Silver snuffbox with the coat of arms of the Gagarins/Khilkovs

An extremely rare and interesting item related to the history of famous noble families of Russia. Dimensions: 9.3x4.3x3.8 cm, weight 137 g. Silver, engraving, blackening, etching, gilding. Slight scuffs, scratches. A snuffbox with a snake skin pattern and a coat of arms on the lid. The coat of arms of Princes Gagarin and Princes Khilkov coincide. Moreover, the coat of arms is engraved with an error – the first and second parts are reversed. Under the lid of the snuffbox there are stamps: St. George on horseback, striking a dragon with a spear, the number «84» (to the left) and the master's monogram "DL" (even to the left). At the bottom of the product there are stamps: the monogram of the master "DL", number «84» (to the right), the stamp of the assayer "ND" (Nicholas Lukich Dubrovin (d. 1862). 1822-1855) and under his monogram year – «1827». Excellent collector's condition. Guarantee of authenticity.

• The Gagarins (Gogarins, Princes Gagarins-Sturdza) are an ancient noble and branched princely family, the Rurikovichi, descended through the princes of Golibesovsky from the appanage princes of Starodubsky. The family of Princes Gagarin is included in the Velvet Book. When submitting the documents (August 1686), a pedigree painting of the Princes Gagarin, signed by Prince Ivan Gagarin, was provided for the entry of the genus into the Velvet Book. The illegitimate sons of one of the Gagarin princes were the thinker N. F. Fedorov and the actor A. P. Lensky. They are descended from the rulers of the medieval Starodub principality, whose ancestor was Ivan Vsevolodovich, the youngest son of the Grand Duke of Vladimir Vsevolod the Big Nest, who received the town of Starodub-Klyazemsky from his father. One of his descendants, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Starodubsky-Golibesovsky (XVII generation from Rurik) had five sons, of whom the first Vasily, the fourth Yuri and the fifth Ivan had the common nickname Loon. From them came three branches of the Princes Gagarin. In the pre-Petrine time, they were not very noticeable and did not occupy places higher than the stolnik at the court. They owned estates in Moscow, Dankovsky, Ryazan, Suzdal, Ryazhsky, Rzhevsky, Belevsky and Poshekhonsky counties. Twenty-six members of the family owned inhabited estates (1699). The senior branch was suppressed at the end of the XVIII century in the person of Prince Vasily Andreevich, a naval officer, who was awarded the Order of St. George of the 4th degree for his feat during the Battle of Chesma. Another military hero, Prince Sila Gagarin, who successfully defended Yaroslavl from the Poles in 1609, also belonged to this branch.

• The Khilkovs are a small princely family (Rurikovichi), originating through the princes of Ryapolovsky from the appanage princes of Starodubsky. The genus is listed in the Velvet Book. When submitting documents (March 26, 1682) for the introduction of the genus in the Velvet Book, a pedigree painting of the Princes Khilkovs was provided. The genus is included in the V part of the genealogical books: Kaluga, Moscow, Tver and Tula provinces. The great-great-grandson of Prince Ivan Vsevolodovich of Starodubsky, Prince Ivan Andreevich Ryapolovsky, nicknamed Nagovitsa (XV-knee, ancestor of Princes Tatev and Ryapolovsky), who took his name from the possession of Ryapolovskaya volost, had a great-grandson Prince Ivan Fedorovich Khilok, from whom the princes Khilkov went. It is not known why, the princes Ryapolovsky in the XVI century changed their surname and began to write: the elder branch is the Khilkov princes, and the younger branch is the Tatev princes. The descendants of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Khilkov, a boyar (1564), were no longer written by Princes Ryapolovsky, but by Princes Khilkov. In pre-Petrine times, the Khilkov princes, according to Kotoshikhin, occupied a higher position in the local system than other princes of the Starodub clan. Almost all representatives of the genus who reached adulthood sat in the Boyar Duma, many in the absence of the tsar "knew Moscow". After the abolition of localism, the Khilkovs lost their former importance and turned into ordinary landowners in the XVIII century. At the beginning of the XIX century, they were brought close to the court of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. In Soviet times, the pronunciation of the surname with an accent on the first syllable became widespread. It is erroneous, because in the nickname of the ancestor, the stress fell on the last vowel. In the family of the Khilkov princes, the surname was always pronounced with an accent on the second syllable. The coat of arms coincides with the coat of arms of the Gagarin princes related to them. The belonging of the Khilkovs to the Monomashichs was confirmed within the framework of the ongoing scientific research of the Rurikovich by methods of genetic genealogy using DNA testing.