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Adolphe De Polier
Count Adolphe de Polier (1795 – 1830) was a French officer in the service of the Russian Empire. He is remembered as the man who found Russia's first diamonds. Life Polier was born in Avignon in 1795. He was posthumous son of Antoine Polier, an engineer who had made a fortune in India and then returned in time to be called an aristocrat during the French revolution. His father was killed leaving a pregnant widow and a son. In 1812 Polier joined the French cavalry. He then worked for the French General Staff. Adolphe married Princess Varvara Shakhovskaya (1796–1870), one of Russia's richest women, in 1826. The following year he entered the Russian service as Chamberlain of Emperor Nicholas I. He also served as vice-minister of Finance. As a member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences he organised several scientific expeditions. In 1829, he accompanied Alexander von Humboldt to the Ural region to some land that was owned by his wife. Whilst Humboldt found gold and pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Wright (engraver)
Thomas Wright (2 March 1792, Birmingham – 30 March 1849, London) was an engraver and portrait-painter. Biography He served as an apprentice to Henry Hoppner Meyer, Henry Meyer, and worked for four years as assistant to William Thomas Fry, for whom he engraved the popular plate of Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold in a box at Covent Garden Theatre. About 1817 he began to practise independently as a stipple-engraver, and also found employment in taking portraits in pencil and miniature. He became much associated with George Dawe, whose sister he married, and in 1822 followed him to Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg to engrave his gallery of portraits of Russian generals; there he also executed a fine plate of the Alexander I of Russia, Emperor Alexander, and another of the Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse), Empress Alexandra with her children, both after Dawe, on account of which he received diamond rings from members of the royal family and a gold medal from the king of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
