The World of Fabergé in St. Petersburg 100 Years Ago
Join Fabergé Enthusiasts October 2-5, 2014
Fabergé Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Plaster Bust of Carl Fabergé
by Joseph Limburg (1874-1955)
(Collection Tatiana Fabergé)
1891 Memory of Azov Egg by Fabergé
(Photograph Courtesy of State Kremlin Museum)
The Moscow Kremlin Armory Museum, together with the Fersman Mineralogical Museum, is jointly showing a selection of their treasures in an exhibition entitled The World of Fabergé at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna until May 18, 2014. This event forms part of a two-year long cultural exchange between the two countries and marks the 90th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic ties between the young USSR and Austria following the fall of the Romanov and Habsburg monarchies.
The catalog illustrates 164 exhibits, of which approximately half are by the House of Fabergé. From among its ten remaining Imperial Easter eggs, the Armory has lent the 1891 Memory of Azov, the 1900 Trans-Siberian Railway, and the 1906 Moscow Kremlin Easter eggs, while the Fersman Museum has sent its re-discovered fragmentary 1917 Constellation Egg. The theme of this exhibition is the “Art of Giving”, of which Fabergé was the prime exponent and beneficiary. His objects were deemed to be the most ideal gifts at all levels, for events as diverse as State Visits, regimental “thank yous”, tokens of affection between Royals, and of esteem among those who formed part of an enchanted inner “circle”, akin to “Mrs. Astor’s 400” which represented the epitome of New York Society during the last quarter of the Gilded Age.
If you happen to be in Vienna on May 12, 2014, you are invited to attend a round table discussion sponsored by the Dorotheum auction house and hear a lecture (in German) on “Fabergé and the Art of Giving” by Dr. Géza von Habsburg, President, International Friends of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Dr. Elisabeth Heresch, author of the introductory essay in the exhibition catalog, Die Welt von Fabergé, will present two lectures in German – Fabergé and the Court of the Tsars on April 1, 2014, and The Egg in the Russian Tradition on April 8, 2014.
Press Coverage: Lane, Mary, “Jewelers to the Czars”. Wall Street Journal, February 15-16, 2014, C14. Article reprinted with corrections and others news stories online in the Royal Russia blog for the dates: January 25, 2014 (press release), February 14, 2014 (Lane article), and February 20, 2014 (Russki Mir).
June 14 – October 5, 2014 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada
Fabergé Revealed from the Collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Traveling Fabergé exhibition from the Richmond, Virginia, museum will be shown.
Gold Cup by Henrik Wigström
(Courtesy Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers)
Dr. Valentin Skurlov Examining the Gustav Fabergé Plaque
Dr. Alexander von Solodkoff contributed an essay entitled “Jean-Pierre Ador and Russian Gold Boxes” to, the book, Going for Gold, The Craftsmanship and Collecting of Gold Boxes edited by Tessa Murdoch and Heike Zech. Sussex Academic Press, 2014, pp. 134-146. Jean-Pierre Ador (1724-1784) was court jeweler to Catherine the Great and active in St. Petersburg from about 1762-1784. Ador’s jeweled and enameled snuffboxes were of the highest quality and kept in the treasury of the Winter Palace where Carl Fabergé most certainly examined and handled them. Not only is the exquisite workmanship in gold, enamels, and jewels a common link between Ador and Fabergé. Ador’s workshop and premises were located in St. Petersburg on Bolshaya Morskaya No. 24, the address which was mentioned in the city register of 1774. Surprisingly, Fabergé acquired a building in the same location and in 1900 moved into a new building built by the architect Carl Schmidt. It included a retail space, jewelry workshop areas, and the family’s residence on the top floor.
Enameled Cigarette Case by Mikhail Perkhin
(Courtesy Dr. Fischer Kunstauktionen)
(Courtesy Sussex Press)
Historical novel about a young servant in St. Petersburg who gets involved in the revolution and the civil war, and carries the 1903 Danish Jubilee Egg with him. The vast majority of historical persons, events and places depicted in the book are real. In Swedish.
The 19th Fabergé Egg
1903 Danish Jubilee Egg by Fabergé
is still missing in 2014
(Courtesy Wikipedia)
1910 Colonnade Egg
(Courtesy Royal Collection)
(Courtesy Hillwood Estate,
Museum and Gardens Archives/Art Library)
Munn, Geoffrey, “The 1910 Colonnade Egg: A Possible Source Is Proposed.” Antique Collecting, February 2014, 14-17. Reprint of an essay which first appeared in the Fabergé Research Newsletter, Summer 2013.
Sparke, Cynthia Coleman, Russian Decorative Arts, May 2014. A guide to Russian decorative arts and their historical provenances includes a chapter on Fabergé introducing the techniques, specific Russian characteristics, and an overview of the principal makers.
Film: Fabergé: A life of Its Own
(Courtesy Mark Stewart
Productions, London)
Admiralty Clock
(Courtesy A La Vieille Russie)
Wigström Cigarette Cases
(Courtesy Wartski)
Enameled Frame by Viktor Aarne
(Bonhams, London The Russian Sale, June 4, 2014)
Interviewees: Olga Vaigatcheva, Dr. Rosamund Bartlett, Dr. Géza von Habsburg, Tatiana Fabergé, Miranda Carter, John Webster Keefe, Hon. Simon Howard, André Ruzhnikov, Alice Milica Ilich, Peter Schaffer, Mark Schaffer, Edward Kasinec, Christopher “Kip” Forbes, Anne Odom, Prince Albert of Monaco, Steven Kirsch, Dr. Dan Hodges, Artie McFerrin, Pierre Mirabaud, Caroline de Guitaut, Dr. Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm, Christian Bolin, Alain Cartier, John Andrew, Katharina Flohr, Simon Benney, Mark Shand, Dr. Marina Lopato, Tatiana Muntian, Sarah Fabergé, Stephen Bayley. 82 minutes, English language with English sub-titles. Writer & Director: Patrick Mark with co-producers: Alice Milica Ilich and Ludovic Lindsay. Produced by Mark Stewart Productions, 2014.
