RARUS'S GALLERY

By the way, dublure (gilded or bandaged ornamental borders along perimeter of the inner side of cap) in the early Middle Ages was used in Islamic countries and in XV and XVI centuries in Hungary and Italy. From XVII to XIX centuries, such binding element was used in France for decoration of especially valuable issues for bibliophiles.

Platon Petrovich Beketov (1761-1836) seems to be one of the most prominent Russian iconographers and publishers, to say nothing of N. I. Novikov. He was born in Simbirsk, studied in Kazan together with his cousin fable writer Dmitriev, then he was admitted to famous Chadin's boarding school in Moscow, where Beketov's classmate was Karamzin, who also was his far relative. Having served for a short period in the Guard, since 1798, Beketov settled in Moscow, where he fully devoted himself to his passion to collect and publish portraits and books. In 1801, he started his own printing house, which was referred to as the best one in Moscow. But in a short time before, he printed the Pantheon of Russian Authors with Semen Selivanovskiy, who took on lease the Senate printing house. The fonts and printing quality of Selivanovskiy's printing house were referred to as the standard all over Russia. Nevertheless, they naturally had to work hard on word casting and engraving boards. After his failure to issue the first part of the Pantheon, in the same year, Beketov started his own word casting and printing house with the best quality in Moscow. In 1812, during the invasion of world Antichrist Napoleon, the house and printing works of Platon Petrovich were burnt by the famous fire of Moscow. Fire destroyed also the unsold copies of the first part, which were kept in the wing of his estate. Today it is rarity, but in such binding and such good condition it is the greatest rarity!

Reference literature:

1. Smirnov-Sokol’skii, Biblioteka, vol. I, №520.

2. N.V. Solovyov’s antique-shop. Catalogue №105 «Livres Rares», №55, 75 roubles (very rare!).

3.V. Sopikov, №5066.

4. N. Obol’yaninov, «Russian Illustrated Books», №2005.

5. V.A. Vereshcagin «Russian Illustrated Books», №45.