The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Tsar of All Russia. Holiness and Splendour of Power Audio Tour Script Pair of ambassadorial axes The axes with wootz steel heads are richly damascened in gold. The centre of the composition is an image of the Russian coat of arms — a double-headed eagle beneath three crowns. On the eagle’s chest is a heraldic shield depicting a rider spearing a fantastic serpent on one side of the axe and the picture of a unicorn on the other side. Besides the national coat of arms, the axes are damascened in gold with small figures of lions which are artistically unique among Russian weaponry. The handles of the axes are coated all over in silver — embossed, gilded and soldered from twisted wire. Turquoise has been inserted into the rounded ends. The steel tips of the axes appear to have been forged and decorated by the finest craftsmen of the Kremlin Armoury, while the silver settings were the work of the leading court silversmiths. The Moscow Kremlin Museums own a total of four such axes. In the 17th century, they served as the weapons of a rynda — the tsar’s ceremonial bodyguard. The objects were called ‘ambassadorial axes’ because bodyguards wielding these weapons were invariably present when the tsar met with foreign diplomats in the Kremlin Palace. During these audiences, four men dressed in tall hats and white kaftans with gold chains crossed over their chests would stand at each corner of the tsar’s throne, resting axes like these on their shoulders. .