Newsletter 2020 Spring

 

Feature Stories:

• Honoring Carl Fabergé (d. 1920) and Tatiana Fabergé (d. 2020)
• The Impassioned Collector: Arthur E. Bradshaw (1879-1939)
• Harry Woolf, An Exceptional Man
• Gathering of Fabergé Enthusiasts in New York City
• Digital Colorization of Imperial Photographs: A Case Study of Time-Line Inconsistencies
• Discovering the World of Fabergé Furniture

 

Regular Columns: Auction News | Eggs | Exhibitions & Museums | Publications

 

“The old order changeth, yielding place to new…”
Morte d’Arthur, Alfredt, Lord Tennyson, Written in 1845

 

September 24, 2020, is the 100^th anniversary of the death of Carl Fabergé (born May 30, 1846) in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2016, Fabergé Research Newsletter contributors, Simon Giannini (UK) and Horst Becker (Germany), shared their research findings about the Russian court jeweler – “Fabergé’s Records Found – Last Years of His Life“. Please note: The memorial event for the 100^th anniversary celebration led by Mr. Becker has been postponed to either October 2020 or Easter 2021.

 

 

 

On February 13, 2020, Tatiana Fabergé, the great grand-daughter of Carl Fabergé (born March 7, 1930) died in Versonnex, France. Published biographical data and tributes about her interesting life:

• Biographical details in Wikipedia
• Tribute from her former employer, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) by Marie-Noëlle Fontaine, Nanie Perrin and John Ellis.
  “Tatiana Fabergé (1930–2020): A Pillar of Theoretical Physics at CERN for Decades”, March 4, 2020. (Shared by Annemiek Wintraecken)
• Andrew, John, Fabergé Heritage Council. “Tatiana Fabergé: An Outstanding Fabergé Scholar”, February 17, 2020.
• Skurlov, Valentin, Scientific Secretary of the Fabergé Memorial Fund. “Long Live the Name of Fabergé”, Russian Newspaper Vedomosti, February 17, 2020. (Shared by the author, translated by Riana Benko)

“On February 13, Tatyana Fabergé, the great-granddaughter of Carl Fabergé, died just three weeks before her 90^th birthday in her house near Geneva.

The most important brainchild of Tatyana Feodorovna was her grandfather’s Fabergé Memorial Fund which she created in 1996, the year of the 150^th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian jeweler. In the same year, Tatyana Fabergé took the part in the unveiling of a monument to Carl Fabergé in St. Petersburg on the unnamed square near the metro station Ladozhskaya. After two years, the square received the name of Carl Fabergé. Now the fund has more than 720 members from 22 countries of the world.

Tatyana Feodorovna sincerely loved St. Petersburg and always eagerly visited the city, where her father Feodor Agafonovich was born in 1904 [died 1971]. He was the only grandson of Carl Fabergé who took up the profession of a jeweler. She helped her father, because she was a designer, and she willingly made contact with reporters. Tatyana Feodorovna loved to travel and talked about the famous Fabergé firm in various countries of the world.

She was the co-author of ‘17’ books on the history of the Fabergé firm and was a welcome guest at jewelry exhibitions and conferences dedicated to the work of her great-grandfather.

Her dream was to return the name of Fabergé to Russia. As a result, we have the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg and Fabergé exhibition halls in the Hermitage Museum. She was a true part of the St. Petersburg culture, with a broad Russian soul, and kept the Orthodox faith. Peace be upon her.”

By Jane Allen (Australia)

 

Few people today remember Arthur E. Bradshaw, an Englishman who lived in Steeple Aston, a village in North Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Apart from his name appearing in the provenances of some very famous Fabergé objects, he has disappeared from history. If one could make a case that collecting is an inherited trait, then in AEB’s case it could be easily traced to his maternal grandfather, Isaac Walker, a noted collector of mineral specimens – more for their beauty than for scientific interest – which are now dispersed among the many thousands of rocks in the Museum of Natural History in London.

 

 

Collecting for AEB seems to have begun with dogs. Dachshunds. The sausage dog is a hound, bred to hunt badgers, long bodied and short legged they have a comical aspect. They are friendly little dogs and good with children, they come in a variety of colors but most of Arthur’s dogs were tan, sleek, shorthaired dogs with shiny coats glinting gold in the sun, with the occasional black one thrown in for good luck. Arthur started with a couple, then there were six, and reports suggest up to 11 over the years. Then there were the bull terriers, but these stopped at four. One entire family photo album is devoted to them, yet not everybody in the Bradshaw family loved them! AEB also collected cars, and the very best cars, starting with a green Wolseley limousine in 1914, a Scripps Booth in 1915, then adding a Lanchester Tourer, a Rover, a Rolls Royce and for his daughter Loveday he bought a Jaguar SS 100 in the 1930s. AEB did not drive. He had a uniformed chauffeur, Will Butler. His wife Evelyn learned, but her skills were somewhat erratic, leading to the occasional run-in with the Oxford police.

None of this kept AEB busy. He inherited a small 28-acre estate called The Grange on the death of his father in 1899. He was 20 and had no experience of running such a place, having spent his life up until that moment either at boarding school or in the Navy. He came home to a farm with a herd of Jersey cattle and a dairy, an eccentric, crenelated house, a huge garden, several cottages, a staff – at full strength – of 18, a widowed mother, and an unmarried sister. Having been honorably discharged from the Navy on account of his weak lungs, he chose to spend up to six months of the year away from England, and regularly traveled to the warmer climes of south Africa where he had many friends and passed his time playing golf and cricket. In 1914, he married his mother’s companion, Evelyn Phillips, and settled down to run his estate. Three generations of Bradshaw’s lived at The Grange; they were the squires of Steeple Aston and to this day are highly regarded in the village.

