Ricard de Montferrand, Auguste

Plans et détails du monument consacré à la memoire de l'empereur Alexandre. Paris: chez Thierry frères, 1836

Folio (24 x 17 3/4 in.; 610 x 451 mm). 41 lithographed plates and views after Ricard de Montferrand, numerous lithographed vignettes in the text; some mostly marginal spotting, repaired tears in first three leaves affecting one letter in the "Table des Planches," pages 12-21 supplied. Contemporary red morocco with gilt roll-tooled outer frame and floral border and cartouches filled with green morocco overlays, spine gilt with similar overlays, dentelles, by John Wright; some scratches and rubbing on joints, covers and edges.

Riba Catalogue, p. 852

Plans et détails du monument consacré à la memoire de l'empereur Alexandre. Paris: chez Thierry frères, 1836 Folio (24 x 17 3/4 in.; 610 x 451 mm). 41 lithographed plates and views after Ricard de Montferrand, numerous lithographed vignettes in the text; some mostly marginal spotting, repaired tears in first three leaves affecting one letter in the "Table des Planches," pages 12-21 supplied. Contemporary red morocco with gilt roll-tooled outer frame and floral border and cartouches filled with green morocco overlays, spine gilt with similar overlays, dentelles, by John Wright; some scratches and rubbing on joints, covers and edges.
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First edition, in a magnificent Wright binding, of this splendid account of the construction of the monument to the late czar Alexander I, to be set in the square behind the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Montferrand (1786–1858) was a French-trained architect who, due to the Napoleonic Wars and the consequent dearth of new construction in France, spent his entire active career in Russia.

The present account, part of a genre of lavishly illustrated descriptions of monumental construction projects going back to Domenico Fontana (1604), details how the 600-ton column had to be carved out of Finnish rocks in Fredrikshamn, more than 190 kilometers from Saint Petersburg, and transported by barge. Carving took a year and a half, and in September, 1831 the column was safely separated from the rock. By April, 1832 the carvers completed shaping it and started blasting the path from the quarry to the loading bay. Loading nearly ended in a catastrophe. The column broke through the ramp and threatened to roll over the barge; 300 workers managed to set it back in place. At the same time, Saint Petersburg crews prepared the foundation and scaffolding; cost estimates doubled to 2.36 million roubles. Montferrand summoned a total of 2,090 soldiers, officers and professionals to erect the column, and raised it safely on August 30, 1832. Precisely two years later, the monument was inaugurated by Nicholas.