This report concerns the album of Indo-Persian miniatures E14, which is kept in the St. Petersburg part of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (formerly the Asian Museum). It entered the Asian Museum in 1921 from the Russian Museum, where, in turn, it was transferred as a personal gift of Emperor Nicholas II. In 1935, the complete album was presented in the State Hermitage Museum at an exhibition organized for the Third International Congress on Iranian Art, and in 1955, some of his miniatures were also shown there at an exhibition of Indian art.

The first researcher of the E14 album and its miniatures was F. A. Rosenberg. In his research on Indo-Persian and New Persian paintings, he points out that the fashion for such albums began in Persia at the beginning of the XVIII century.and soon moved to India. They were drawn up primarily for sovereigns and court nobles, but enjoyed wide success outside the court. As for the album E14, according to F. A. Rosenberg, its history is "somewhat dark". It is only certain that it was purchased in Persia (Rosenberg, 1923, p. 87).

The album E14 was published in 1962 [Album ..., 1962]. Introductory articles to it were written by A. A. Ivanov, T. V. Grek, O. F. Akimushkin. In the generalizing essay "Design and time of album creation", written by A. A. Ivanov, this collection is described. In particular, he notes that the album has 98 sheets of 33 * 47.5 cm in size, but, in all likelihood, initially there were 100 of them-judging by the European pagination from 1 to 100. So two sheets are missing. According to A. A. Ivanov, this happened because "the album's pages are torn from the binding and scattered, there are no flyleafs, which usually contain the owners' seals and notes that provide material for finding out the album's history."

Analyzing the miniatures and their design, A. A. Ivanov points out that three artists worked on them in the 50s of the XVIII century-Muhammad - Hadi, Muhammad-Bakir and Muhammad-Sadiq, whose signatures and dates are found on the margins and frames of the sheets. He further emphasizes that all reliable information about the album's creation history can only be gleaned from the album itself. Based on the fact that most of the miniatures included in the album are of Indian origin, the author of the essay concludes that they came to Iran after the Indian campaign of Nadir Shah in 1738-1739. [Ivanov, 1962, p. 5, 14].

So far, the status of the issue related to the E14 album has been limited to this. As a result of archival research, the author of this message was able to find out that-

The work was prepared with the financial support of the Russian State Scientific Foundation in the framework of the scientific project " Essays on the history of the formation of ethnographic collections (Oriental collections)", project No. 05 - 01 - 01067a.

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read materials that shed light on how this album came to be released in Russia. This story is connected with the name of A. S. Ostrogradsky.

According to the form list of Alexander Sergeyevich Ostrogradsky, a full state councilor (since 1914), hereditary nobleman, Chamberlain (since 1913), he was born on August 18, 1872, and graduated from the course of sciences at the Imperial St. Petersburg University in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics with a first-degree diploma. After completing his studies, according to the request, in 1897 he was assigned to the St. Petersburg office of the State Bank as an assistant accountant, and in 1900 he was appointed an official of special assignments of the State Bank. In 1901, he was assigned to the Ministry of Finance, where in 1905 he became an official of special assignments of the VI class, and on September 22, 1906, he was assigned to Persia as an agent of the Ministry of Finance and assigned to the mission in Tehran. Since 1909, he has been a senior inspector of the State Tax Service. Pot. In 1911, Alexander Ostrogradsky was awarded the Persian Order of the Lion and Sun, 1st class, with a green ribbon.

In June 1910, Alexander Ostrogradsky was appointed an agent of the Ministry of Finance in Turkey and assigned to the Imperial Russian Embassy in Constantinople. In 1912, he was promoted to state Councilor with seniority. A. S. Ostrogradsky was married to the daughter of a civil engineer, Maria Nikolaevna Salko. On June 24, 1912, he was transferred to the Ministry of Trade and Industry and assigned as an agent of the Ministry in Vienna [RGIA, f. 23, op. 23, ed. chr. 857, l. 1-6, 11].

A. S. Ostrogradsky's business profile, signed by the Minister of Trade and Industry S. Timashev, states that while he was still in the service of the Ministry of Finance, "he showed outstanding activity as a Manager of an Accounting and Loan Bank in Persia and significantly contributed to the successful development of our trade relations with this country. Whereupon, on his appointment as a sales agent of the Ministry of Finance in Constantinople, he performed all the duties associated with this position with exemplary efficiency, and in particular contributed greatly to the success of the floating exhibition organized by the Russian Shipping and Trade Society and some firms, which visited the trading points of European and Asian Turkey and greatly benefited our trade with these markets, Last year, State Councilor Ostrogradsky took part in a trade expedition to the Middle East organized by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and personally developed some of the serious issues assigned to this expedition. Finally, in 1912, after being appointed to the newly established position of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Vienna, art. owls. Ostrogradsky was extremely attentive to the situation of the finances of Austria-Hungary in connection with the Balkan events..." [RGIA, f. 23, op. 23, ed. chr. 857, l.15 vol.].

