These works from the Museum of the History of Religion (St. Petersburg) derive from the collection of V. G. Druzhinin, one of the first to collect and study the art and artifacts of the Vyg Old-Believer community of northwest Russia. The authors present the works as a discrete category of Orthodox religious art; some researchers refer to them as wooden icons, others simply as carved crosses: in fact, their exact use is still obscure. Color plates reproduce each work in fine detail revealing a range of styles and technical prowess. Most were made in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century. -- Summary written by John W. Emerich, Bronze Horseman Literary Agency.