BY FABERGÉ, WORKMASTER HENRIK WIGSTRÖM, ST PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1905

Details

A GOLD-MOUNTED NEPHRITE FRAME WITH PORTRAIT MINIATURE
BY FABERGÉ, WORKMASTER HENRIK WIGSTRÖM, ST PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1905
Rectangular, the nephrite frame centring a portrait miniature of Princess Olga Konstantinovna Orlova by Vasilii Zuev, signed and dated 'V. Zuev. 1905', within a laurel-chased mount, set with rosettes at corners, with an ivory back and scroll strut, marked on strut with 'Fabergé' in Cyrillic and workmaster's initials
5 3⁄8 in. (13.6 cm.) high

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Geneva, 7 May 1982, lot 95.

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller, St Petersburg, 1993, p. 308, no. 187 (illustrated).
Exhibition catalogue, Fabergé - A Private Collection, Helsinki, 1997, p. 12, no. 8 (illustrated).

Exhibited

New York, Habsburg, Feldman, The Josiane Woolf Fabergé Collection, 3 - 9 November 1988, no. 28.
St Petersburg, Hermitage State Museum; Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs; London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller, June 1993 - April 1994, no. 187.
Lahti, Lahti Art Museum, Fabergé - A Private Collection, 14 March - 4 May 1997, no. 8.

Special Notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

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

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Lot Essay

During her lifetime, Princess Olga Konstantinovna Orlova (1872-1923) was known as the most elegant and best-dressed woman in St Petersburg. Alexander Benois wrote that she had great style and was the favoured model of Russian artists. The most famous portrait of Princess Olga Orlova was painted by Valentin Serov in 1911 (State Russian Museum, St Petersburg).

From a noble Russian family, Olga was the eldest child of Prince Constantine Belosselsky-Belozersky and Nadezhda Skobeleva. She married Prince Vladimir Nikolaevich Orlov (1868-1927) in 1894 and emigrated to France in 1919, following the Revolution.

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