 

 

AEB and Evelyn had three children, and life at The Grange hummed along pleasantly. One day, seemingly out of the blue, Arthur was walking up Regent Street in London when he saw a diamond bracelet in the window of Wartski. Stepping inside he met Emanuel Snowman, proprietor of the London antique jewelry store, and saw his first Fabergé object, the Balalaika Player, which he bought on the spot for £350. It was the second week in February 1935. That little figure dealt Arthur a coup de foudre which created a burning passion lasting the rest of his life. Only four years as it turned out; he died in 1939 and was so ill in his last year it is unlikely he bought much. So, in four short years he amassed a collection of over 800 objects. An inventory prepared by Wartski in 1938 runs to 50 pages. Not all are Fabergé, but among the Fabergé collection he owned briefly, some of the most important pieces ever created included the 1897 Coronation Egg¹, the Lilies of the Valley Basket, 12 hardstone figures of Russian types, 38 flower studies including the cornflowers with buttercups and diamond bee, 45 cigarette cases, 91 boxes, an amazing 250 carved animals and birds, kovshs, photo frames, and two, possibly three Easter eggs. He was, according to Kieran McCarthy of Wartski London the first person to own some of these since the Russian Imperial family. Listed also are French, English and German items – watches, clocks, coins, seals, paper knives, vases, decanters, plates and glasses, scent bottles, silver, and jewelry in the form of diamond rings and brooches, cufflinks, cameos, crosses and strings of pearls. Too much was barely enough!

AEB returned to Wartski the following week (third week in February 1935) and bought a Fabergé box he had seen on his first visit. By the time of the famous Russian exhibition in June of 1935 at No. 1 Belgrave Square, London, AEB had acquired 18 objects which he was persuaded to lend. By the end of the year, he had spent over £7,000, and Emanuel Snowman, had become a friend and presented him with an engraved, lilac guilloché enameled cigarette case by Fabergé (above). The case is exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City through November 2021 as a loan from the Matilda Geddings Gray Collection in New Orleans, together with the exquisite Lilies of the Valley Basket which Fabergé scholar Géza von Habsburg calls “an immortal work of art”.

But AEB was not behaving like an ordinary collector. While his dogs were much photographed, and the cars were highly visible and also photographed with the chauffeur and dogs in attendance, he was positively secretive about his objets d’art. Displayed in glass-fronted cases in the dining room of The Grange, there is only one, slightly-blurred photo of one of the cases containing a few recognizable objects. Nobody in the village knew anything about this treasure trove and he did not show it off. I imagine, for him collecting was about the thrill of the chase, and he kept buying at a pace that dismayed his wife, who feared his extravagance would lead them into bankruptcy. After his death, Evelyn sent all but four pieces of table silver back to Wartski for resale. The important pieces ultimately made their way into the collections of the English Royal Family, well-known collections in the USA, and the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. When Evelyn died in 1950, the last of the Fabergé silver was sent to auction where the most elaborate, a silver gilt kovsh crowned with Imperial eagles, was purchased by Prince V. Galitzine for the princely sum of £205 (Sotheby’s London, July 13, 1950, Lot 93). Nothing remains in the family today apart from remnants of jewelry, but occasionally something crops up. A few years ago, a person living in the now sub-divided house of The Grange dug up a jade rabbit in the garden. The expert opinion was that given the provenance the object was “more than likely Fabergé,” but alas, the rabbit was missing an ear and, as perfect condition is everything, it was virtually worthless.

What was astonishing about the Bradshaw Collection is not only the number of objects, but the apparent discernment Arthur showed in his purchases. But there were bound to be a few misses, and indeed there were. The inventory included three undoubtedly fake objects: the infamous Nicholas II Equestrian Egg, and two other pieces also labeled “Tercentenary”, a thermometer and a kovsh, both marked Fabergé. The hunt for the whereabouts of the fake egg occupied me for the best part of a year, and of course there is much, much more to AEB’s story. In a book. Soon to be published.

 

 

ENDNOTES:

¹ June 8, 1935. Sold to Arthur E. Bradshaw, London, for £1,900; sold back to Wartski after Bradshaw’s death, 1939.

 

Resources consulted:

McCanless, Christel Ludewig. Fabergé & His Works: An Annotated Bibliography of the First Century of His Art, Scarecrow Press, 1994.

McCarthy, Kieran. Fabergé in London. The British Branch of the Imperial Russian Goldsmith, ACC Art Books, 2017.

Munn, Geoffrey. Wartski, The First One Hundred and Fifty Years, Antique Collectors’ Club, 2015, pp. 236-240.

von Habsburg, Géza. Fabergé Fantasies and Treasures, Universe Publishing, 1995, pp. 58-59, 79-80.

By Alice Milica Ilich (Australia)

 

 

Harry Woolf (d. 2019) was an outstanding business man who achieved much in his chosen fields. As a qualified pharmacist he saw an opportunity to create Underwoods, the leading pharmaceutical distribution network in greater London. His success enabled him to provide and support a range of philanthropic and commercial activities. Notwithstanding this, Harry was unassuming in so many ways, not wishing to ever be boastful about his accomplishments.

Harry’s interests were diverse, but this was a reflection of his intellect and energy. One of the areas of keen focus were the arts and he is recognized as one of the more significant collectors of Russian art. But “why Fabergé?” I once asked Harry this question. He told me that he was resolute not to be like his father who in the early 1960’s, at seventy, was sitting and watching a pretty poor show on television. He was determined then and there to find a “suitable hobby such that my mind could be occupied, at least a little, at a similar age”. He conversed with a number of London dealers, who dealt in items from early clocks to contemporary art; none hit the mark nor sparked a serious interest. It happened at a dinner in London when a friend showed him a small Fabergé silver model of a samovar which he offered to Harry at cost. He read a book on Fabergé and met the author, Kenneth Snowman. Learning Carl Fabergé was from Russia, the birth place of Harry’s paternal grandparents, he decided Fabergé should be his focus. He embarked on the mission with passion.

I had the privilege of meeting Harry almost 40 years ago, when I was in my early twenties and setting forth as the numero due in the newly established Russian Department at Christie’s in New York. It was during the sophisticated Fabergé auctions held bi-annually at the Hotel Le Richemond in Geneva. I could sense immediately Mr. Woolf was a natural collector with a most-attuned eye, taste and charm in spades. Although most found him somewhat daunting, I approached him with all the brashness of youth which proved to be the beginning of a fulfilling friendship which expanded to encompass his family over the years. They were always of major importance in his life. Harry was a most generous man, possessing a great sense of humor, always available and as I learned, a great connoisseur of fine wines.