In 1915, as a person intimately familiar with the economic system of Austria-Hungary, A. S. Ostrogradsky was seconded to the Galician military Governor-General, and in November 1915 was appointed commissioner of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in the Russian Government Committee in London, where he headed the Department of Trade and Industry of this Committee [RGIA, f. 23, op. 23, ed. hr. 857, l. 22]. Then its traces are lost.

The episode with the album of Indo-Persian miniatures refers to the Persian period of A. S. Ostrogradsky's life and activity. Materials about this were found by the author in the RGIA [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. xr. 9].

According to the documents, on January 17, 1909, the Ministry of Finance received a telegram from the Ministry's agent in Persia, Court Councilor Ostrogradsky, with the following content::

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"Gradually, for a comparative song, the Shah's Library 2 is being sold, where there are rare copies of manuscripts, paintings, miniatures of the Persian, Indo-Persian school. There is a persistent rumor that the British offer wholesale 60-70 thousand fogs 3. It would be desirable to interest the Hermitage, the Public Library. At the moment I have a collection from there - one hundred paintings of the Indo-Persian school of the XVI century, on the back of each sheet a magnificent Persian calligraphy, artfully illuminated with colors, gold, size 50 x 35 centimeters, all in a beautiful form. Bought by local Jews for 4 thousand fogs, they demand 5 thousand fogs. Reprimanded the right to delay for this price for 10 days. Sorry to miss it, will go to Paris, London. Whether it is possible to arrange a purchase. Ostrogradsky" [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. hr. 9, l. 64].

From the Ministry of Finance, this information was forwarded to the Minister of the Imperial Court, Baron W. B. Fredericks, who informed the Public Library, the Academy of Sciences and the Hermitage.

The Public Library, without denying the desirability of acquiring some Eastern manuscripts from the library of the Shah of Persia, referred, however, to the lack of necessary funds [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. chr.9, l. 67]. A similar response came from the Academy of Sciences. Academician S. F. Oldenburg, who signed this reply, offered to purchase it at the expense of the state Treasury - "this would be an invaluable service to Russian Science" [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. chr.9, l. 68].

The answer received from the Hermitage and signed by its director, I. A. Vsevolozhsky, was more categorical:".. I have the honor to inform you that the art objects mentioned in the appendices to the... [received] relation from the Library of His Majesty the Shah of Persia have no relation to the collections of the Imperial Hermitage, and, moreover, without seeing them, it is impossible to draw conclusions about their value and merits; perhaps these objects will be of interest to the Imperial Public Library. Libraries and Academies of Sciences, but for the Hermitage they are not required" [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. chr.9, l. 69].

By this time, information about these items offered for purchase had leaked to the press (see the newspaper " Speech "(St. Petersburg), February 11, 1909) [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. xr.9, l. 72, clipping].

Later, in a telegram dated September 20, 1909, sent by the chairman of the Archaeological Commission, Count A. A. Bobrinsky, and addressed to the Minister of the Imperial Court, Baron V. B. Fredericks in Livadia, the following was reported:: "Large observations of various subjects of the finest Persian miniature work with gold of the seventeenth century were delivered to the Archaeological Commission. There are a hundred tables in total. The painting is so exceptionally fine that perhaps His Majesty will be pleased to purchase it. I can send some tables to Livadia for review. The cost is probably about eight thousand rubles... " [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. xr. 9, l. 73]. The emperor, being interested in this message, asked to send several tables to Livadia [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. chr.9, l. 74].

In this regard, Count A. A. Bobrinsky sent to Nicholas II 16 tables of miniatures from among the hundred that make up the album. Attached to the sheets was a brief explanatory note about the origin of the tables and their artistic significance.

2 Apparently, we are talking about well-known processes in Persia at that time, including theft, which in the late XIX - early XX centuries caused great damage to both the waqf book repositories and the Shah's library, from which dozens of valuable manuscripts were stolen and miniatures cut out of them were sold at Tehran railway stations [Borshchevsky, 1984, p. 213].

3 1 fog = 1 p. 80 k. - 2 p.

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The owner of the album by that time was A. S. Ostrogradsky, who, according to him, bought miniatures for 6 thousand rubles. tumanov (approx. 11 thousand rubles). The owner, as Count A. A. Bobrinsky wrote, "was happy to reimburse his expenses and sell the miniatures to the emperor" [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. xr. 9, l. 75].

