The photos are remarkable! Particularly when placed side by side with historical photos. Thank you!
There is a brief description of the statues on the Tsarskoe Selo site:
http://www.alexanderpalace.org/tsarskoe/alexanderpalace.html"On the colonnade are two bronze statues; the "Babochnik" and the "Svaechnik", which represent players at two ancient Russian games "babki" and "svaika". These figures are made by the Russian sculptors, Pimenov and Loganovsky."
Also found these definitions on the internet; perhaps someone has a better explanation:
Babki - The name of a children’s game similar to Pick-Up-Stix, but played with old soup bones.
Svaika - a 19th century game involving throwing a heavy iron spike through an iron ring. The game resembles quoits, an ancient version of horseshoes.
I am now very curious about both games!
