Provenance: The Dane Alfred Schønebeck (b. Varde 1885, d. Copenhagen 1931) was employed at the Great Northern Telegraph Company in 1903. The year after, in 1904, he was stationed as a telegraphist from 1904 in Libau in Latvia, later in Kiachta in Siberia north of the Mongolian border and finally in Irkutsk near the Baikal Lake. From 1914 he was stationed in Gothenburg, Sweden, the same year he married the Swedish­born Gerda Schønebeck, née Rydemann (b. Tannåker 1886, d. Copenhagen 1980). In 1918, Alfred Schønebeck was promoted to office assistant at the head office in Copenhagen and in 1920 to senior clerk. The same year, he met with Maksim Litvinov, the Soviet Union's travelling ambassador, in Oslo to discuss the continued tasks of the Great Northern Telegraph Company in the former Russian Empire. In 1921 he became the company’s new representative in Russia and moved to St. Petersburg. In 1923, the representation was moved to Moscow, which was not completely unknown to him, when he – while living in St. Petersburg – had already made several business trip to Moscow. His wife arrived in Moscow shortly after, where she now lived with her husband. He still visited St. Petersburg now and then on business trips, accompanied by his wife. While living in Russia, Alfred Schønebeck, but in particular his wife, went extensively to flea markets and auctions in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where they acquired Russian art and antiques. In 1929 Alfred Schønebeck was promoted to office manager at the head office in Copenhagen, and the couple moved to Denmark, bringing their Russian art and antiques with them. Alfred Schønebeck died already in 1931, while Gerda Schønebeck died almost 50 years later, 96 years old. She enjoyed telling her children and grandchildren about her life in Russia and the art and antiques she and her husband had acquired, among others in Tsarskoye Selo, St. Petersburg, or in Moscow. Thence by descent until today.