Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

The letters И.А.Х. appear to stand for Императорская Академия худо́жеств, the Imperial Academy of Arts. I found on a Russian-language page that he was president of that organization. It is now called the Russian Academy of Arts. Here's a Russian-language page about him on their website.

https://www.rah.ru/the_academy_today/the_members_of_the_academie/member.php?ID=17575

Edit: That page can be translated in Google Translate. They do have an English-language version of their site but I didn't find that page. Here is a page listing all of their presidents. He was from 1817-1843. https://eng.rah.ru/academy/history/all_presidents_since_1757.php?sphrase_id=53516

 

I wish I could take credit for some sophisticated sleuthing here, but all I did was plug "olenin" into google images. His is the first pic.

 

To me the script could come from any time period. The Old Style dates could be from any time before 1918 when the Gregorian Calendar was finally adopted in Russia after the Revolution. That also applies to the letter at the end of Olenin's last name. That letter still exists but its use in that sort of position is not so common these days. According to a Wikipedia article about the Russian alphabet, "Ъ used to be a very common letter in the Russian alphabet. This is because before the 1918 reform, any word ending with a non-palatalized consonant was written with a final Ъ - e.g., pre-1918 вотъ vs. post-reform вот. The reform eliminated the use of Ъ in this context, leaving it the least common letter in the Russian alphabet. For more information, see Non-vocalized letters." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_alphabet

 

Seems as though not. Could be the start of Imperial Academy, but X not consistent with 'Arts'. [see #888]

 

That makes more sense; engraver ran out of space.

I read enough to gather that this character has more to do with how the preceding letter is pronounced rather than being a letter by itself, but did not get info on what it might mean for dating.

This guy did a stint as Mint Master, yet I'm not finding any medal/medallion of him, which is unusual. There probably was one & cameo probably follows it.

 

As I said, you had more faith in me than I did. I was waiting for Fig to come along & validate the transliteration. If it's not Bulgarian, I feel better.

 

Evidently the script is Italic: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cyrillic-italics-nonitalics.png

 

If I ask IM Translator to give me the Russian for Imperial Academy of Art, the word it uses for Art does not start with X, but it does translate this as President of the Academy of Art: Портрет президента Академии художеств Алексея Николаевича Оленина 1824. So cameo appears to depict him in his position with that institution.

 

See how a lower case T is written in Italic.

Somehow that entire post got by me. It happens when things are not visible all on one page. OK. A.N. Olenin, as President of the Imperial Academy of Art (St. Petersberg); cameo inscribed in Italic Cyrillic using Old Style dates, year of birth possibly incorrect. Good job Jivvy & Fig, and thanks so much. It's like getting a Christmas gift a few days late.

 

Oh, I didn't explain that very well. Prior to 1918 that character, which is actually called a "hard sign" was used in the manner used at the end of Olenin's name on your cameo. However, after the alphabet reform it was not used that way any more. So that just reemphasizes, along with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, that your cameo must date from before 1918. -- Unless, of course, it was a copy made later. I don't feel that it is, but that's just an impression from seeing your photos.

 

There is way more here about Olenin than I have time to read right now. He's one of the saints of library science:

https://books.google.com/books?id=U...oECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=hermitage olenin&f=false

 

Yes, I know... but there are not enough letters on your cameo for both the N and the T. Also, the lower-case T in italic, while it looks like a lower-case script "m" in our alphabet, doesn't look like what's on your cameo. (Although now I'm going back to look at it again.) -- EDIT: No, there is no "leg" in the middle on the last letter of the first word on yours. Looks way more like an "n"

 

Think the cameo is likely to predate 1918 if on no other grounds than how long after his death would anyone have wanted a cameo portrait recognizing him for his role at the Academy of Art, where he was one in a long line of presidents, although his tenure was quite a long one? Still looking for the medal that was surely the basis for the cameo.

 

Good point... although, since he was famous and revered also as a library director, perhaps that added something. Still it does seem that it would be older than 1918.

 

That's why my first thought was that it would represent him as head of the Library. Could be that the Academy of Art commissioned a series of medals of their presidents. The search continues.

 

OK @Jivvy Here's the USB microscope at work.

The last letters of President:


The ks & Nik of the second line; the enin of the third:


Since there is no other Italic lower case T in the inscription, it is hard to be completely sure. Maybe engraver was counting on the similar appearance of the 2 letters for people to see both.

 

Just closing a bunch of tabs I flung open on our friend and thought this one might be of interest: https://www.worldcat.org/title/aris...-library/oclc/906483644?referer=br&ht=edition

"A major biographical study of Aleksei Nikolaevich Olenin, the first director of the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg in the context of Russian history and civilization of the late eighteenth"

It's available in a couple of university libraries near me, I'll bet you can find it near you, too!

 

I have extensive library resources available to me, so no doubt if I want to become an Olenin expert, I'll be able to lay my hands on it. Right now trying to summon up the determination just to make it through the Library Journal article, which is 'to be continued'. Amusingly, the author was named Charles Martel. Have a fair idea of who Olenin was. Now who the heck cut the cameo & when, working from what source?

 

Oh the main reason I posted the book is I expect, if well researched, it will have every known picture.

Maybe.

 

Good thought. Showed it, by e-mail, to a friend who deals in coins & engraved gems. Know he has some clientele with an interest in militaria. Friend inquires whether I want to sell it. Definitely made the right call to bid on it.