Alexander III Signed 22 Times! Personally Owned Finely Bound News Journals From the Russian Imperial Library

L'Illustration Journal Universel. Paris. A bound set of lavishly illustrated individual weekly news journals for dates of July-December of 1878.15.5" tall by 12" wide. Written in the World language of the period, French. The book includes Alexander III's signatures displayed as giant 3" manuscript letter A's in blue pencil to the upper right corner of twenty-four of the Title pages within this volume. Condition report and provenance below.

This outstanding book is a bound set of Journal Issues representing the weekly world news from politics to the arts and science (with emphasis around Europe and Russia) and was personally owned by Alexander III, who signed each journal in red pencil in the upper right corner as shown in the multiple images. This was perhaps done to discern which news weeks he had just completed reading.  Provenance: Alexandre III of Russia (1845-1894), Russian Imperial Library at Gatchina Palace. Ex-Christie's with the original Christie's tag included.

Condition: Decorative purple and black paper boards with a raised band leather spine and leather corner tips. The boards are lightly worn and rubbed mostly to the spine extremities and the corner tips. The binding is tight and the book quite readable. The book is internally clean throughout with Alexander III's bold manuscript "A" all present and in wonderful condition. The end papers contain the bookplate of Alexander III located on the front paste down, the stamp of the Russian Imperial Library on the front fly leaf and the original sticker in Russian to the front end paper..

Alexander III was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. During his reign, Russia fought no major wars; he was therefore styled "The Peacemaker". In foreign affairs Alexander III was a man of peace, but not at any price, and held that the best means of averting war is to be well-prepared for it. All of Alexander III's internal reforms aimed to reverse the liberalization that had occurred in his father's reign. The new Emperor believed that remaining true to Russian Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality (the ideology introduced by his grandfather, emperor Nicholas I) would save Russia from revolutionary agitation. Alexander weakened the power of the zemstvo (elective local administrative bodies) and placed the administration of peasant communes under the supervision of land-owning proprietors appointed by his government. These "land captains" (zemskiye nachalniki) were feared and resented throughout the Empire's peasant communities.

Alexander III took initiatives to stimulate the development of trade and industry, as his father did before him. Russia's economy was still challenged by the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, which created a deficit, so he imposed customs duties on imported goods. To further alleviate the budget deficit, he implemented increased frugality and accounting in state finances. Industrial development increased during his reign. Also during his reign, construction of the Trans Siberian Railway was started.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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