ALEXANDER I, Emperor of Russia (1801-25). Gramota [Grant of Nobility and Arms] in favour of Ivan Andreevich Varvatsi, in Russian, signed in Cyrillic 'Aleksandr', St. Petersburg: 31 July 1810.

ALEXANDER I, Emperor of Russia (1801-25). Gramota [Grant of Nobility and Arms] in favour of Ivan Andreevich Varvatsi, in Russian, signed in Cyrillic \'Aleksandr\', St. Petersburg: 31 July 1810.



Illuminated manuscript on vellum, 5 pages, 2° (460 x 335mm), the first leaf with calligraphic head-line and text in gold within an illuminated garland-bound border with the Imperial double-headed eagle and 45 coats-of-arms with the Emperor\'s cypher at the corners, the third page with an illuminated coat-of-arms, the text in black and gold within a Greek key-pattern border surmounted by the Emperor\'s cypher in a roundel with foliate garlands, green silk guards. Original fawn silk (worn) with a gold-thread and brocade cord suspending a wax seal in a circular silver-gilt case, the detachable cover repoussé, chased and engraved with the Imperial arms (with slight tear to side), with unrecorded maker\'s Cyrillic initials PAB, assay master Aleksandr Il\'ich Iashinov, St. Petersburg, circa 1810, and two gold-thread tassles, housed in a custom-made cloth box.



A GRANT OF ARMS SIGNED BY ALEXANDER, granting nobility to the Greek I.A. Varvatsii, who was born on the island of Psara, and by the age of 35 a noted pirate with a price on his head from the Turkish authorities. As mentioned in the text, he volunteered for Russian service in 1770, aided Count A. Orlov in the first Russian expedition to the Greek Archipelago and at the battle of Chesme. A Lieutenant in 1772, he was promoted Captain and joined the Russian expedition to Persia of 1781, when he was raised to Major, serving in Astrakhan and Krasnoiarsk. He was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 4th Class in 1808 and St. Anne 2nd Class in 1810. He aided the Greek diaspora living between Kerch and Taganog, where he settled. Upon the Greek uprising of 1822 he organised the purchase of arms from Tula and returned illegally to Greece. According to the latest researches he was born in 1732, and died aged 93 in 1825, and is buried in Athens. The assay master A.I. Iashinov is recorded working between 1795 and 1826.