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Wedding shotgun
July/August 2006
This gilt and silvered parade musket, made in Holland in the 1620s of steel and wood and inlaid with mother of pearl, was a wedding gift to the first Romanov Tsar. The giver was Fabian Smith, an agent of the Muscovy trading company of England; merchants frequently presented the Tsars with extravagant gifts in order to grease the wheels of trade. (The musket and other diplomatic gifts of silver and firearms from the Kremlin are on display at the Center for British Art through September 10.)
This particular musket was valuable not only for its decoration but also because it incorporates an innovative English lock. Hunting was an important part of courtly culture; even a gun as ornate as this one would have been put to use. "They really enjoyed this new technology and found it very intriguing," says Cassandra Albinson, assistant curator of paintings and sculpture. "It was like now, when everyone wants to have the smallest cell phone, the newest iPod." The best luxury gifts, it seems, have always been high-tech. |
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