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CA,San Francisco-,15th Century Wood Block Prints

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Historical Memorabilia Start Price:7,500.00 USD Estimated At:15,000.00 USD and UP
CA,San Francisco-,15th Century Wood Block Prints
Preview
Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite#309
Reno, NV 89511
Thursday August22, 10am-6pm
* Preview also available by appointment

Live Auction
Friday & Saturday
August 23 & 24, 2013
9am PDT starting time, both days

Location
Atlantis Casino & Resort
Grand Ballroom #4
3800 S. Virginia Street
Reno, NV 89502

Lot Pick Up
Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite #309
Reno, NV 89511
Sunday August 25, 10am-1pm

1500-1800-This is a fabulous and unique collection of wood block prints that span 400 years and include such artists as Raphael and Van Dyck. There are over 500 different prints depicting various Biblical events, icons and several other historic moments. All are in very nice condition, having been stored in acid free plastic binders. The collection was compiled by a Russian Orthodox Archpriest named Michael Polsky
Father Michael was born into the family of a psalm-reader in the stanitsa (Cossack village) of Novo-Troitskaya in the Kuban province in Russia. His ancestors had been church readers and chanters. Father Michael’s relatives on his mother’s side had been military people; his uncle was a Cossack who reached the rank of general and later died in Yugoslavia as a political monsingor.
With the onset of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Church in Russia entered on a terrible, apocalyptic period. In 1920 in Ekaterinodar, Father Michael was ordained to the priesthood. The fact that he was ordained in the 1920s when the persecutions in Russia were at their height, speaks for itself. From his own experience he knew the evil of Communism and during the War, when apologists for the system were everywhere, he never changed his views. He seldom mentioned the Soviet Union without adding either horror, nightmare or madhouse.
He met Patriarch Tikhon in person and was invited to stay with his Holiness in the Holy Trinity residence. Father Polskys wife and daughter remained in the South of Russia with relatives. In Moscow, Father Michael continued to preach Christianity; he constantly spoke out against atheism in various industrial centers and always spoke to the very heart of the working class. These public speeches brought personal success to the young missionary and saw a triumph of Orthodoxy among the so-called proletariat. Archbishop Illarion, who was in charge of missionary activity, gave Father Michael the right to speak in any church in the Moscow Diocese. During his time at the Holy Trinity residence, the Church was subjected to further acts of persecution - the confiscation of the Church valuables, the Living Church movement and the arrest of Patriarch Tikhon. Father Michael concelebrated with many other clergy at the last Liturgy served by the Patriarch, before his arrest.
He was sentenced to three years imprisonment in the former Monastery of Solovki in the North of Russia turned into a frightful concentration camp by the Soviets. Here he met many people from all walks of life imprisoned for the same "crime"... belief in God.
In 1927, after the end of his term in the concentration camp, he was sent for three years of internal exile in the Komi Autonomous Region, also in the Far North, which is populated by a tribe of Finnish origin called the Zyriani. Father Michael was dispatched together with Bishop Platon (Rudnieff), a vicar of the Moscow Diocese, who later died. In exile they learned of the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius ( which among other things stated that the "joys and sorrows of the Soviet regime where the joys and sorrows of the Church of Christ") and decided not to accept his leadership of the Church. This is when Father Michael began serving in a secret church in a private apartment, using an Antimins (altar cloth) given to him by Bishop Platon. He served in this way for three years. Later, Father Michael was always careful not to reveal many details about these secret services in order to protect the identity of those still involved in similar activities in Russia.
As the term of his exile drew to an end, Father Michael felt certain he would simply be sentenced to another term of imprisonment and exile until in the end, he would lose his resolve and join the official Church. So he formulated a plan to flee from his place of exile. After escaping, he lived without any proper iden HKA#64443