Katuar, Alexander Andreevich

Alexander Andreevich Katuar de Bionkur (1863, Moscow - 1913, Baden-Baden ) - public figure, philanthropist; cousin of the composer Georgy Lvovich Katuar .

From the genus Catoire ( Catoire de Bioncourt ), which was of French origin. His father Andrei Ivanovich Katuar (1829–1887) was a large landowner; mother - Maria-Sophie Alexandrovna, nee Demonsi .

In 1883 he became one of the founders of the Russian Gymnastics Society .

He graduated from the historical and philological faculty of Moscow University . After the death of his father, he inherited a fortune of 1.2 million rubles. In 1891, he achieved the elevation to the Russian hereditary nobility under the name "Catoir de Bioncourt", after which he married the French aristocrat Gilonne-Henriette d'Arcourt ( FR. Gilonne Henriette Marie d'Harcourt ; 1867-1952) ^{[1] [2]} .

A. A. Catuar was the leader of the county nobility in Nizhny Novgorod, an honorary magistrate of the Bronnitsky (since 1888) and Zvenigorod (since 1889) counties, the vowel of the Zvenigorod district zemstvo assembly. In 1899, in the Perkhushkovskaya volost of Zvenigorod district, there were over a thousand acres of land behind it ^{[3] [4]} . He was a member of many charitable societies, was a trustee of the Elizabethan orphanage and the Nizhny Novgorod noble institute , and was a syndicate of the Catholic Church of St. Louis . In 1900-1910 he was a full-time charity member of the Moscow Art Society . A. A. Catuar initiated the publication in 1901 of Russia's first facsimile reproduction of two manuscripts by A. S. Pushkin : “The Mermaid ” and “The Mean Knight ”. He wrote the book "The History of Bullet Shooting in Western Europe, America and Russia."

A. A. Catoire was an avid hunter, was fond of shooting sports, participated in many competitions; He was a full member of the Moscow Hunting Society named after Emperor Alexander II ^[5] . In 1909, he presented the Historical Museum with his collection of weapons: hunting rifles (232 copies), military weapons (67 copies), pistols (192 copies) and many samples of cold steel, as well as Russian military devices badges, badges and so on. In addition, the museum was given a library of book rarities and a collection of prints, which he began to collect even before his fascination with collecting weapons. At the same time, 10 thousand rubles were donated to equip the premises intended for the collection.

Living in Europe, A. A. Catoire continued to monitor auction sales of arms collections; he replenished the museum’s collection: on September 13, 1913, Prince N. S. Shcherbatov thanked Catoire de Bioncourt for the new exhibits sent to the museum, and on September 17, 1913, in Paris, Alexander Catoire de Bioncourt passed away.