 

 

Harry was an innate collector who enjoyed viewing the Russian auctions. He would zone in on a particular item which others may not have even appreciated but was in fact one of the definitive lots. He would almost always recognize the best in Fabergé. Whether it be a quirky carved stone piglet, an exquisitely enameled parasol handle, a silver and enamel dish reminiscent of Léon Bakst’s ‘The Firebird’, a stone tray with a goose and gander contesting a frog over a pool of aventurine quartz, a small silver three sided milk-jug (one of his favored items) to one of the most famous and rare enameled frames enclosing a portrait of the famous beauty Cléo de Mérode. His collection was one created of utter instinct coupled with an intuitive capacity to recognize perfection. We were all so lucky that Harry was always gracious and willing to share his collection in the numerous exhibitions which allowed many to view the amalgamation of Fabergé creations into what I always referred to as “The Woolf Style”. This also transcended into his sartorial elegance which always had a distinctive touch either in the color of the jacket or a pattern on a tie.

Having been directly involved in the original sale, I know one of his biggest regrets was not becoming the owner of the magnificent 1913 Winter Egg. Some months later he had a second opportunity to acquire the Winter Egg at an auction in Geneva but through an unexpected bidding issue, he missed the moment. Nonetheless, what he created was without equal and remains as one of the most iconic Fabergé collections. His courage was remarkable as his health failed and I believe he never complained even at the end. A week before he died Harry requested to see some objects included in the London sales and even added a few to his collection. It would probably have amused Harry to know he died a month short of 2020 which would be the 100^th anniversary of Carl Fabergé’s passing. As another passionate American Fabergé collector wrote upon hearing the news: “It is truly a loss in the Fabergé community with the passing of HW. Clearly, a man of means, who loved the chase, as much as the acquisition!” Our thoughts are with his wife, Josiane, who was not just his loving wife but partner in every way, and also his family.

By DeeAnn Hoff (USA)

 

Familiar to many is the science fiction novella, The Time Machine, written in 1895 by British author H.G. Wells. His storied machine takes a ‘Time Traveler’ on journeys of discovery both backward and forward in time. One does not need Wells’ Time Machine to journey back in time. As a devotee of archival images, I regularly wander about in previous decades and centuries of photographic ‘time’. This essay focuses on photographs taken of and later by members of the last Imperial Court (1894¹-1917), their application in works of Russian Court jeweler Carl Fabergé, and a recently exhibited 1904 Fabergé-style egg. They continue to provide a treasure trove of context.

The Imperial court retained professional photographers such as ‘Boisson and Eggler – Photographers of Their Imperial Majesties’. In 1902, Swiss photographer Fréderique Boisson [Фредерик Буассон], and his German colleague Fritz Eggler purchased the studio of the famous court photographer ‘Pasetti’ in St. Petersburg. These gentlemen became the favored photographers. Among the first to do sittings in the homes of their clients, Eggler himself was known as a master of the refined portrait and employed artistic poses, and enhanced lighting. Some 914 such photographs were taken by the firm at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.

Personal photography surged in popularity when in 1888 Kodak introduced its Box camera, capable of capturing 100 exposed images. Families, including the royalty of Europe and Russia, began recording their own impromptu events, and hence personal photo albums were kept and are extant today.

Predating the advent of color photography, Fabergé engaged the notable miniaturist painter Vasili Zuiev (1870-1941)³, whose miniatures appear on the 1911 15^th Anniversary Egg, 1908 Alexander Palace Egg, and the 1903 Peter the Great Egg.⁴

 

Zuiev’s miniature of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna on the 15^th Anniversary Egg, presented to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for Easter of 1911, is ‘after’ a photograph depicting the third daughter of the Emperor from a 1910 sitting. Imperial Eggs often required up to a full year for Fabergé and his workmasters to design, coordinate various artisans, and ultimately complete the eggs. The miniaturist was certainly aware, through working closely with the last Imperial Family and the portfolio of photographs from which he produced his miniatures, of the four daughters’ traditional scheme of attire. As the number of daughters increased from 1895 through 1901, the girls were dressed alike and most usually in white.⁵ While the dominant color in their wardrobe remained white throughout their brief lives, there was an adjustment with the ‘Big Pair’ (Olga & Tatiana) whose hair went up and hemlines down. The same applied to the ‘Little Pair’ (Maria & Anastasia) as they matured. Regardless, Zuiev held to familiar ‘white’ hue of their dresses when he painted portrait miniatures for the 1911 Egg.

Where were we? Oh, yes, Time Travel. Chaos theorist, James Gleick writes: “Is the future already contained in the past? … Changing the direction of time is as easy as changing a sign from plus to minus.”⁶

 

1904 Fabergé-style Egg from the Exhibition Entitled,
Fabergé Style: Excellence Beyond Time, December 15, 2018 – March 24, 2019
(Museum and Exhibition Complex, New Jerusalem near Moscow, Russia)

 

With the development of computer technology, the creative ‘colorization’ of historical photographs emerged, and the pluses and minuses began to change. An interesting progression in this case study evolves:

1. Photographs are taken during a sitting at a specific time in history. An artist working at Imperial behest, paints a miniature ‘after’ the photograph, or he may also have hand-colored an original, depending on the nature of the request. Illustrations from original sittings and original miniatures from Imperial Fabergé Easter eggs have been compiled below for the four daughters of Emperor Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, and the Imperial pair. Column 1.
2. Software graphics technology initiates ‘colorization’ of archival photographs. DeviantArt formed in 2000 is an online community featuring artwork, videography, and photography using these techniques. Column 2.⁷
3. From the year 2000 on, ‘miniatures’ painted ‘after’ these digitally colorized photographs have appeared. Examples in column 3 are based on a 1904 Fabergé-style egg.

Links, where possible, and commentary along with a system of arrows designates the ‘direction of Time’ for the photographic collage:

• suggests the dates move in the accepted forward direction.
• suggests the dates move out of historical context and backward in time.

