Newsletter 2008 May

May 2008
Regular Columns: Auctions | Exhibitions & Museums

Auctions
From the Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2008 ‘… After a Five-year Boom, Auction Houses Brace for a Potential Slowdown’. Is this also true for the decorative arts and Fabergé?

Highlights from recent Fabergé auctions:

Sotheby’s New York, April 16, 2008
Fabergé Icon sold for $780,000, more than five times its estimate, and a Nautilus Shell Cup sold for $421,000 with buyer’s premium (Estimate $200,000-300,000).

Christie’s New York, April 18, 2008
Elephant sold for $601,100 (Estimate $300,000-500,000).

Heritage Auction Galleries, Dallas, Texas, April 24, 2008
Alexander III 25th Wedding Anniversary Desk Clock sold for $179,000 (Estimate $300,000-500,000).

Spring Auction Calendar (Compiled with assistance from Willand Ringborg)

May 10, 2008 Auktionshaus Dr. Fischer Heilbronn, Germany

May 21-22, 2008 Bukowskis Finland

May 26, 2008 Dorotheum Vienna

June 11, 2008 Christie’s London, Jewels: The London Sale
Objects from the late Christina Onassis Collection will include a rare bowenite Buddha by Fabergé.

June 12, 2008 Sotheby’s London includes a carnet shaped as a book that is pinned shut with a pencil. Three other rare examples are in the Collection of H.M. the Queen of the Netherlands, Hillwood Museum in Washington, (DC), and a third one was given by Emperor Nicholas II to the actress Elizabeth Balleta in 1902. (Courtesy of Rosie Ines Ker and Yulia Kunze of Sotheby’s)

Fabergé Carnet Estimate: 150,000 - 200,00 GBP
Fabergé Carnet
Estimate: 150,000 – 200,00 GBP

Exhibitions & Museums
(Updates are posted in Exhibitions on the Fabergé Research Site)
May 15 – September 15, 2008 The Finnish Stone Center, Juuka, Finland
One Unfinished Egg & Fabergé: 79 Completed Jewelled Objects includes the 1917 Blue Constellation Egg from the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow. This is the third time the unfinished egg has traveled, since it was discovered – Munich 2003 and Brussels 2005.

May 15, 2008 Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, Washington (DC)
Adopt-a-Book Night to benefit the Art Research Library, which contains Fabergé and Russian decorative arts book and auction catalog collections.

May 24, 2008 Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Grand opening of the William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery displaying 3,500 jewels with a strong emphasis on 800 years of European jewelry making. The renovation project was made possible with a £7 million gift and took four years to complete. Fabergé enthusiasts will enjoy viewing nine objects and sixteen animals from the collection formed by A. Kenneth Snowman (1919-2002), Fabergé scholar, dealer, and a generous ally of the V&A for more than 50 years.

The Sallie and Kenneth Snowman Collection on Loan to the V&A Museum
The Sallie and Kenneth Snowman Collection on Loan to the V&A Museum
The Sallie and Kenneth Snowman Collection on Loan to the V&A Museum
The Sallie and Kenneth Snowman Collection on Loan to the V&A Museum
The Sallie and Kenneth Snowman Collection on Loan to the V&A Museum
The Sallie and Kenneth Snowman Collection on Loan to the V&A Museum

The Sallie and Kenneth Snowman Collection on Loan to the V&A Museum

Fairs

June 12-18, 2008 Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair, London
Fabergé Exhibitors: A La Vieille Russie of New York as well as Marks, S.J. Phillips and Wartski of London.

Geoffrey Munn, Managing Director of Wartski, contributed an article, Beyond my Wildest Dreams: A Personal Reminiscence of the Russian Art Market to the Fair Handbook. Illustrated with stunning photographs from the Wartski files.

Corrections and news about future Fabergé happenings, including exhibitions, is very much appreciated and will be shared.

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