June 26 – July 2, 2014 Fabergé dealers A La Vieille Russie, New York, and Wartski, London, will be exhibiting at Masterpiece 2014 | London
(Courtesy of the Fan Association of North America)
Diamond Trellis Egg
(Courtesy McFerrin Collection)
April 7, 2014 Houston Museum of Natural Science, Texas
Presentation with a book signing by Dorothy McFerrin entitled The Splendor Fabergé Eggs.
Auction Highlights:
Kalgan Jasper Model of an Elephant and Castle
Price Realized: £290,500, $470,610
(Christie’s London, November 25, 2013, Lot 216)
Auction lots with provenances of legendary American collectors Millicent Rogers (1901-1953), Lansdell K. Christie (1903-1965), mining magnate and philanthropist, and a lapis lazuli seal belonging by tradition to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (1856-1929).
April 9, 2014 Christie’s New York Russian Works of Art
More than 30 lots from the Property from the Descendants of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (1875-1960), and three other fresh-to-the-market private collections include a cigarette cases collection from a Cumberland Island, Georgia, collector.
Nephrite Photograph Frame by Mikhail Perkhin
from the Rogers Collection
(Sotheby’s New York)
Enameled Frame by Viktor Aarne
from Descendants of Grand Duchess
Xenia Alexandrovna
(Christie’s New York)
Russian Works of Art
(Jackson’s, Cedar Falls, Iowa World of Treasures, June 3-4, 2014)
1949-1950 – Maurice Collis wrote in a London newspaper, “The public taste is incalculable. No one could have foreseen that in November Wartski of Regent Street would draw multitudes to view a Tsarist goldsmith’s work and bring off the most brilliant art exhibition of the season.” (Time & Tide: Independent Non-Party, December 24, 1949) Two weeks later a cartoon appeared in the Evening Standard alluding to the Wartski exhibition of 400 objects in a shop located at number 13. Wartski premises at the time were located at 139 Regent Street, London. (219)
Evening Standard, January 9, 1950
Connoisseur, January 1982, 12
Fabergé Cartoon, May 1988
(no further details known)
1982 – Michael Folkes (1925-1988), a British illustrator and cartoonist, put his pen to work with the caption, “Goddammit [sic], Smith, only vice-presidents and above have Fabergé inkstands.” (1082)
The Pratt Collection and the Forbes Magazine Collection exhibited jointly in Richmond, Virginia, February 9 – March 13, 1983. (1135)
Two simultaneous Fabergé exhibitions celebrated “Britain Salutes New York” at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum and A La Vieille Russie in New York City. (1154+)
The Gray Collection traveling since 1972 returned to the New Orleans Museum of Art. (1161) Three stolen Fabergé Easter eggs from the collection recovered. (1183)
The Forbes Magazine Collection traveled to museums in the USA and overseas between 1983 and 1987. (Lowes and McCanless, pp. 260+)
1985 – Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace re-opened with its first public Fabergé exhibit. (1254)
Cuckoo Egg became the 11th egg in the Forbes Magazine Collection from a Sotheby’s New York auction, $1.76 million plus 8% NY sales tax, with the often-repeated auctioneer’s statement, ‘The score now stands at the Kremlin 10, Forbes 11.’ Malcom Forbes asked after the auction about future purchases stated, ‘Eggs usually come by the dozen’. The Rosebud Egg added in a private exhibitions for an undisclosed sum (1280, 1335, 1338)
The active auction markets, and the sale of prominent collections continued. (1309)
1988 – A Russian delegation visiting museums in the United States asked to see the Forbes Magazine Collection. According to Christopher “Kip” Forbes, son of Malcolm Forbes and curator of the collection, ‘I can tell you that they were duly impressed.’ (USA Today, March 26, 1988 | 1484)
1989 – The Great Fabergé, the first major Fabergé exhibition in the Soviet Union opened on February 8 – October 1, 1989, at the Elagin Palace Museum in St. Petersburg. (New York Times, January 28, 1989, Sec. A, p. 16 | 1520)
Hillwood Museum in Washington (DC) and the Finnish Oy Ettan TV-Production Company each produced a 30-minute Fabergé video. (1514, 1515)
Twenty-seven Fabergé Easter eggs from private and museum collections re-united for the first and only time at the San Diego Museum of Art, October 22, 1989 – January 7, 1990. Twenty five of the eggs traveled to the Moscow Armory for a reciprocal exhibition, January 20 – March 15, 1990. (Press Kit Courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Art, Fall 1989 | 1562)
Russian Cartoon by Yelkin
(Courtesy RIA Novosti)
Fabergé! It is Mr. Fabergé himself!
O, o, o, I am fanatic about him!
I want an egg from him!
(Artist Unknown)
2014 – “The Link of Times” Collection is elegantly displayed in the St. Petersburg Fabergé Museum of the restored Shuvalov Palace, where the Third International Fabergé Symposium will be held October 2-5, 2014. Video with collection highlights narrated in Russian by Vladimir Voronchenko, Chairman of the Board Cultural-Historical Foundation “The Link of Times” and Fabergé Museum Director.