Icon of St. Olga, a wedding gift to Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna

Wedding photograph of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (sister of Czar Nicholas II) and Colonel Nicholas Kulikovsky, November 1916, city of Kiev.

Icon of Saint Olga with silver-gilt and cloisonne enamel frame. A marriage gift to Grand Duchess Olga from her older sister Grand Duchess Ksenia (Xenia).

Painted on wooden panel after a fresco of Victor Vasnetsov in St. Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev.

8,9 x 7 cm (3 1/2 x 2 13/16 in.)

Provenance:

Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna (daughter of Alexander III and sister of Nicholas II)

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (daughter of Alexander III and sister of Nicholas II)

Guri, second son of Grand Duchess Olga

Asanta Tamara Gagarina Kulikovsky-Romanov ("Asa"), wife of Olga's son Guri

The Byington Collection (Canada)

$120,000.00

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Saint Olga, also called Olga the Beauty, was the first Rus ruler to convert to Christianity, either in 945 or in 957. She ruled Kievan Rus between 945 and c.963.

Photograph from the private archive of Grand Duchess Olga, dated 21 August, 1917. Olga and her husband with their newborn son Tihon. The photograph is taken at the Ai-Todor, estate of Grand Duke Alexander Michailovich (husband of Ksenia) in Crimea.

The icon of Saint Olga is identifiable on the wall thanks to its highly unusual frame design.

Below are larger images (converted for the Internet with some loss of quality) of the front and back of the photograph.

Inscription in pencil reads: Tihon. In the day of Christening. 21 August 1917.

To learn more about the life of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna see LAST GRAND DUCHESS by Ian Vorres.

The book was also published in Russian under the title OLGA ALEXANDROVNA MEMOIRS, Moscow, 2004.

Scratched signature and date at the lower edge of the icon.

Ksenia 1916

Workmaster's initials KK for Kuzma Konov.

The back is covered with original brocade.

Family of Alexander III in the late 1880s.

Czar Alexander III is holding his youngest child Grand Duchess Olga, her sister Grand Duchess Ksenia is standing next to Czarevich Nicholas (later Czar Nicholas II).

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