COACH. RUSSIA, 17TH CENTURY

The coach of Russian work is made in the 1640s. Today it's the single extant specimen of coach used by Russian noble people in the first half of the 17th century. The coach bears the coat of arms of its first owner, boyar Francis Lesnovolskiy, the mayor of the town of Bryansk. Boyar Nikita Romanov was the second owner of the carriage. Nikita Romanov was Tsar Mikhail Romanov’s cousin and played a significant role at the Russian court. After his death, the coach got into the Royal Treasury as the boyar didn’t have any direct heirs.

There are doors in the coach, and its windows are made of mica, still, there are no springs or turning axle. The small rectangular body of the coach is mounted on belts and upholstered with crimson velvet on the outside. Nail-heads and silver braid pattern is a typical décor of carriages of that time. The equipage is depicted on the V. Surikov’s famous canvas "The Morning of the Execution of the Streltsy".