GRAND DUKE DMITRI PAVLOVICH: (1891-1942) Grand Duke of Russia ...

GRAND DUKE DMITRI PAVLOVICH: (1891-1942) Grand Duke of Russia, grandson of Tsar Alexander II and first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Dmitri spent part of his youth in company of Tsar Nicholas II. A fine equestrian, he competed in the Olympics Games of 1912. A good bold black fountain pen ink signature with cleanly written inscription `Dmitri´, to an 8.5 x 10.5 (21,5 x 27 cm) page removed from an autograph album, 21st January 1938, in Cyrillic. Inscribed `It happened once.. It will happen again! Bless you!´. Small overall minor age toning to edges, otherwise about VG

 

Through his friendship with Felix Yusupov, the Grand Duke Dmitri took part in the assassination of the mystic Grigori Rasputin. 

Grand Duke Dmitri escaped the Russian Revolution and emigrated to Western Europe. In the 1920´s he lived in Paris, where he lived a notorious love affair with French fashion designer Coco Chanel.

 

Provenance: The present page originates from the personal autograph album of Marina Chaliapin (1912-2009), the daughter of Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938), widely regarded as one of the finest bass singers of the 20th century, and his mistress Marina Petsold (1882-1964) who became the singer's second wife in 1927. Chaliapin's daughter was married to Luigi Freddi (1895-1977) the Italian journalist and politician who edited the journal Il Popolo d'Italia and who was also hugely influential in Italian political cinema in the second half of the 1930s and beginning of the 1940s.