.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The following collection of jewellery (lots 214-219) is offered at auction for the first time by the descendants of Friedrich Ludwig Mertens (1812-1887), owner of a prominent nineteenth-century fur business that was located on 21 Nevsky Prospekt in St Petersburg. Mertens moved to Russia from Germany in 1832 and acquired the impressive structure, still known as the Mertens House Building, in 1871. The present-day appearance of Mertens House dates to 1910-1912, when Friedrich Ludwig Mertens commissioned the architect Mikhail Lyalevich to remodel the building in current Neo-classical and Art Nouveau style. V.V. Kuznetsov added sculptural details to the faade. The remodelled building forms an essential part of the layout and view of the Nevsky Prospect.
According to his descendants, Friedrich Ludwig Mertens supplied the Imperial family with furs from his shop and most likely knew the Fabergé family personally. He was married twice and had twenty-one children. As a result of the Revolution, his descendants left Russia between 1917 and 1925.
For a related brooch by Oskar Pihl from the William Kazan collection, see M.Y. Ghosn, Objets de Vertu par Fabergé, Paris, 1996, p. 181, no. 104. Also see The William Kazan Collection of Fabergé; Christie's, New York, 15 April 1997, lot 140.
According to his descendants, Friedrich Ludwig Mertens supplied the Imperial family with furs from his shop and most likely knew the Fabergé family personally. He was married twice and had twenty-one children. As a result of the Revolution, his descendants left Russia between 1917 and 1925.
For a related brooch by Oskar Pihl from the William Kazan collection, see M.Y. Ghosn, Objets de Vertu par Fabergé, Paris, 1996, p. 181, no. 104. Also see The William Kazan Collection of Fabergé; Christie's, New York, 15 April 1997, lot 140.