AUCTION 41: ANTIQUE ARMS AND ARMOR SALE

A RUSSIAN IMPERIAL INSIGNIA OF THE IMPERIAL ARMY AND NAVY

The auction will start in __ days and __ hours

Start price: $500

Estimated price: $1,000 - $1,500

Buyer's premium: 28%

Sales Tax: On buyer's premium only

Insignia of the Imperial Army and Navy Officer Corps for civilian ranks in gilded bronze and polychrome enamel, with a portion of the ribbon.

Russia, circa 1900. Provenance:

– Anatoly Leonidovich Nossovich (1878-1968).

– Then by descent.

The estate of Anatoly Leonidovich Nossovich (1878 – 1968) was a Russian officer, World War I veteran, member of the White Movement in southern Russia, and an important figure in Russian military history during the late Imperial and at the beginning of the Soviet era. He began his career in the Pskov Cadet Corps at age 19 before graduating from the Nikolaev Cavalry School. A skilled rider, he shared his passion with his older brother, Sergei Leonidovich Nossovich (1866-1919). In 1909 he was appointed captain of the Life Guards of the Ulansky regiment.

This determining post which he occupied during the First World War earned him the weapon of the Order of Saint George and then the 4th class cross in 1917. After the fall of the Romanovs, Anatoly Nossovich joined the Red Army as a military specialist, before being appointed Chief of Staff of the North Caucasus Military District and being arrested on suspicion of anti-revolutionary acts, he was released at the insistence of Leon Trotsky. He held other positions of responsibility within the Red Army but without ever denying his ideas, he directed counterintelligence and fought against the Red partisans by sabotaging military actions and giving decisive information to the White Cossacks. His dangerous position, and surely the execution of his brother, forces him to exile in November 1920 and to settle in France, in Nice. His involvement continues outside the borders, he becomes a member of the Association of Guards, the Union of Knights of St. George, the Association of Former Students of the Cavalry Nikolaev, and of the Society of Zealots in memory of the ‘Emperor Nicholas II in Paris. He died in 1968 in Nice and is buried in the Caucade cemetery.

D: 5/8 in., (1.6 cm.)

Condition: VG. Partial enamel loss under ribbon beneath the crown