Column 1 Archival Photograph	Column 2 Colorized Photograph	Column 3 1904 Fabergé-style Egg
Olga Nikolaevna (1895-1918)	Internet link (see endnote 7 for existing reproduction limitations): Olga’s court dress, kokoshnik & tie bows are colored in pale pink, her ribbon of the Order of St. Catherine (awarded at baptism) is appropriately in red. On her shoulder is the correct blue ribbon holding her father’s 1896 coronation medal.
1904 - Archival photograph taken by Boisson & Egglers, Photographers of Their Imperial Majesties.8 (Wikimedia Commons)		The colors in the miniature are reproduced in detail from the colorized version.
Tatiana Nicholaevna (1897-1918)	Internet link: In the colorized version, the details of Tatiana’s traditionally white dress, shoulder bows and cummerbund are depicted in blue.
1906 - Archival photograph was taken at a formal sitting.9 (Wikimedia Commons)		The miniature portrait of Tatiana is here depicted in blue, however, the original photograph used for this ‘1904 Fabergé-style egg’ was not taken until 1906.
Maria Nikolaevna (1899-1918)	The colorized photograph in ‘blue’ is no longer shown on the Internet at press time.
Photograph from a 1910 Sitting10 (Bokhanov, A.N., Editor, et al. The Romanovs: Love, Power & Tragedy, 1993, p. 126)		Maria’s dress is tinted blue on the missing colorized 1910 photograph. The accent binding at the neck and upper arms appeared in a contrasting ivory tone on the missing colorization and shown here on the ‘1904 Fabergé-style egg’.
Anastasia Nicholaevna (1901-1918)	Internet link: Various color schemes of this original photograph can be found in green, pink, etc. In this version, her shoulder bows and cummerbund are colored in pink corresponding to the details of the image of Anastasia shown in the ‘1904 Fabergé-Style’ egg to the right.
1906 - Archival photograph in the same formal sitting as her sister Tatiana.11 (Boisson & Egglers - GARF)		The ‘1904 Fabergé-style egg’ is dated two years before the original 1906 photograph.

A photograph of Anastasia from the same 1906 sitting as above shows her familiar puckish smile. Vasili Zuiev used his original photograph for his miniature on the 1908 Alexander Palace Egg.

 

 

 

Artists creating in other mediums, including oil painting, also confirm historical facts. For historians, an original photograph and its interpretations often become an important tool in the dating of a subsequent work. An example of such a progression can be seen in this series of Emperor Nicholas II (1868-1918).

The 1894 Cabinet Card (CdV)¹² image (A.) in sepia tone and the chromolithograph (B.) depict Nicholas II with a 4-medal bar (kolodka) on his dress uniform, while the last illustration (C.) depicts his 5-medal bar:

1. Order of St. Vladimir (4^th class, awarded in 1890)
2. Medal for Alexander III Coronation (established May 12, 1883)
3. Cross of Honor (“Silver Cross”) of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog (awarded Sept. 11, 1891)
4. Greek Order of the Redeemer (awarded May 6, 1884). Medal 3 and 4 were awarded to Nicholas since both the Danish and Greek Royal Houses were familial connections.
5. Medal for the Reign of Alexander III (was established by Imperial decree on February 26, 1896)

Column 1 Miniature from the 1903 Peter the Great Egg	Column 2 Colorized Photograph	Column 3 1904 Fabergé-style Egg
	The arrow of Time goes in the wrong directions for the medals on the ‘1904 Fabergé-Style’ egg.
Miniature of Emperor Nicholas II, signed on left, В. Зуевь [court miniaturist, Vassilii Ivanovich Zuiev (1870-after 1931)] watercolor, ivory on the 1903 Peter the Great Egg (above) portrays the Emperor wearing a 5-medal bar. It appears to be ‘after’ the 1902 Blaznov miniature. (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Bequest of Lillian Pratt, Photo: Travis Fullerton © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)		The arrow of Time appears to change directions in that the Emperor once again wears a 4-medal bar which depicts him in the December 1892 - Spring 1896 time frame. The artist of the 1904 miniature has miscolored the ribbon of the Cross of Honor (“Silver Cross”) of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog in blue, when it should be the traditional red & white of the Dannebrog and the Danish Flag. The ‘Danish Cloth’, the oldest continuous national flag, was in use since the 14th century.

My observations are that none of the miniatures on the ‘1904 Fabergé-Style’ egg in this case study are up to the artistic standards of Vasili Zuiev, the Russian court miniaturist, and in particular, the ‘1904’ miniatures of the Emperor and Empress fall dreadfully short. Distortions in facial shape, and the peculiar eye treatment are disturbing when one considers the abundance of images available for examination.

This essay reviews historical photographs used by both Carl Fabergé in the creation of certain of his Imperial Easter Eggs, and more recently miniatures created ‘after’ digital colorizations of these Imperial photographs without consideration for their historical context. Comparisons leave us with serious ‘time-line’ inconsistencies.

Perhaps the reference to the directional flow of Time from theoretical physicist, Richard Feynman (1918-1988), states the case best: “Well, you see that all there is to it is that the irreversibility is caused by the general accidents of life … Fifteen billiard balls could smash around a table and finally come to a stop in a perfect triangle they could, and the probability is not zero, but when you see that happen, you know that the film has been reversed.”¹⁴

 

 

ENDNOTES:

