Museums: Exhibition “Weapons of the Caucasus in private collections of the past and present” in St. Petersburg

On March 4 2011 the Russian Museum of Ethnography (St. Petersburg) is mounting an exhibition “Weapons of the Caucasus in private collections of the past and present”. The pearl of the exhibition is a show of the “Tiflis sword”. There are only four of them known all over the world.

The “Tiflis sword” – is a rare example of cold weapon which has been presented by the modern collector Alexei Gnedovsky to the Russian Museum of Ethnography. The sword bears a mark: a gilded coat of arms with a Cyrillic sign “Tiflis” and a crown over it.

As for today there are only four such swords known in the world - one of them is kept at the State Hermitage Museum, another at the State Historical Museum, the third is a part of the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography, while the fourth is in the private collection of A. Gnedovsky, who wished it to enter the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography.