an extremely rare and magnificent patent of nobility, St Petersburg, 1863

on vellum, silk doublures between, the frontispiece bordered with gilt highlighted and coloured acanthus leaves, enclosing the Imperial Eagle and town arms, the border panels decorated throughout, most set with the Imperial cypher for Alexander II above, arms and armour below, corner roundels and foliate initials, four leaves of parchment, the third decorated with the Benardaki Arms, 455 by 322mm, outstanding condition, white and clean margins, the green velvet binding embroidered with an elaborate crowned cypher for Alexander II, the reverse centred with a similarly embroidered Imperial Eagle inset with fine guilloché enamel plaques including St. George slaying the Dragon, bordered with foliate and acorn gilt friezes, with fine silver gild Imperial seal box, dated 1863, the whole held in an original fitted leather case tooled with gilt oak leaves also containing: a silver medal for the emancipation of the serfs, a Greek sash badge of the Order of the Redeemer, type two in gold and enamel, some loss to the enamel, with Warrants for St. Vladimir 4th class, 1856, St. Vladimir 3rd class, 1857, and the Order of  the Redeemer, 1854 with various documents pertaining to the Benardaki family including  an apparent artistic trial for the family coat of arms on heavy paper

Very few patents of nobility survived the Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War in 1918. The documents were destroyed as part of the general revolt against the aristocracy and were also obliterated by their owners who were anxious not to be compromised by these grand Imperial parchments. Consequently they are exceptionally rare, and none more than this exquisite example, conferred upon the Greek Industrialist, Dmitri Yegorovich Benardaki, (1799-1870).  There is only one patent of nobility of similar quality preserved at the State Hermitage, which lacks its presentation case. In a curious coincidence, that patent in the Hermitage belonged to Nikolai Dmitrievich Alferaki, also of Greek descent, who was godfather to Dmitri Benardaki's son.

The recipient of the patent of nobility, Dmitry Yegorovich Benardaki was a great patron of the arts in Russia. He owned canvases by Karl Bruillov, and Karl Steuben's portraits of Benardaki and his wife, Anna Yegorovna, (1807-1846) are held in the Hermitage Collection. He befriended Aksakov, Lermontov, Zhukovsky, and Gogol, and was immortalised by the latter in two characters in Dead Souls - the millionaire tax-farmer and philanthropist Murazov and the landowner Konstanzhoglo.  The historian M. Pogodin wrote thus during his visit with Benardaki and Gogol' to Marienbad in 1839: "Benardaki, knowing Russia in its best form, told us many different things, which became part of the material for Gogol's Dead Souls, but the character of Konstanzhoglo in the second part was written in several installations from life."  It is an indication of Bernadaki's renown that an immigrant would be able to inspire and inform one of Russia's greatest authors.

Nonetheless, throughout his rich and varied life and career Benardaki gained a great understanding of Russian life. From humble beginnings as an immigrant in Taganrog, he served in the Akhtyrsky Hussar regiment and retired as Cornet in 1823. The same year he gambled his savings and established himself as a tax-farmer which proved to be enormously profitable. He invested in property, agriculture and industry and in 1848 he founded and was the sole proprietor of the legendary Sormovsky ship-building factory. By 1860 Benardaki owned sixteen iron and steel foundries in six provinces. When he took over a factory, Benardaki immediately began to modernise. He attracted forward-thinking managers and under his supervision steam engines, weaving machines, cranes, gas stoves, and the first Martin process foundry in Russia were introduced. Benardaki headed the 'Amur Company' which organised whaling and fishing in the Pacific Ocean, the mining of valuable ores, including gold, and trade. By the end of the 19^th century, his name, and rumours of his 18 million rouble fortune, was known throughout Russia from the shores of the Baltic to the Amur.

Benardaki was always able to combine his interests with those of the community: he built roads around his factories; schools, academies and churches in the villages and towns located nearby. His contemporaries spoke of him as a man of 'unusual beneficence' who was prepared 'to serve any and everyone'. The greater and wider-ranging the scope of his business became, the more it was matched by the scale of his charitable activities in both Greece and Russia. In Athens he funded the construction of the National Museum, the National Library and an Orthodox Church in the Russian diplomatic mission. He supported the Russian monks of the Saint Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos and in St Petersburg he founded the Greek Church in honour of Demetrius of Thessalonika, where the Oktyabrsky concert hall now stands.

Benardaki sponsored a great number of charitable institutions, funding educational programmes, relief for farm-workers and artisans fallen on hard times, and orphanages. In 1854 the King of Greece bestowed upon Benardaki the rank of Commander of the Order of the Redeemer, and in 1856 he elevated him to Grand Commander of the same order, and later still to Knight Grand Cross. In 1858 the Greek government rewarded Benardaki and his heirs with honorary Greek citizenship. He received the Russian awards of the Order of St Vladimir fourth and third class and the silver medal 'on an Alexander ribbon for the emancipation of the peasants from serfdom'. The Greek sash badge of the Order of the Redeemer and a number of letters associated with this and other awards form part of the offered lot.  On 29 March 1863 Emperor Alexander II conferred a hereditary Russian peerage on Dmitry Yegorovich Benardaki for services to Russia, to which the above named Letter Patent refers. In 1870, after his death in Wiesbaden, Benardaki was buried, by the decree of Alexander II, in the Greek Church in St Petersburg, which he himself had founded with his own money. The Emperor personally met the train carrying the late Benardaki at the Nikolaev (now Moscow) station.

Benardaki's son, Nikolai Dmitrievich, entered government service, rising to the rank of Titular Counsellor and Master of Ceremonies to the Imperial Court.  His services were recognised by other foreign monarchs, including the Shah of Persia, who bestowed upon him the Order of the Lion and Sun 3^rd, and then 2^nd class. Letters on this, and other documents associated with the life and service of Nikolai Dmitrievich Benardaki form part of the offered lot.  These decorations and documents bestowed upon and belonging to two generations of the Benardaki family make this lot particularly remarkable.  Combined with the very opulent and well preserved patent of nobility, they charter the extraordinary economic, political and social ascent of the Benardaki family from humble origins as Greek immigrants in the town of Taganrog, Russia, to Industrial magnates, charitable and artistic patrons, culminating in Imperial ennoblement and international recognition.