¹ The coronation of Nichols II was in 1896.
² Courtesy of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF).
³ Skurlov, Valentin, et al., Vasiii Zuiev: pridvornyi miniatiurist, khudozhnik firmy Faberzhe (Vasilii Zuiev: Court Painter of Miniatures, Artists in the Fabergé Firm), 2017. In Russian; an earlier publication is Vasilii Ivanovich Zuiev, Artist-miniaturist of the Fabergé Firm by Vasilyeva, N.I. and V.V. Skurlov, 2015, in Fabergé Research Newsletter, Winter 2015
⁴ For other Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs with Zuiev miniatures, see the Imperial Egg Chronology on the Fabergé Research Site.
⁵ Their nautical attire on the Imperial Yacht Standart is one exception.
⁶ Gleick, James. Time Travel: A History, 2016, pp. 131, 114.
⁷ Due to recent copyright restrictions (EU GDPR and California law), some of the colorized versions of these original photographs cannot be added to this study, because the web sites require time-consuming copyright permission requests, and/or charge fees for the use/purchase of modern colorized photographs. Social media illustrations change frequently, have not gone through the GDPR process, and are also not included.
⁸ This photographic image was not used as a model on an Imperial Egg by the original Fabergé firm.
⁹ This photographic image was not used as a model on an Imperial Egg by the original Fabergé firm.
¹⁰ This photographic image was not used as a model on an Imperial Egg by the original Fabergé firm.
¹¹ This photographic image was not used as a model on an Imperial Egg by the original Fabergé firm.
¹² This ‘carte de visit’ was a type of small photograph mounted on stiff pieces of cardboard was patented in Paris by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Diséri in 1854. These cards became a fixture in the late 19^th century Victorian parlor. Often presented in ‘sepia tone’, a chemical process of changing the color of silver-based photographic prints.
¹³ On August 30, 1898, the Russian minister to the Holy See, Alexander Isvolsky, called on the Cardinal Secretary, Mariano Rampolla, with a communication from his government. A week earlier, Nicholas II proposed an international conference to consider ways to limit world armaments and secure a just and durable peace.
¹⁴ Gleick, James. Time Travel: A History, 2016, pp. 114-18.
¹⁵ Haight, Amanda, Anna Akhmatova: A Poetic Pilgrimage, 1976, p. 151. Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova (1899-1966), born Gorenko, was one of the most honored Russian poets. She was short-listed for the Nobel Prize in 1965.

By Christel Ludewig McCanless and Riana Benko

 

Miniature and full-size furniture created by the Russian court jeweler Carl Fabergé in his St. Petersburg and Moscow studios is a fascinating topic. Close to 30 objects¹ made by four Fabergé workmasters and the Moscow Gold and Silver Factory were discovered in a literature review:

• Mikhail Perkhin, head workmaster (М.П.), the most prolific maker of miniature furniture – a dozen or so – was replaced after his death in 1903 at age 43 by
• Henrik Wigström, senior workmaster () for whom only three pieces of miniature are known.
• Julius Alexander Rappoport, workmaster (active 1883-1908, ) gave his workshop to his employees, who formed the First St. Petersburg Silver Cooperative/Artel, it may have existed from 1908-11, ).
• Hjalmar Armfelt, workmaster (active 1904-1917, ), and
• Moscow Gold and Silver Factory (February 1887 – January 1918).²

Perkhin miniature furniture

The miniature bonbonnière chair (B.) from the Mikhail Perkin studio was in the news before its 2007 auction.⁵ At the time, Fabergé authority Géza von Habsburg shared three major observations in the American and British press⁶ which still hold true 13 years later in 2020:

• “Fabergé furniture is extremely rare, which accounts for its enormous value, …
• smaller than the number of surviving Fabergé Easter eggs, which is 42⁷…
• the estimate ($1 million-1.5 million), while staggering, is perfectly realistic.”

The chair, a mere 2 1/4″ tall, was sold in 2007 for $2.28 million (including the auction house commission) to an unnamed buyer after a fierce battle between two phone bidders. In 2019, the same chair and a miniature table (A.), each with a similar estimate of $1,060,000-1,590,000, were withdrawn from the auction.⁸

Provenance of the table (A.):

• von Solodkoff, Alexander. Russian Gold and Silver Work, 17^th-19^th Century, 1981, pp. 118 (illustration #135), 123. Bonbonnière is illustrated without a provenance or a photographic credit.
• Acquired by the Forbes Magazine Collection, New York, from Aux Menus Plaisirs, London, date unknown.
• From 1985-1999 the table was regularly included in Forbes publications and loan exhibitions.⁹ The last date coincides with publication of the catalogue raisonné for the Forbes Magazine Collection as the family began estate planning to turn over the Forbes business in an orderly fashion to the next generation¹⁰.
• Sotheby’s London, June 4, 2019, Lot 257, estimate: $1,060,000-1,590,000, object withdrawn before the auction.

Perkhin miniature bonbonnière chair (B.):

The publicity in print before and after the 2007 sale for the $2.28 million miniature bonbonnière chair was quite voluminous. In a contemporary article, “100 Top Treasures”, the best art objects sold or donated in 2007 were described with the chair chosen as #65 complete with a tongue-in cheek observation, “Considering its diminutive size (2 1/4” high), that translates to approximately $1 million per inch”.¹¹ In a more serious vein, the antique jewelry dealer Wartski in London published a stunning brochure supplemented with a detailed website (now abbreviated) with new provenance research.

Provenance of the chair (B.):¹²

• March 9-15 [o.s.], 1902, Charity Exhibition of Fabergé Artistic Objects, Old Miniatures and Snuff Boxes on view in the von Dervis Mansion in St. Petersburg, Russia, includes objects from the Imperial Family’s Fabergé collection. The Perkhin chair is clearly visible in an archival photograph of Maria Pavlovna’s display case (C.) in the venue.

 

 

 

• Emperor Nicholas ll writes in his journal about the exhibition on March 9, 1902:
  “… After breakfast we went to see the opening ceremony of Alix’s charity fete in Dervise’s house. It felt strange to see my own things as well as the things belonging to other people whom I knew very well. The collections of the old snuff-boxes and miniatures were very interesting …” (Fund 601, doc. 237. January – September 1897 [sic]¹³, translated by Jsenya Dyakova)
• October 30, 1917, five days after the October Revolution, a jewelry inventory collection belonging to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (1854-1920), wife of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, records the miniature bonbonnière chair as item 466. Her passion in jewels is confirmed in the inventory listing (H.) which contains 1559 Fabergé objects, packed in 21 boxes, most likely inventoried by Agathon Fabergé, Carl Fabergé’s second son, a 2014 publication entitled, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (I.), and in her Wikipedia entry.

