Description:
Steel shields studded with rubies and pearls, turquoise- and gold-laden buffalo horns: Turkish and Iranian diplomats gave such opulent items as tokens of respect to the Russian tsars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Through an unprecedented partnership with The Moscow Kremlin Museums, in 2009 the Sackler Gallery presented The Tsars and the East, an exhibition showcasing more than sixty examples of these lavish tributes.
Rarely seen objects range from jewel-encrusted sabers and sheaths to riding saddles fitted with velvet seats and rows of precious stones.
The accompanying catalogue is as richly endowed as the gifts themselves. Full-page close-ups reveal the details of these exquisite crafts, such as the pale pink satin neck of a sixteenth-century phelonion, a cloak worn by Orthodox priests, embroidered with hundreds of pearls and tiny gold plaques. Each object is also examined in depth textually, and scholarly essays delve further into the complex political and trade relations between Russia and its neighbors in this period.
