Source: Royal Russia
February 17, 2016
Moscow masters have restored a kokoshnik worn by Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. The museum acquired the item in 2014 from a private collection, and is now in the collection of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Preserve. The kokoshnik will be put on permanent display in the Alexander Palace, after the restoration of the palace-museum is complete in July 2018.
The kokoshnik was originally commissioned to mark the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty in 1913. It was made in the Nicholas Starotorzhsky Monastery in Kostroma. The kokoshnik is made in a traditional style in the shape of a crown, covered with peach velvet. It is embroidered with silk and silver threads, decorated with semiprecious stones and mother of pearl.
Similar kokoshniks were made for all four daughters of Emperor Nicholas II. Two of them (Grand Duchesses Olga and Maria) had been sold abroad - presumably by the Soviets in the 1930s. The other two, owned by Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia, were evacuated and have survived to the present day, and are now part of the collection of the Pavlovsk State Museum Preserve. The kokoshnik of Grand Duchess Maria remains in a private collection in the United States. It is hoped that it will one day be returned to Russia.