Entries from the 1917 Maria Pavlovna inventory:

---

Also listed in the Maria Pavlovna inventory is a Fabergé miniature bonbonnière table, possibly similar to the object in (A.) above:

• The Ratibor Family, Princes of Ratibor and Corvey. In 2017, identified as Property of a European Princely Family.
• With Wartski.
• Sotheby’s London, June 4, 2019, Lot 256, estimate US $ 1,060,000-1,590,000, withdrawn before the sale. Lots 256-267 include three essays – Furniture of Fantasy, Fabergé Miniature Furniture: Style and Technique, and Sources for the Design¹⁵ for additional fascinating background information on Fabergé’s miniature furniture production.

Wigström miniature furniture

A bonbonnière and two salt cellars from the studio of Wigström, Fabergé’s senior workmaster () who took over Perkhin’s workshop after his death in 1903, are now permanently on display at the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, USA.

 

 

ENDNOTES:

¹ Miniature sedan chairs are not included.
² Biographical reference resources for Fabergé workmasters: Lowes, Will, and Christel Ludewig McCanless. Fabergé Eggs: A Retrospective Encyclopedia, 2001, pp. 175-245; Tillander-Godenhielm, Ulla. Fabergé: His Masters and Artisans, 2018.
³ Details no longer on the Internet.
⁴ Tillander-Godenhielm, Ulla. Fabergé: His Masters and Artisans, 2018, pp. 70-85.
⁵ Sotheby’s New York, April 16, 2007, Lot 32, pp. 36-37.
⁶ Moonan, Wendy, “Definitely Imperial But Way Too Tiny for Napoleon”, New York Times, April 13, 2007, Section E, PT2, Column 1, p. 37; Wigmore, Barry, “Take a Seat … for Pounds 1m; But Don’t Try Putting Your Feet Up, It’s Only Two Inches High”, Daily Mail (London), April 20, 2007, First Edition A, p. 34.
⁷ Third Imperial Egg found in 2014 changes the new total to 43 extant eggs out of the 50 made by the original Fabergé firm which closed in 1918.
⁸ Sotheby’s London, June 4, 2019, Lot 256 (B. Chair) and 257 (A. Table).
⁹ Forbes, Christopher, and Robyn Tromeur-Brenner. Fabergé: The Forbes Collection, 1999, p. 278.
¹⁰ Scherer, Barrymore Laurence, “Imperialcoup”, Art & Auction, April 2004, pp. 65-68.
¹¹ Art & Antiques, November 2007, p. 87.
¹² Based on Sotheby’s New York, April 16, 2007, Lot 32; Sotheby’s London, June 4, 2019, Lot 256; Wartski Research.
¹³ Date (1897) of the Fund citation appears to pre-date by five years the Emperor’s diary citation and the date of the venue (both in 1902) by five years. Sotheby’s London, June 4, 2019, p. 34.
¹⁴ Additional research on Maria Pavlovna: von Solodkoff, Alexander, “Fabergé and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna” in von Habsburg, Géza. Fabergé Revealed at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011, pp. 110-119; Sotheby’s London, November 30, 2009, Romanov Heirlooms: The Lost Inheritance of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna.
¹⁵ Research by Russian scholars, Galina Korneva and Tatiana Cheboksarova.
¹⁶ Additional information: Tillander-Godenhielm, Ulla. Fabergé: His Masters and Artisans, 2018, pp. 86-133.
¹⁷ Stock Number Research by Valentin Skurlov published in Fabergé, Tatiana F., Kohler, Eric-Alain, and Valentin V. Skurlov. Fabergé: A Comprehensive Reference Book, 2012, p. 593. The essay, “New Light on the Workshop of Henrik Wigström” by Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm cited in the article appears in the 1993 publication by von Habsburg, Géza, and Marina Lopato, Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller, pp. 84-103.
¹⁸ Explanatory note (Courtesy Wartski London)
¹⁹ Art & Antiques, Vol. 7, No. 3, March 1990, p. 73, states the final price as $238,000.
²⁰ Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg, Exhibition Index 2014, Gold Room, Case 4. View of the chair en situ at the museum.

 

Compiled By Christel Ludewig McCanless

 

Bruun Rasmussen Auctions, Copenhagen, Denmark:

Research by DeeAnn Hoff, independent researcher, “Monogrammed Beauty: Queen Marie’s Brooch” is cited in Bruun Rasmussen, Russian Art, November 29, 2019, Lot 836 – Russian Royal Fabergé Presentation Brooch.

 

 

Found! Christie’s New York, The Metropolitan Opera Guild Collection, June 15, 2017, Lot 50, Fabergé Parasol Handle, Provenance: Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931), Australian operatic soprano (Courtesy Jeffrey Eger)

 

 

Doyle New York …

Next auction of Fabergé and Russian Works of Art on April 28, 2020 will be online. Fabergé specialist: Mark Moehrke

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Maxime Charron (Art History Expert, Paris, France) shared highlights of Russian works of art sold in 2019 in France:

 

 

Olivier Coutau-Begarie, November 15, 2012, Arte Russe, p. 101, an Index des Poincons illustrates hall marks from various lots in the auction catalog. Only available in the hard copy.

 

 

Russian Auctions is a huge database (in English and Russian) with hundreds of thousands of exclusive items exhibited at worldwide auctions of Russian art for the last 40 years. A series of articles in English by Fabergé scholars is available.

 

 

 

Schmidt Kunstauktionen Dresden, December 7, 2019, Lot 991, Silver Kovsh, Moscow, ca. 1913. A six-page fold-out brochure arrived via snail mail at my house in late November. After a quick look at the auction house’s website previously unknown to me, it revealed comprehensive research complete with 20 illustrations for an object new to the market. Two articles in previous Fabergé Research Newsletter issues are cited:

• Sparke, Cynthia, and Hoff, DeeAnn: “Fabergé’s Monumental Kovshes with Bogatyr Themes” in: Fabergé Research Newsletter, Winter 2015.
• Hoff, DeeAnn: “From Bogatyrs to Boyars” in: Fabergé Research Newsletter, Winter 2016.

