nicholas the Wonder-worker, the right with Saints Nikita and Basil the Great, the borders lacquered red under stylized scrolling foliage, the front of the doors applied with a cross enamelled translucent red over guilloché ground, the reverse with engraved dedicatory inscription in Cyrillic 'To Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov of the Army of the Guards and St. Petersburg Military District 1884-1898', 84 standard
height with hinged suspension loop: 19cm (7in).

Provenance:
Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, Fine Russian Works of Art, New York, 28 and 29 June 1979, lot 503.

Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov (1839-1904) was a prominent pre-Revolutionary military and political figure. Having distinguished himself first as an officer in the Russian army, serving in the Kazan military district and rising to divisional chief-of-staff in Novgorod, Bobrikov became a colonel in 1869. A year later he was transferred to Saint Petersburg for special duties in the Imperial Guard which brought him into contact with the Court. In 1878 he was promoted to the status of Major General.

This portable, folding icon, or skladen, was presented to Bobrikov upon his retirement as Chief of Staff of the Guards and St.Petersburg Military District. It commemorates fourteen years of service in this role which ended when Tsar Nicholas II appointed Bobrikov Governor-General of Finland in 1898.

Bobrikov fostered the climate of political prosecution and censorship that characterised Russia's attempts at suppressing Finnish nationalism at the turn of the century. An aggressive campaign of Russification was waged in 1899-1905. This saw the passing of decrees asserting the Imperial Government's right to rule Finland with the consent of local legislative bodies, declaring Russian the state language of Finland and further conscription laws incorporating the Finnish army into the Imperial Army. The resulting backlash of Finnish resistance famously culminated in the assassination of Bobrikov in 1904.