The displayed part of the German Renaissance furniture set deserves special attention: a carved sideboard with a gray marble top and two mythical birds endowed with human and animal features, and three chairs with images of mythical bird women and a coat of arms in the form of a lion standing on its hind legs.
Sergeyev-Tsensky bought this set in Alushta in 1927, presumably at the dacha of Alexander Yefimovich Golubev in the suburb called Professorsky ugolok (Professors’ Corner).
Alexander Yefimovich Golubev was a professor of histology, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist. He founded a wine-making business together with his partners, inherited a large sum of money from his brother, and set up a gold mining company. He was engaged in charity work and contributed greatly to public life.
Golubev’s wife Nadezhda Prokofyevna Suslova was the first woman in Tsarist Russia to receive a higher medical education and become a doctor. Nadezhda’s sister, Apollinaria Prokofyevna Suslova, was familiar with Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky and became the prototype for some of the female characters in his works. Apollinaria later married Vasily Rozanov. She played a huge role in the lives of the two great writers and was a prominent figure of the Russian literary scene of her time. Sergeyev-Tsensky, who had been permanently living in the Professorsky ugolok since 1905, was particularly interested in meeting her.
In his short story called “Sycamores”, Sergeyev-Tsensky mentioned this furniture set,