 

 

Sotheby’s London, Russian Works of Art, Fabergé & Icons, November 26, 2019, Lot 305, Gum Pot made by the Henrik Wigström studio, ca. 1904-1908. Steve Kirsch published a lengthy research essay, “Every Acquisition Has a Story” in the Fabergé Research Newsletter, Spring 2016 – 10^th Anniversary Edition about sequentially numbered gum pots, and ended his story with a challenge to readers – “And where is this blue gum pot [Fabergé stock number 12602]? The search continues!” and is still on…the red gum pot [stock number 12603] recently at auction has an Imperial provenance complete with a Fabergé invoice, and a new home in 2019.

 

 

Helen Culver Smith, Director and International Head of Sotheby’s Russian Works of Art Department, writes about a snowflake pendant (Lot 304) in her essay, “How a Young Russian Woman Revolutionised Fabergé’s Designs“. Auction houses publish results of prices realized after each auction.

 

 

Caveat emptor! Buyer Beware! A Follow-up to “Case Study III: ‘Inscribed Fabergé’ Kamer Kazaks at Auction“

 

A. Fabergé Bronze Cossacks, a Pair, Pustynnikov Chamber Cossack 1894 (sic)
(The Saleroom: The Home of Art & Antique Auction)

 

B. Cast-metal Inscriptions for Kamer Kazaks, Did Not Sell
(Courtesy Rowley’s Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers)

 

C. Fabergé’s Hand-carved Inscriptions for Kudinov (left) and Pustynnikov (right), Created in 1912
(Courtesy GIA, p.135)

 

In the case study cited above, Tim Adams explained the various processes used to make these objects, and wondered if the multiple objects under the hammer from 2015-2017 could have been licensed by Fabergé and outsourced to a toy manufacturer during Fabergé’s time? The auction lot description for Chamber Cossack (A.) is not based on known facts, and the answer to Adams’ question still alludes modern researchers.

 

 

An original Associated Press photograph (D.) dated Saturday, March 9, 1935, for release in the Sunday, March 10, 1935, edition of an unnamed newspaper shows the 1899 Pansy Egg by Fabergé (Jade Easter Egg). Along with vivid description of the Pansy Egg by the Hammer Galleries the cut-line caption on the back of the photograph text states, “the workmanship alone cost $50,000”. Inserting the date of the photograph into the known provenance timeline of the Pansy Egg in the Gray Collection suggests the price mark-up is quite steep. One also wonders, if the cut-line text, “A Treasure of the Romanoffs” is perhaps an advertisement for Armand Hammer’s first “autobiography” – The Quest of the Romanoff Treasure – published in the United States in 1932 and reprinted in 1936 (1200 copies) in which he describes his stay in the Soviet Union with help from Walter Duranty, a New York Times correspondent in Moscow. (Epstein, Edward Jay. Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer, 1996, pp. 127-130)

Provenance of the 1899 Pansy Egg:

• April 18 (OS), 1899. Would have been presented to Marie Feodorovna, a gift from Nicholas II; cost 5,600 silver rubles. Housed in the Anichkov Palace
• September 16-20 (OS), 1917. One of forty or so eggs sent to the Armoury Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow by the Kerensky Provisional Government for safekeeping
• February-March 1922. Transferred to the Sovnarkom, the Council of People’s Commissars
• June 17, 1927. One of sixteen eggs returned by the Foreign Currency Fund of the Narkomfin (Finance Ministry) to the Armoury; given inventory no. 17539
• April 30, 1930. One of twelve eggs selected for export sale
• June 21, 1930. Transferred from the Armoury to the Antikvariat (Trade Department)
• 1930. One of ten Imperial eggs sold by the Antikvariat, Moscow, to Hammer Galleries, New York, for 7,500 rubles (ca. $3,750)
• March 9/10, 1935. Associated Press Photograph with Cut-line for A Treasure of the Romanoffs and the text “Workmanship Alone Cost $50,000 per Hammer Galleries, New York”
• November 1936. Advertised by Hammer Galleries, New York
• April 1943. Displayed in Hammer Galleries, New York
• 1947. First egg bought from Hammer Galleries by Matilda Geddings Gray, oil heiress, of Lake Charles and New Orleans, Louisiana. Given to her niece, Mrs. Matilda Gray Stream of New Orleans, Louisiana, as a first wedding anniversary present

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A coin (E.) with the Apple Blosssom Egg image was issued in December 2019 to honor the 100^th anniversary of the death of Carl Fabergé. For more details, “The Liechtenstein Fabergé Egg”, CoinsWeekly, December 19, 2019.

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Videos:

• An Egg-stravaganza! Fabergé Eggs from the Royal Collection
• “Parmigiani Fleurier and the Yusupov Fabergé Egg of 1907” by Elizabeth Doerr, Quill & Pad, April 4, 2020

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A reader inquired about a fold-out brochure with a Comparative Time Line created for the 1989 San Diego Museum of Art Fabergé: The Imperial Eggs exhibition during which 27 Fabergé eggs were united for the first and only time. The question, is there such a time line for all known Fabergé eggs – Tsar Imperial, Imperial, Kelch, and Other? Contact: Christel McCanless

 

With so many exhibitions and museums closed this spring, the exhibition and museum news have been combined with a closer look at existing data on the Internet helpful to researchers and enthusiasts. Come join us for the adventure and share other resources you have discovered. Tim Adams, who contributed to this compilation, and I would love hear from you. Contact: Christel McCanless

 

Permanent
(Checking exhibition status in advance is advised.)

 

 

Temporary
(Exhibition dates change, checking in advance is advised.)

 

• September 14, 2019 – March 15, 2020  Hermitage Amsterdam in the Netherlands affiliated with the Russian Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The Jewels! Glittering at the Russian Court exhibition has closed. The English catalog with the same title contains scholarly essays and presents many of the 300 dazzling jewels and more than 100 paintings, accessories, dresses and costumes which together give an impression of the wealth and extravagance of the Russian tsars and the St. Petersburg high society over the course of 200 years.
   
