Fabergé treasures in the USA

I have recently read the book Fabergé: Fantasies & Treasures, written by Geza von Habsburg and published by Universe in 1996.

Carl Fabergé (1846-1920) was born into a family in St Petersburg that created jewellery. The young man, trained in Russia and Germany, was in the right place and the right time. He had luck of course, but he also had great creative skills and beautiful crafts­manship - all three elements bringing him to the attention of the Russian Imperial Court.

He helped out in the Jewellery Gallery of the Hermitage and in time (in the mid-1880s) was named goldsmith and jeweller to the Russian court. His works were first displayed at the 1882 Pan-Slavic exhibition held in Moscow under the patronage of Czar Alexander III.

Battle of Borodino, Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia. 
Workmaster: Henrik Emanuel Wigström. Miniaturist: Vassily Ivanovich Zuiev
Tsar Nicholas II’s gift to his mother, Empress Maria Fyodorovna. 
On long term long to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Yet it was only when Alexander asked Fabergé to create a special Easter egg for the czarina that this iconic object was first invented. Fortunately for the Romanovs these eggs became an Easter tradit­ion throughout Alexander's reign, his son Nicholas II’s reign and on until the Russian Revolution in 1917. Of the 50 Fabergé eggs ever made, the von Habsburg book concentrated on those in the Pratt collection in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Clearly Carl Fabergé and his brother could not manage all the work themselves. They therefore decided to establish independent workshops, headed up by a Fabergé workmaster i.e a master craftsman who would produce works of art specifically and exclusively for the House of Fabergé. Nothing would be accepted by the Fabergés until and unless it had been approved by Carl.

So if there were many workmasters, why were their so few eggs ever completed? Apparently it took two years just to prepare for every single egg. Yet so famous were they that of the many thousands of jewels and art objects made by Fabergé, most peoples’ minds go straight to the relatively few Easter eggs.

My favourite was the Napoleonic Egg of 1912 which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the victory of the Russian armies over the dread­ed French emperor. Made of gold, enamel, diamonds, platinum, ivory, velvet and silk, this tiny egg was only 11.2 cms high. Yet it opened into 6 signed miniatures, each richly framed, which were later found in an album of drawings from the workshop of Henrik Wigström. Wigström had been one of the famous Fabergé workmasters who created stunning art objects during the 1903-1918 era.

Fabergé and his workshop made the most beautiful objects out of gold, enamel and hardstone; his picture frames, cigarette cases, clocks and silver animal decanters were created for the ruling families of Europe or any other patron wealthy enough to spend limitless sums of money. So it is appropriate that the book also presents gold, enamel, and hardstone pieces by the artist-jeweller. If I had to select which objects in the book were the most splendid, I would certainly select the guilloche enamels. von Habsburg did not reveal Faberge’s most zealously guarded secret i.e the process used to make his enamels.

Fabergé left Russia in 1918 and died in Switzerland in 1920. In 1924 sons Alexander and Eugéne re-opened Fabergé in Paris, where they continued to make the art objects that their father had been so successful with. To distinguish their pieces from those made in Russia before the Revolution, they used the trademark FABERGÉ PARIS.