An Imperial Miniature of Emperor Alexander II by Wegner in a Hematite-Mounted Patinated Silver Mourning or Memorial Frame Signed [Alexander Matveevich] Wegner (German / Russian, 1826-1894), the frame marked LM, possibly for Leopold Edward Michelsen, circa 1878-1881 Watercolor and gouache on vellum 2-3/4 x 1-3/4 inches (7.0 x 4.4 cm) 42 grams (gross) PROVENANCE: Empress Maria Feodorovna; Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna; Prince Vasili Alexandrovich, sold April 1949; Thelma D. Zane, thence by descent; Private Collection, California. The offered lot is closely related to two other known miniatures of Emperor Alexander II (b. 1818, reigned 1855-1881) by the noted academician and miniaturist Alexander Matveevich Wegner. One, sold Christie's, London, Important Gold Boxes, Objects of Vertu and Portrait Miniatures, December 10, 2002, lot 271, and the other now in the State Hermitage Museum (Hermitage Inv. No. ORM-999), and which entered the collection in 1910 from the collection of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the Emperor's son. The miniature shows one of the Emperor's last official images, and the presence of the Grand Cross of the Royal Prussian Order of the "Pour le Merite" on his uniform indicates that the work dates to the period after it was awarded on April 24, 1878 (cf. Lehmann, G. Die Ritter des Ordens Pour le Merite 1812-1913, Vol II, Berlin: Ernst Sigfried Mittle & Sohn, 1913, p. 499). The unusual Imperial Crowned hematite-mounted blackened silver frame further suggests that the image may have been commissioned as a mourning piece or at least mounted as one after the emperor's assassination by terrorists in 1881. The frame bears on the suspension loop the Latin hallmark LM, possibly that of Leopold Edward Michelsen, who is known to have worked as a silversmith in Reval (Tallin) and to have supplied silver goods to St. Petersburg merchants. The piece, misidentified by Mrs. Zane as a "Miniature of Alexander III", is noted in Zane family records as having been placed in safe deposit at Wells Fargo on May 13, 1948, together with a silver rhinoceros automaton, the Cockerel, the egg shaped frame, and a tantalizingly described hand seal which read Hvidøre and which had belonged jointly to the Dowager Empress and her sister, Queen Alexandra of Great Britain. Property of a California Family HID03101062020 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

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