Prince Henry was the fourth child and third son of Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary, and fifth in line of succession to his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, Empress of India. Indeed he was the last royal baby to be photographed in the arms of Queen Victoria. He was born in the twilight years of the brilliant and glittering world of the European Ancien Régime. His great-aunt was the widowed Empress Frederick of Germany, mother of the last Kaiser Wilhelm II and his father's first cousin, Princess Alix of Hesse, had married Nicholas II. Queen Maud of Norway, wife of King Haakon VII was his aunt and his grandmother Queen Alexandra, was the daughter of the King of Denmark. It was a world that was shattered and swept away by the First World War, that witnessed the fall of the Habsburg, Romanoff and Hozenzollern Dynasties, the latter two Empires ruled by his cousins. Throughout his life, he balanced the demands of his Royal status and protocol with his natural modesty and represented four monarchs at State occasions, including the Coronation of Emperor Heile Sellasie in Abyssinia in 1930 - a Royal tour without precedent. The collection of Fabergé formed by Her Majesty Queen Mary is legendary and testimony to the fact that Prince Henry inherited his mother's passion for Fabergé is furnished by the lots that follow. PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE HENRY, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER KG., KT., KP.

A JEWELLED GOLD-MOUNTED KALGAN JASPER MODEL OF AN ELEPHANT AND CASTLE

BY FABERGÉ, CIRCA 1900, SCRATCHED INVENTORY NUMBER 3218

Details

A JEWELLED GOLD-MOUNTED KALGAN JASPER MODEL OF AN ELEPHANT AND CASTLE
BY FABERGÉ, CIRCA 1900, SCRATCHED INVENTORY NUMBER 3218
Humorously carved, standing and smiling, with rose-cut diamond-set eyes, supporting a gold turret enamelled with white champlevé stonework and bands of rose-cut diamonds within red guilloché enamel borders, the band across the body enamelled in guilloché red and white and set with rose-cut diamonds within shaped reserves, unmarked
2 in. (5.1 cm.) high

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, Fabergé from Private Collections, London, 1992, listed and illustrated no. 15.

Exhibited

London, Wartski, Fabergé from Private Collections, 1992, no. 15.

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Lot Essay

These charming elephants were undoubtedly inspired by the Order of the Elephant, the highest order of chivalry in Denmark. The order is of ancient origin, but was instituted in its current form in 1693 by King Christian V. The Danish monarch is the head of the order; other members of the Royal family are entitled to wear the order, which can also be bestowed on foreign monarchs and heads of state.
The relationship between Russia and Denmark was strengthened in 1866 by the marriage of Tsar Alexander III to Princess Dagmar of Denmark. In 1892 the couple ordered from Fabergé a kovsh with a finial in the form of the Order of the Elephant as a gift to Princess Dagmar's parents King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark in honour of theirgolden wedding anniversary.
The badge of the order is an elephant, traditionally made of white-enamelled gold supporting a watch tower in front of which sits a Moor holding a golden spear, on the right side of the elephant there is a cross of diamonds and on the left the elephant bears the monogram of the bestowing monarch.
Other examples of these models include one in the Wernher collection at Luton Hoo, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Fabergé, Munich, Kunsthalle of the Hypo-Kulturstiftung, 1986-1987, p. 201, pl. 348 and another example is in the collection of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, illustrated in C. de Guitaut, Fabergé in the Royal Collection, London, 2003, p. 100, no. 115.

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