ALMAZNYY FOND SSSR [DIAMOND FUND OF THE USSR] Almaznyy fond SSSR ['The Diamond Fund of the USSR']; edited by Academician A. Fersman: [in 4 issues]. Moscow: Narodnyy komissariat finansov SSSR, 1924–1925.

Issue 1 (1924) — 38 pp., 25 plates; Issue 2 (1925) — 30 pp., 25 plates; Issue 3 (1925) — 46 pp., 25 plates; Issue 4 (1925, final) — 38 pp., 25 plates; 40 × 30 cm. Print run: issue 1 — 350 copies; issues 2–4 — 300 copies. Plates printed in phototype, images in actual size. Edited under the direction of Academician A. Fersman, with the participation of S.M. Troynitskiy (Director of the State Hermitage), S.K. Bogoyavlenskiy (Head of the Moscow Archive of Foreign Affairs), D.V. Yuferov (researcher, Department of Precious Stones, Russian Academy of Sciences), jewellers A.K. Fabergé, A.F. Kotler, B.E. Maseev, A.K. Bok, A.M. Frants, and photographer I.N. Aleksandrov, under the general supervision of the Currency Administration of the People’s Commissariat of Finance of the USSR. Four publisher’s boards. Good condition. Minor wear to the bindings, tears and losses to some tissue guards, edges of some guards worn, several guards lacking. Library stamps, labels and markings of the Free Library of Philadelphia; bookplates ‘The Free Library of Philadelphia / Simon Gratz Fund’ on the endpapers. From the jewels transferred for safekeeping to the Moscow Kremlin during the First World War, a selection of outstanding works of jewellery art was made and assigned to the State Treasury (Gokhran). In 1922 these objects, forming the ‘Diamond Fund’, were moved from the Kremlin to the Gokhran building. A commission headed by Academician A.E. Fersman was established to catalogue the collection, resulting in the present four-part publication issued by the People’s Commissariat of Finance of the USSR. Provenance: American auction Simon Gratz (1840–1925), American lawyer and philanthropist from Philadelphia, one of the most prominent Jewish collectors in the city. His collection comprised approximately 175,000 autographs and manuscripts, as well as prints, lithographs and books. His collecting interests extended far beyond American history, including numerous foreign-language materials; he maintained contacts with collectors worldwide. He collaborated closely with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, to which he donated his entire collection in 1917.