Sergei Chekhonin USSR passport + French ID card
Who was Sergei Chekhonin? Sergei Chekhonin USSR passport
Sergey Vasil’evich Tchehonine (Chekhonin) (born in Valdayka, Novgorod province [now Lykoshino, Tver’ region], 2 February 1878; died on the way from Germany to Paris, 23 February 1936) was a Russian graphic artist, portrait miniaturist, ceramicist, and illustrator.
Together with Narbut and Vasili Mitrokhin, Chekhonin belongs to the second generation of the World of Art, the so-called artists who entered the union in the 1910s. Widely known as a graphics artist and creator of the so-called propaganda porcelain, he illustrated many Soviet publications and even managed to invent a completely original way of multi-color printing on fabric. His works are in many museums of the USSR, and his artistic legacy is thoroughly diverse. Sergei Chekhonin USSR passport
In 1928, Chekhonin left the Soviet Union and emigrated to Paris. There he worked in the field of artistic industry and stage set design. He also lived in Germany, worked in theaters and engaged himself in painting porcelain and working on book design, preferring them to decorative multi-color printing painting on fabrics. He died at the age of fifty-eight on 23 February 1936 in the town of Loerrach, Germany.
Several items of design works of the artist were at an auction last year, including his USSR passport from 1927 and his French ID card from 1931. What is exceptional is the auction result. The estimate was 10.000-15.000 GBP but the bidding ended high at 150.000 GBP. Sergei Chekhonin USSR passport
Tom, reading of the exceptionally high price paid at auction for these documents reminded me of the record price paid for Lou Gehrig’s passport ($263,000 if memory serves me well). I’d often wondered who would pay such a high price: a baseball fan planning on opening a baseball-themed museum perhaps or maybe someone more interested in the medical side of the man’s life. Do you have any inside knowledge as to who purchased the Gehrig passport?
Robert, these buyers are clearly not passport collectors. However, Lou Gehrig’s pp remains the most expensive collectible passport so far. It would be Chekhonin with $188.000 if it would be the passport alone. Followed by Victor Tsoi and Marylin Monroe. I do not know who bought the Gehrig.