After the inspection of the collection by Nicholas II on December 4, 1909, a conclusion followed: "It is most highly ordered to acquire" [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. chr. 9, l. 79,81].

During further negotiations, A. S. Ostrogradsky considered the mentioned amount of 6 thousand tumans, which he was offered for the collection, underestimated, since he would like to be reimbursed for "additional costs, losses on interest, minor expenses, etc.". In addition, he wanted to keep five of the hundred tables of the album in his personal property if this was not possible, he requested that the amount of money due to him in payment for the album be determined in accordance with the actual value of the collection, according to the conclusion of a special expert examination [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), units hr. 9, l. 82 vol.].

Here are excerpts from the letter of A. S. Ostrogradsky to Count A. A. Bobrinsky, which contains these arguments and contains some information about the owner and the terms of his purchase of the album:

"I served in Persia for 9 years and during this time I made quite interesting collections on various types of Persian art, especially interested in drawings and manuscripts. As a regular customer, the local antique dealers were usually the first to bring me the items they came across, and so it was with this collection of miniatures, which at that time consisted of 120 sheets. Impressed by the magnificent work and having read the signatures of the text indicating the work of the highest calligrapher of the East, Imad-ul-Bassan of Shiraz, whose every letter is valued by the Persians as the greatest work of art, I made every effort to preserve this rare collection for Russian art institutions and informed the Minister of Finance in a detailed telegram about the desirability of acquiring it. All this communication took time - a group of small Jewish antiquaries, the owners of the album, who paid 7,000 tumans for it, could not wait long for the results of my steps, and I had to give up on the threat of losing the entire collection and allow them to sell 20 sheets, selecting the least interesting ones from the drawings. They resold these 20 sheets to local amateurs for an average of 200 fogs per sheet, thus earning 4,000 fogs, and agreed to give me the remaining 100 sheets in bulk for 6,000 fogs. I also informed the Minister of Finance about the possibility of this acquisition and received a negative response, since neither the Academy of Fine Arts, nor the Hermitage, nor the Public Library had the funds for this. After studying the collection more closely in the meantime, I decided to buy it at my own personal expense and fear for 6000 fogs.

When buying, I was guided by the following assumptions: the collection is worth significantly more than 6000 fogs, if the relatively worse sheets were sold for 200 fogs per sheet; thanks to this, I will not lose anything, but I will be able to sell most of the collection and keep a smaller part, so that it costs me nothing.

In the meantime, some of my reports to the Minister of Finance got into print and attracted several offers from both Russian collectors and professionals from abroad. I sent pictures taken on chromatic plates by a specialist in Paris, and there they determined the approximate cost of such tables on the condition of passablement bien conservee about 1000 per sheet, pointing out that there was a great demand for such miniatures. I absolutely did not intend to implement my collection now, and in no way en block expected to study it as accurately as possible and get acquainted in detail with the possible conditions for its implementation in the future.

The collection was submitted to the Archaeological Commission by my secretary for a purely scientific purpose, without any expectation of being sold, and without retaining the tables that I intended to keep.

Thanks to Your Lordship's energy, the matter immediately took such a turn that the question of preserving the collection in Russia was decided by the High will of the August Buyer.

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I cannot say anything about the actual value of my collection, as I personally did not even have time to navigate in this aspect of the issue, but one thing is certain that it significantly exceeds the amount of 6000 fogs (approximately 11,000 rubles) spent by me, to which it is necessary to add additional costs, loss of interest, minor expenses, etc.

I have already had the honor to point out that, as a collector, I calculated for myself a few sheets (5 sheets marked NN with my signature on the cover), so that they would cost me nothing, and I believed that such a condition is only natural. If such a division of the collection is deemed unacceptable, then I think it would be fair to offer me an amount that is at least somewhat close to the actual value of the collection, which could be determined by experts from the members of the Imperial Archaeological Commission.

I hope that such a proposal will not meet with obstacles and will not cause anything that would run counter to the Highest will that you so kindly informed me... A. Ostrogradsky" [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. chr.9, l. 84-85].

Due to the high artistic merits of the album, as well as to recoup his expenses, A. S. Ostrogradsky requested 15 thousand rubles for it, to which the emperor's consent was obtained [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. xr. 9, l. 89, 91], and, apparently apparently, it was purchased for this amount.

