KUTEPOV (Nikolaj Ivanovič) Grand Ducal and Tsarist Hunting in Russia. Period from the 10th to the 16th c. - Tsarist hunting in Russia. Seventeenth century. The hunting of Tsars Mikhail Feodorovich and Alexis Mikhailovich. Saint-Petersburg: Expedition for the production of art papers, 1896-1900. - 2 volumes, folio, 354 x 274: frontispiece, XVII, 233 pp, (1 f.), 7 plates, illustrated cover; frontispiece, XXVI pp, (1 f.), 297 pp, (1 f.), 37 plates, illustrated cover. Orange morocco, framed with gilt fillets and a cold rosette in the center of the boards, ornate ribbed spine, framed in orange morocco inside, decorated with a double gilt fillet, white moiré silk lining and endpapers, double endpapers, gilt head, cover preserved, orange morocco spine folder, slipcase (modern binding). Thiébaud, 217. French first edition of this luxurious book published at the expense of the Russian government, composed by Nikolaj Ivanovič Kutepov (1851-1907), "colonel of the guard and deputy head of the Imperial hunt". This is certainly the finest work published on the history of hunting in Russia. It is adorned with hundreds of illustrations, 46 of which are out-of-text. Many are reproductions of documents, but there are also superb black and color compositions, sometimes enhanced with gold, by Russian painters Viktor Mihajlovič VASNECOV (1848-1926) and Nikolai Semyonovich SAMOKICHE (1860-1944). The volumes covering the period from the 18th century to 1910 were only published in Russian. Very fine copy in modern binding. Some soiling to covers.