BY FABERGÉ, ST PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1900

Details

A JEWELLED AND GOLD-MOUNTED AGATE MODEL OF A DUCKLING
BY FABERGÉ, ST PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1900
Realistically carved as a standing duckling, with rose-cut diamond-set eyes and finely chased gold feet, apparently unmarked; in the original fitted Fabergé wooden case
1 5⁄8 in. (4 cm.) high

Provenance

Emily Yznaga del Valle (1859-1944), sister of the Duchess of Manchester.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, Geneva, 28 April 1976, lot 192.

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, Exhibition of Russian Art, London, 1935, p. 112, no. 588H (listed).
G. von Habsburg and A. von Solodkoff, Fabergé: Court Jeweller to the Tsars, London, 1979, pl. 104.
Exhibition catalogue, Carl Fabergé. Kostbarkeiten Russischer Goldschmiedekunst der Jahrkunderwende, Zurich, 1989, p. 60, no. 157 (illustrated).
Exhibition catalogue, Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller, St Petersburg, 1993, p. 291, no. 159 (illustrated).
G. von Habsburg, Fabergé: Imperial Craftsman and His World, London, 2000, p. 306, no. 813 (illustrated).
Exhibition catalogue, Carl Fabergé. A Private Collection, London, 2012, p. 51, no. 40 (illustrated).

Exhibited

London, 1 Belgrave Square, Exhibition of Russian Art, 4 June - 13 July 1935, no. 588H.
New York, Habsburg, Feldman, The Josiane Woolf Fabergé Collection, 3 - 9 November 1988, no. 40.
Zurich, Museum Bellerive, Carl Fabergé. Kostbarkeiten Russischer Goldschmiedekunst der Jahrkunderwende, 31 May - September 1989, no. 157.
St Petersburg, Hermitage State Museum; Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs; London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller, June 1993 - April 1994, no. 159.
Wilmington, Riverfront Arts Centre, Fabergé, Imperial Craftsman and his World, 14 August 2000 - 28 February 2001, no. 813.
London, Wartski, Carl Fabergé. A Private Collection, 15 - 25 May 2012, no. 40.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The carved models of the rabbit, capercalzie and duckling (lots 15-17) were first exhibited as early as 1935, at the first major exhibition of Russian art in London. All three items are listed as property of Mme Emily Yznaga, the youngest of the three sisters Yznaga of Cuba. Her eldest sister Consuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester, was an important client of Fabergé with a particular interest in hardstone animals. Fabergé's London ledgers record a number of purchases by the Duchess of Manchester, including a chameleon, lion cub and elk.

Emily Yznaga was one of four children of the diplomat Antonio Modesto Yznaga del Valle and his wife Ellen Maria Clement. She never married and spent a lot of time with her sisters, the Duchess of Manchester and Maria de la Natividad ‘Natica’ Yznaga, who married Sir John Lister Kaye. All three sisters were renowned beauties and were celebrated figures in Edwardian high society. Their brother Fernando Yznaga, a New York banker, was married to Virginia Smith, sister of Mrs Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont.

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