Scope and Content Note
The Israel Perlstein (1897-1975) collection of manuscripts and memorabilia relating to Imperial Russia, 1613-1914, is almost as much a collection of Russian art, artifacts, and early Slavic printing and calligraphy as it is a manuscript assemblage. The provenance of the collection before Perlstein acquired it has not been fully established. However, an oval stamp bearing the inscription "iz sobranie S. N. Treinitskogo" (i.e., from the collection of S. N. Treinitskii) can be found on many of these items, indicating that the seventeenth-century and some of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century items belonged at one time to a Russian collector by the name of S. N. Treinitskii
Six seventeenth-century and one eighteenth-century land grant charters in the collection were issued by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and by his successors, Tsar Fedor Alekseevich and the Co-tsars Ioann and Peter Alekseevich (later Emperor Peter I). These early manuscripts are interesting not only as examples of court documents written in official Old Slavonic but also as graphic representations of the art, calligraphy, and printing of that period. The seventeenth- century items are printed on heavy white paper of different sizes, including one giant charter measuring one and a half by five feet, and contain a variety of inscriptions on the verso as well as calligraphic signatures typical of that period. In contrast, the eighteenth-century land grant charter issued by Empress Catherine II in 1774 to Iogan Hendrikh von Morenshil'd consists of two single parchment folios in a presentation case and decorated in color with imperial emblems and borders.
The two imperial patents of nobility, one issued in 1836 by Nicholas I to Semen Vol'skii who had served the court as a physician during the invasion of Russia by Napoleon in 1811, and the second issued by Alexander II to the de la Valle-Vel'k family in 1865, are examples of the court calligraphy and colorful hand-painted representations of coats of arms of the nineteenth century. A third patent of nobility issued by Charles XI, King of Sweden, in 1695 represents Swedish calligraphy, manuscript art, and the manufacture of seals and scippets utilized in patents of nobility by the late seventeenth-century Swedish court.
The Pal'menbach Family Records , forming a collection of sixteen items dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, appear to have been assembled by Lieutenant General Lev Pavlovich Batiushkov around 1875. Batiushkov, a collateral descendant of the Pal'menbach family, was attempting to establish his lineage in order to append a noble family name to that of his own after the death of the last direct male Pal'menbach descendant, Estafii Ivanovich Pal'menbach. Included are patents of nobility, copies of military service records, certificates, and records of imperial orders granted to the family during this period, as well as genealogical tables, other family data, and official documents requesting the name change.
Part of the imperial memorabilia appears to have belonged to the journalist Mikhail Andreevich Zaguliaev, who represented the St. Petersburg newspaper, Journal de Petersbourg, at the 1896 coronation of Emperor Nicholas II and received invitations and other items addressed in his name. This group is a very diverse assemblage of colorful banquet menus, imperial manifestos, concert and opera programs, and other items such as tickets to coronation events and chauffeur's passes to the Kremlin compound. Among those who decorated the menus and programs were some of the primary artists of the period, including Appollonarii, Vasnetsov, Samokish, Grigoriev, Ignatsius, Pervuta, Lipgart', and Aleksandr Benois. After his emigration to the West Benois became the scene designer for Diagilev's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and for various Paris theaters. Color printing of the menus and programs appears to have been done primarily by two printers: I. Ilyin in St. Petersburg and A.A. Levenson in Moscow. There are twelve items dealing with the coronation of Emperor Aleksandr III in 1883 and twenty-three items dealing with the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II in 1896. Among the opera programs is one for Glinka's opera, "A Life for the Tsar," given in 1913 on the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Romanov dynasty. Other items include copies of military service records, invitations to balls, and an eight by eight inch piece of heavy brocade similar to that used in the binding of official court documents in the seventeenth century but with no holes to indicate that it had ever been officially used.
Because the items in the Perlstein collection are of different sizes, they have been boxed in six containers specially constructed for them. As a result the material is not listed in chronological order. Two of the patents of nobility with large scippets containing seals and tassels have been encased in separate boxes.