BY FABERGÉ, ST PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1900

Details

A JEWELLED GOLD-MOUNTED COMPOSITE HARDSTONE MODEL OF A BLUE TIT
BY FABERGÉ, ST PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1900
Realistically carved as a standing blue tit, composed of various hardstones, including lapis lazuli, yellow chalcedony, bowenite, agate and onyx, with rose-cut diamond-set eyes and finely chased gold feet, apparently unmarked
2 in. (5 cm.) long

Provenance

Acquired from Wartski, London, in May 1995.

Literature

G. von Habsburg, Fabergé: Imperial Craftsman and His World, London, 2000, p. 310, no. 843 (illustrated).
Exhibition catalogue, Fabergé - Cartier, Rivalen am Zarenhof, Munich, 2003, illustrated p. 253, no. 361 (illustrated).
Exhibition catalogue, Carl Fabergé. A Private Collection, London, 2012, p. 103, no. 85 (illustrated).
Geoffrey C. Munn, Wartski: The First One Hundred and Fifty Years, London, 2015, p. 81 (illustrated).

Exhibited

London, Spencer House, Fabergé from Private Collections - An exhibition on behalf of Music in Country Churches, 8 December 1998, no. 28.
Wilmington, Riverfront Arts Centre, Fabergé, Imperial Craftsman and his World, 14 August 2000 - 28 February 2001, no. 843.
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Fabergé/Cartier, Rivals at the Tsar’s Court, 28 November 2003 - 12 April 2004, no. 361.
London, Wartski, Carl Fabergé. A Private Collection, 15 - 25 May 2012, no. 85.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Margo Oganesian Head of Department, Fabergé and Russian Works of Art

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Lot Essay

The original design for a comparable composite model of a blue tit is featured in a surviving album of Henrik Wigström’s drawings, numbered '12637' and dated '1911' (U. Tillander-Godenhielm et al., Golden Years of Fabergé: Drawings and Objects from the Wigström Workshop, Paris, 2000, p. 159, pl. 111).

According to Geoffrey Munn, this model of a bluetit was one of the first Fabergé hardstone animals acquired by Emanuel Snowman in Russia in the 1930s (see Geoffrey C. Munn, Wartski: The First One Hundred and Fifty Years, London, 2015, p. 82).

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