• November 19, 2019 – April 30, 2020  State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russia
   
  Fabergé and the Court Jewellers
  Exhibition Review by Timothy Adams (USA)
   
  

  

  

  
   
  
   
  

  

  

  Snapshots from Fabergé and the Court Jewellers Exhibition (Courtesy of the Author)
  Final Image: International Guests Visiting with Galina Smorodinova (foreground) at the Opening Ceremony.

   
  Organized by the museum’s curator Galina Smorodinova, the venue featured pieces from the State Historical Museum Collection never before seen in public. It was my honor to be invited with Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm (Finland), Irina Polynina (Moscow), museum donors, political dignitaries, and historians for the opening reception. The center of the beautiful exhibition hall was reserved for the work of the Fabergé firm while along the walls of the room were objects by other prominent goldsmiths who catered to the Imperial Court.

  A large silver casket (image 3 above) made prior to 1899 by Julius Rappoport in St. Petersburg was of special interest to me. Engraved with images of eight historic military ships and chased with rococo motifs and dolphins, the casket was presented to Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, General-Admiral of the Imperial Navy (1850-1908). Large presentation pieces in silver and precious stones given by merchant guilds, as well as jewelry and accessory objects, such as cigarette cases, bell pushes, and large sculptures of an elephant and a moose were on display. One of the more unusual Fabergé pieces is a large gold memorial chain of gold wreaths (image 5) given by friends and relatives of Grand Duke George Alexandrovich (1871-1899). The exhibition celebrated the revival of historic Russian design in Moscow and juxtaposes it to the courtly Western style of St. Petersburg. Over 300 pieces in this exhibition celebrated the renaissance of Russian gold work.

   
• Opening April 7, 2020  Museum of Russian Icons, Clinton, MA
  
  Tradition & Opulence: Easter in Imperial Russia, an exhibition of nearly 200 objects, will recreate the splendor of Easter celebrations during the last days of the Tsars. No country is better known for its Easter eggs than Russia. From the jeweled creations of Fabergé to humble wood carvings, the nation’s greatest artists, icon painters, jewelers, and artisans have created imaginative egg designs in every medium for the most important of the Orthodox Christian feasts. Co-curators are Karen Kettering and Dmitry Gurevich. More…

  Also published by the museum is The Journal of Icon Studies, an online, peer-reviewed publication edited by Wendy Salmond, Chapman University, USA. An essay, “Fabergé’s Icons” by the same author appeared in the Fabergé Research Newsletter, Fall and Winter 2018.

   
• Opening May 2021  Catalina Island Museum, CA November 2021 – July 2022 Fabergé at Sea
  
   
  
  Pearl Brooch
  (Sotheby’s, London, November,
  2019, Lot 303)

  
  Coral-Handled Charka
  (Sotheby’s, London, November 30, 2011, Lot 600)
   
  Timothy Adams, curator of the Fabergé at Sea exhibition (May 2021 at the Catalina Island Museum (CA), and then at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (TX), November 2021 – July 2022) is searching for Fabergé objects made from materials found in the oceans of the world – salt water pearls, coral, and mother-of pearl. Loans of recent auction lots, or other examples are very much appreciated.

  You are invited to come see two unique Fabergé pieces which will be on loan from the U.S. Navy Silver Collection at the Annapolis Naval Academy in Maryland. Tim Adam’s research:

   
  
  A. Fabergé Punch Bowl and Ladle
  (Courtesy U.S. Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland)

  
  B. USS Beale Moored at Queensland, Ireland, 1918
  (Photograph: Wiki-Commons, Public Domain)
   

  The museum has two Fabergé objects made by the firm’s Moscow branch – a punch bowl and ladle (A.), and a kovsh (F.), a gift from Nicholas II. The punch bowl is a monumental piece of silver inlayed with a large emerald and red stones possibly rubies or tourmaline. Its rim and ball feet are chased with stylized patterns in the old Russian style. The two handles are topped with the Imperial double-headed eagles surmounted by the Imperial crown. Each eagle is set with a large oval red stone. The bowl is engraved with “USS Edward Fitzgerald Beale from his daughters”.

   
  
  C. Lieutenant Edward F. Beale,
  Naval Hero
  (Wikipedia Public Domain)

  
  D. Russian Ambassador George Bakhmeteff
  and His Wife Mary Beale
  (Photograph: Wiki-Commons. LOC
  Photo # ggbain.07163)

  
  E. USS Beale, ca. 1924
  (Photograph: Wiki-Commons, Public Domain)
   
  The Destroyer (B. and E.) was named for Lieutenant Edward F. Beale (1822-1893), a naval hero, surveyor, American explorer and Ambassador to Austria-Hungary (C.), and launched on April 30, 1912. His daughter Mary (1852-1925) married George Bakhmeteff (1847-1928), Russian Ambassador to the United States (D.) Mary presented the punch bowl (A.) at the launching of the USS Beale, named for her father, on behalf of herself and her sister Emily (1854-1912), who was married to the publisher of the Washington Post. The destroyer was decommissioned in 1919, and then transferred to the Coast Guard in 1924.

  The second Fabergé piece is discussed by Cynthia Sparke and DeeAnn Hoff in “Fabergé’s Monumental Kovshes with Bogatyr Themes”. It is a large kovsh (F.) given to the USS Mayflower (G.) by Emperor Nicholas II for hosting the signing of the peace treaty between Russia and Japan after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).

   
  
  F. Fabergé Kovsh
  (Courtesy U.S. Naval Academy
  Museum, Annapolis, MD)

  
  G. USS Mayflower
  (Photograph: Wiki-Commons)
   

  The kovsh is also decorated in the old Russian style, in the form of a bogatyr, a medieval knight of Russian lore found in legends defending Rus (Old Russia of the 9^th-12^th centuries) from invaders. The knight leans against a bowl inlayed with Siberian stones and decorated with organic vine and floral motifs and has the inscription “To the hospitable Yacht Mayflower as a token from the Russian delegates to the peace conference at Portsmouth, August 1905”. The USS Mayflower was launched in 1896 as the Presidential Yacht and served five U.S. Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) to Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933). Next it was used in the U.S. Coast Guard, in the Israeli Navy, and finally broken up in 1955. Fabergé objects connected to military ships and imperial yachts are a fascinating topic not yet explored in depth.