Alexander III Signed and Personally Owned Finely Bound News Journals From the Russian Imperial Library

L'Illustration Journal Universel, Paris. A collection of lavishly illustrated individual weekly news journals for dates of January- June of 1887, bound in fabric and leather covered boards with ornately marbled endpapers. 15.5" x 12". Written in the World language of the period, French. Condition: Worn and rubbed boards in red cloth and quarter leather spine with leather corner tips. The leather is blackened, with the spine missing. The binding is shaken but the boards are still attached. Original endpapers with the bookplate of Alexander III. The book is internally clean throughout with Alexander III's bold manuscript "A" all present and in wonderful condition.

This outstanding book is a bound set of Journal Issues representing the weekly world news from politics to the arts and science (with emphasis around Europe and Russia) and was personally owned by Alexander III. The book includes Alexander III's personal bookplate to the hand-painted endpapers, and Alexander's oversized 3" manuscript 'A' in red pencil to the upper right corner of all the weekly title pages within this volume. Perhaps he had used his initials to discern which news weeks he had already completed reading. The book also bears the striking RUSSIAN IMPERIAL LIBRARY STAMP for the Gatchina Palace in Cyrillic text located on the front endpaper. The Gatchina Palace was a favorite residence of the Imperial family after it had been enlarged substantially by Alexander II's father Nicholas I. An image of his bookplate is shown in our photos, along with several examples of Alexander's manuscript letter "A", and image samples of some of the other pages.

Provenance: Alexandre III of Russia (1845-1894), Russian Imperial Library at Gatchina Palace. Ex. Christie's with the original Christie's tag included.

Alexander III was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. During his reign, there were no major wars; he was therefore styled "The Peacemaker". In foreign affairs, Alexander III was in fact, a man of peace, but not at any price and held that the best means of averting war is to be well-prepared for it. All of Alexander III's internal reforms aimed to reverse the liberalization that had occurred in his father's reign. The new Emperor believed that remaining true to Russian Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality (the ideology introduced by his grandfather, Emperor Nicholas I) would save Russia from revolutionary agitation. Alexander weakened the power of the zemstvo (elective local administrative bodies) and placed the administration of peasant communes under the supervision of land-owning proprietors appointed by his government. These "land captains" (zemsky nachalnik) were feared and resented throughout the Empire's peasant communities.

Alexander III took initiatives to stimulate the development of trade and industry, as his father did before him. Russia's economy was still challenged by the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, which created a deficit, so he imposed customs duties on imported goods. To further alleviate the budget deficit, he implemented increased frugality and accounting in state finances. Industrial development increased during his reign as well as the beginning of construction of the Trans Siberian Railway.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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