Lot number 2324 - Auction 151
DATIERTE IKONE MIT DEN DREI HIERARCHEN BASILIUS DEM GROSSEN, GREGOR DEM THEOLOGEN UND JOHANNES CHRYSOSTOMUS

A DATED ICON WITH THE THREE HIERARCHS BASIL THE GREAT, GREGORY THE THEOLOGIAN, AND JOHN CHRYSOSTOM Russian, dated 1895 Tempera on wood panel. The gilt ground with ornamental punched border. On the reverse a Cyrillic dedicatory inscription: 'This icon was received as a gift on 28 March 1895 by Afanasij Ivanovich Shvedov. Belongs to (illegible) (Ivan Afanasievich Shvedov) (?)'. Border partly restored. 31 x 26.2 cm. Afanasij Ivanovich Shvedov was active in trade and in the manufacture of bricks and matches. He was also known as an honorary citizen of the town of Novosybkov and as a benefactor. In 1896 he financed the construction of the Bonifatievskaya Church (the so-called "Shvedov Church") in Novosybkov near Bryansk. The immediate cause was a fire in one of his factories in which eleven workers lost their lives. The official reason given for the church's construction, however, was the commemoration of the events of 17 October 1888, when the train of Tsar Alexander III was derailed and the imperial family was miraculously saved.