Description du Sacre et du Couronnement de leurs Majestés Impériales l'Empereur Alexandre II et l'Impératrice Marie Alexandrovna.

The most sumptuous of the imperial coronation albums - one of only 200 copies.

In his 1941 Valse des Fleurs, Sacherevell Sitwell speculated that the volume was 'of such immense size [that] this may be the largest book that ever issued from the printing press.' No expense was spared in the production of the book special large type was cast and it was printed on paper imported from China. Of the 52 illustrations, 18 are exquisitely printed chromolithographs after Zichy, Timm and other court artists, and still retain their intense colours today. The volume took four years to prepare, and the production cost an astounding 123,000 rubles. The album was prepared not only for members of the court, but also for the diplomatic elite and the aristocracy of Europe. Two hundred copies were published in Russian and two hundred in French, the latter as gifts for important figures in the court foreign guests attending the ceremony.