Orbeli (Joseph & Trever, Kamilla). Muse?e de l'Ermitage. Orfe?vrerie sasanide, objets en or, argent et bronze, 1st edition, Moscow & Leningrad: Academia, 1935, 85 collotype plates, table of plates in French and Russian, endpapers renewed, original cloth, rebacked preserving original spine, evidence of label removal at foot of spine, some discolouration to covers, folioQty: (1)Footnote: Sassanian silver objects are regarded as some of the masterpieces of metalwork of the ancient world. The Hermitage has the most important collection of Sassanian silver objects in the world. Details regarding the majority of the contents of the collection were first published by Iakov Ivanovich Smirnov (1869-1916) in 1909 in his “Vostochnoe Serebro: Atlas Drevnei Serebrianoi i Zolotoi Posudy Vostochnago Proiskhozhdeniia, Naidennoi Preimmushchestvenno v Predielakh Rossiiskoi Imperii” (Catalogue of ancient eastern objects in silver and gold, found mainly in Russia, published in St. Petersburg by the Imperial Archaeological Commission), when knowledge about the field was still rudimentary. The work of Orbeli and Trever was the first time the complete collection was published and with correct attributions and analysis. It was published in conjunction with the 3rd International Conference in Iranian Art and Archaeology held in St. Petersburg in 1935. Iosef Abaraovitch Orbeli (1887-1961) was a Russian orientalist and academician who specialized in Iranian studies, Armenian and Kurdish philology, and archaeology. In 1920, he joined the Oriental Department of the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad as a curator, and in 1926 he became the head of this department. He played an invaluable role in the development of this department, which is still one of the richest departments of the State Hermitage Museum. In 1931, he participated in the second International Congress on Iranian Art and Archaeology in London and organized a rich exhibition of art pieces from the State Hermitage and other Soviet museums. The great impression that this exhibition produced influenced the decision to organize the Third International Congress on Iranian Art and Archaeology in the USSR. In the same year, a permanent exhibition of the Oriental Department was opened in the Hermitage Museum as a result of his extensive scholarly work. In 1934, he was appointed the director of the State Hermitage Museum. He also took an active part in organizing the Third International Congress in Moscow and Leningrad in 1935. The art of Sasanian Iran, which had inspired craftsmen and artists of the Caucasus and Central Asia for many centuries, even after the fall of the Sasanian dynasty, was one of the major subjects of Orbeli’s research work. He continued the scholarly traditions established by J. I. Smirnov. The latter published his album Oriental Silver in 1909, which reproduced most of the pieces of Sasanian metalwork known by that time. Smirnov, however, failed to publish his comments to the album, which still remain in manuscript form. The results of his investigations were most probably well known to Orbeli, who was interested, not just in the different aspects of Sasanian art, but mainly in its influence on the art and culture of neighbouring peoples. In his introduction to “Orfevrerie Sasanide” (published in 1935), he surveys the finds of Sasanian metal in Russia and suggests the possible ways they reached there. Many of his suggestions on the trade routes that functioned in antiquity were confirmed by later investigations. Ethnographic parallels allowed Orbeli to identify the function of some of the popular forms of vessels, such as “lobed bowls,” which were used for fruits and sweets. Orbeli did not write much about the technical aspects of Sasanian metal, since he was interested more in iconography and its development within the context of changing Iranian society. In 1955, Orbeli took the position of the head of the Oriental Faculty at Leningrad State University, and the following year he was appointed the head of the Leningrad branch of the Institute for Oriental Studies, the USSR Academy of Sciences. Under him, the Institute quickly grew into the largest centre of Oriental studies in the USSR. Kamilla Vasilevna Trever (1892-1974), was a Russian historian, numismatist and orientalist, specialized in the history and culture of Transcaucasia, Central Asia and Iran. Her major scientific contributions began after she was elected as a research fellow at the Imperial Archaeological Commission in 1918, and began her work at the State Hermitage Museum. Her work at the Hermitage began in the Greek-Scythian department and brought her into the orbit of Orbeli, with whom she would have a lifelong collaboration, working on Sasanian toreutics and numismatics, and pre-Islamic Iranian material culture and history more broadly. She was the force behind the 3rd International Conference in Iranian Art and Archaeology in 1935, which is remembered as a watershed moment for Soviet studies on Iran and the Near East.
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