The case file was accompanied by a typewritten "Note on the Album of ancient Indian-Persian miniatures" (so in the original. - S. D.), the contents of which I will give in full:

"The album consists of one hundred pages of miniatures of Indian-Persian art of the beginning of the XVII century. Some miniatures have the master's name and the year according to Muslim reckoning. The main central figure in these miniatures is the Mughal emperor Jehangir Shah, who reigned from 1605 to 1627 A.D. The paintings take us to India, the time of this reign. Jehangir gave Europeans free access to India, and the English envoy, Sir Thomas Roe, obtained permission to establish an English trading post in Surat in 1615. As a result, many European works were distributed in India, including prints and paintings. Local artists seemed to like European engravings, copying them and coloring them; and not only those with secular content, but also those with religious Christian subjects were drawn by Muslim masters. The great Moghuls, though zealous Moslems, were distinguished by an unusual toleration.

The album contains several drawings from engravings by European artists.

Whether the album was composed in the form in which it is now, in India itself, or in Persia, where it later ended up, it is difficult to say without proper research. You can see that the pictures were of different sizes, they were pasted on large paper, and the margins were painted by hand; if the size of the drawing was small, then the free space was drawn.

This album of miniatures, executed with amazing care and with amazing Oriental patience, must have been in the imperial treasury and could have reached Persia after the famous campaign to India of the Persian Shah Nadir in 1738, when the riches of the Mughal Empire were plundered by Persian warriors. Shah Nadir imposed on the Indian government an indemnity of 1 1/2 billion rubles for our money. After this victorious Persian campaign, a large number of precious stones appeared on the eastern market, selling at a very cheap price. A significant number of them were bought by the Persian Armenian Lazarev, who moved to Russia under Empress Catherine II. From him, as you know, the diamond that adorns the scepter of the Russian Emperors was purchased for 450,000 rubles and an annual pension of 4,000 rubles.

It is quite possible that the real Album was also taken to Persia at the same time, where it could have undergone some alteration or addition. This can be assumed from the following circumstance. On the back of each sheet are pasted sheets with Persian verses written in a beautiful handwriting; these are like our prescriptions. Calligraphic art in the East in general, and in Persia is especially appreciated along with fine arts. The name of famous calligraphers is passed down from generation to generation. Examples of calligraphic art are cut out of manuscripts, pasted on paper, and if you get a free space, then it is painted-

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decorated with gold or flowers. This Persian style is applied to the Album. The reverse side is also hand-painted. Poems have nothing to do with drawings. The binding is also of Persian workmanship.

In the summer of 1909, the album somehow ended up in the hands of Teheran Jews, who openly sold 120 paintings by cutting them out of the binding. Some Russians, appreciating the interest of this Album and wishing to preserve it for Russia, bought up almost all the sheets and binding for 6000 tumans, i.e. about 11000 rubles with our money, which was reported to everyone by telegraph. There are now one hundred such sheets. Only 20 sheets were sold in Tehran.

November 1909 " [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. chr. 9, l. 86-87].

After the acquisition, the collection was offered to the Russian Museum, in particular its Ethnographic Department, which initially refused this imperial gift, but then it turned out that this was a misunderstanding, since this issue was never discussed at meetings of the Ethnographic Department of the Russian Museum. As it was believed at that time, including in the Hermitage, "the aforementioned album on Behalf of His Imperial Majesty was assigned to the Museum, in the Ethnographic Department of which the storage of this collection, along with other monuments of Muslim art, would be quite natural and would make it possible to exhibit it in the eastern district of the Museum and thus make it widely available available for viewing and studying. The above-mentioned album is not suitable for the Hermitage collection" [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43 (501/2733), ed. xr. 9, l. 95-95 vol.].

On February 20, 1910, the album was sent to the Russian Museum [RGIA, f. 472, op. 43(501/2733), ed. chr. 9, l. 98]. Its further fate is already known and described when it was published in 1962.

list of literature

Album of Indian and Persian miniatures of the XVI-XVIII centuries / Edited by L. T. Guzalyan. Under the general editorship of I. A. Orbeli. lit., 1962 (ser. "Oriental miniature and calligraphy in Leningrad collections").

Formirovanie gumanisticheskikh traditsii otechestvennogo vostokovedeniya (do 1917 goda) [Formation of humanistic traditions of Domestic Oriental studies (before 1917)]. Moscow: Nauka, 1984.

Ivanov A. A. Oborozhenie i vremya sozdaniya albuma [Design and time of creating an album]. Albom indiskikh i persiskikh miniatyur XVI-XVIII vvakh [Album of Indian and Persian miniatures of the XVI-XVIII centuries], Moscow: Vostochny lit., 1962.

O sluzhbe A. S. Ostrogradskogo [About the service of A. S. Ostrogradsky].

Rosenberg F. About Indo-Persian and New Persian painting // Vostok: Journal of Literature, Science and Art. Book 2. Moscow, Pb., 1923.

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