This limited edition commemorative album was published in honor of the 1883 Coronation of Tsar Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna. Only 500 copies were printed, 300 in Russian and 200 in French, to be presented as gifts to members of the imperial family and foreign dignitaries that attended the historic event. Designed and published In Russia, the albums were profusely illustrated with twenty-six chromolithographed plates depicting key events and notable public figures, along with in text illustrations, vignettes, and decorations. More information about the 1883 Coronation can be found by visiting the Maria Feodorovna pathway on the VMFA Fabergé and Russian Culture App.

Description du sacre et du couronnement de Leurs Majestés Impériales L’Empereur de toutes les Russies Alexandre III et L’Impératrice Marie Féodorovna
Description of the coronation Tsar Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna
Sanktpetersburg : Expédition pour la Confection des Papiers de l’Etat
1883
[2], 65, [3] pages, [27] leaves of chromolithograph plates : illustrations, portraits, plans (chiefly color) ; 68 cm
Rare Book Collection, Margaret R. & Robert M. Freeman Library, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
DK 240 O65 1883
Credit: Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund

As a young man Ivan Bilibin was  studying art at the studio of Princess Maria Tenesheva under Ilya Repin when he was commissioned by the government Department for the Production of State Documents to illustrate a series of Russian folk stories. This series, eventually published in six slim paperback volumes brought him to the attention of the newly formed World of Art (Mir Istkusstva) group headed by Serge Diaghilev and Alexander Benois. Commissions for their journal followed and established Bilibin within that circle which was to become the basis of his career as an illustrator. Visit the VMFA Fabergé and Russian Culture App to see Bilibin’s illustrations come to life in the Fairytale Pathway.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin, 1876–1942, illustrator
Tsarevich Ivan, the firebird, and the grey wolf
Aleksandr Nikolaevich Afanesyev, 1826-1871, folklore collector
Expedition for the Procurement of State Insignia (St. Petersburg, Russia)
1901
12 screen printed pages, 33 cm
Rare Book Collection, Margaret R. & Robert M. Freeman Library, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
PG 3117 I9 S5 1901
Credit: Gift of the Council of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2015