Reminiscences of the Royal Family [Tsars] [Czars] First Edition - Tatiana Botkina-melnik - Bauman Rare Books

Reminiscences of the Royal Family [Tsars] [Czars]

Tatiana BOTKINA-MELNIK

Item#: 89289 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Reminiscences of the Royal Family [Tsars] [Czars]

TATIANA BOTKINA-MELNIK’S MEMOIRS OF LIFE WITH THE TSARS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION, 1921 ILLUSTRATED FIRST EDITION

(ROYALTY) (TSARS) BOTKINA-MELNIK, Tatiana. Reminiscences of the Royal Family and Life before and after the Revolution. Belgrade: M.I. Stefanovich, 1921. Quarto, original printed paper-covered boards.

First edition of Melnik-Botkina’s reminiscence of her life with the Tsars, published only a few years after the Russian Revolution, with 16 pages of photographic portraits of the royal family and members of the court, from before and after the Revolution.

Tatiana Botkina-Melnik was the daughter of court physician Eugene Botkin. Tatiana and her brother accompanied their father into exile with the Romanov family following the Russian Revolution of 1917. When the family was transferred from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg, the Botkin children were not permitted to accompany their father, who was ultimately killed along with Tsar Nicholas II and his family by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918. In the fall of 1918, Tatiana married Konstantin Melnik, an officer of the Ukrainian Rifles; they escaped from Russia through Vladivostok and eventually settled in France. Text in Russian.

Fine condition.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
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Calf Binding material made from cowhide—versatile, durable, usually tan or brown in color, of smooth texture with no or little apparent grain. Readily marbled (“tree calf”), mottled, diced, colored, polished, tooled in gilt or blind, even scented (known as “russia”). Reverse calf, with a distinctive suede-like texture, is occasionally used.
Chromolithograph Lithograph printed in colors, typically three or more.
Collation Process by which the contents of a book are inspected for completeness, checking against internal evidence, the table of contents and/or plate list, and reference works. Also a shorthand bibliographical description of a book’s composition by its leaves and signatures, rather than its pages. A-C, for example, would indicate a quarto volume composed of three signatures or gatherings of eight pages each for a total of 24 pages.
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Doublure Pastedowns made not of paper but of leather, for decorative purposes.
Duodecimo (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
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Engraving Illustration produced by carving lines into a metal plate. This is an intaglio process, in which ink is poured over the plate, then wiped from the surface, leaving ink only in the recesses made by the engraver’s tools. The image is then transferred by pressing thick dampened paper against the metal plate with great force—requiring engravings to be printed on a separate stock and separate press from any text.
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Japanese Vellum Expensive handmade paper often used in deluxe editions.
Lithograph Illustration produced by transferring an image drawn on a carefully prepared stone to paper. The process allowed illustrations to more closely resemble the original drawings, paintings or sketches, as it gave the lithographer a freedom of line impossible to achieve in earlier intaglio and relief processes. It does not require the same sort of pressure as an engraving to transfer the image, but still has to be printed on separate stock from the text
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Plate Full-page illustration printed separately from but bound with the text.
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Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
Wormhole Tiny pinhole-sized trails left by bookworms as they eat through a text block. Much more common in older books printed on handmade papers with a high rag content than in books printed on manufactured papers made from wood pulp with a higher acidic content.
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