Fabergé Friday

Whatever your choice of drink is, it always tastes better in a pretty glass. Like this one by Fabergé for example! It was made by workmaster Mikhail Perkhin, 1895.

The cup of the goblet is made of rock crystal. The stem and foot holding it up is covered in royal blue and white enamel, decorated with ornaments of two-colored gold and rose-cut diamonds. It was given as a Christmas present to Queen Mary, by Dowager Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, at Christmas 1895. Now it resides in the Royal Collection.

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Fabergé Friday - But Not Really Fabergé...

Ok. I was looking for what to post for this Fabergé Friday, but then I came across a ring I really felt I wanted to share with you. It wasn't made by Fabergé, but at least it was made in Russia, around 1914, during WWII. The reason I wanted to show it to you is that today skull rings sits on many a finger, mostly as a symbol for death and rock'n'roll. But - what do you know - this trend started a lot earlier than you might think! On October 1, 1913, the skull and cross-bones emblem was officially confirmed by Tsar Nicholas II as the badge of the Alexandrian hussars. At that time the skull motif was immortality rather than death though...

The ring is said to have been given by Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna (consort of Nicholas II) to an officer of the 5th Alexandrian Hussar Regiment of Her Majesty Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Alexandra was an Honorary Colonel of The Regiment.

The skull measures 0.6 x 0.6'' (1.6 x 1.6 cm), and is made of silver over gold and set with 59 old mine and rose-cut diamonds. The gold ring is a US size 7 and measures 0.7'' (1.8 cm) in diameter. The prize for it is 12,500 USD, and you find it at Romanov Russia.

And this is what the badge and the uniform of the Alexandrian hussars looked like.

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Fabergé Friday

If you thought there was anything Fabergé could not do with gems and precious metals, you were wrong. Here is a miniature tea service! It was made sometime between 1896 and 1908!

The box is silver-gilt and decorated with colored gold and mauve enamel over a guilloché ground. Mauve was Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna's favorite color, and this set could have originally been an imperial commission. The lid is set with a panel of crystals. The size of the box is 0.9'' x 2.5'' x 2.5 '' (2.4 x 6.4 x 6.4 cm).

The tea service inside the box consists of a teapot, a hot water pot, a sugar bowl, and a milk jug. The set is made of gold, covered in a pale opaque bluish-white color which make them look like they were made of porcelain. All four pieces are decorated with colored gold, and the lids are topped by a cabochon ruby each. The tea service is now part of the Royal Collection, but according to a note Queen Mary's list of trinkets, it once belonged to Queen Alexandra.

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Fabergé Friday

I just realized I haven't shown you any of Fabergé's flower creations yet! He made many of these, and thought it fitting to start with my favorite flower - Lily of the Valley - made around the year 1899!

The delicate bell-shaped flowers are made of pearls, edged with tiny rose diamonds. They are attached to stems of gold, on which also sits a pair of Siberian nephrite leaves. The whole creation rests in a vase made out of rock crystal, carved to resemble a water-filled glass vase.

The Lily of the Valley was also the favorite flower of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. She used to import these flowers from the south of France, which were kept on ice during the long train ride to Russia. After buying this one from Fabergé though, she had one that never faded...

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Fabergé Friday

A Fabergé egg for which there isn't so much information is the "Friendship Egg", or "Hoof Egg", from 1890!

This egg is made of pale green bowenite, supported by four gold legs with hoofs. It is decorated with gold laurel swags and pearls, and at the middle of a diamond bow sits a cabochon ruby. When this ruby is triggered the surprise springs up from the center of the egg - a round, framed portrait of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, dressed in court costume and with a tiara on her head. 

The "Friendship Egg" was given by Tsarina Alexandra to one of her friends. Now it can be seen in the Forbes collection. 

Fabergé Friday

As the next Imperial Easter Egg in line  - the "Alexander III Portraits egg" - is missing, we'll jump right to egg number fifteen instead - the "Coronation egg" - from 1897!

This egg was made to commemorate 1896 coronation of Tsar Nicholas III and his wife, and given by him to his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

The egg is made of gold, covered with translucent lime yellow enamel on a guilloché field of starbursts, inspired from the cloth-of-gold robe worn by the Empress at the coronation. Over the whole egg there is then a trellis work of greenish gold laurel leaves, with an Imperial double-headded eagle, enameled opaque black and with a rose cut diamond on it's chest, at each intersection. On top sits a large portrait diamond within a cluster of ten brilliant diamonds. Through this stone the monogram of the Empress can be seen. At the bottom of the egg there is also a diamond-surrounded portrait diamond, through which can be seen the date of it's making.

Inside a velvet-lined compartment sits the surprise - a precise replica, four inches long, of the eighteenth-century Imperial coach that carried Alexandra to her coronation. Enameled in the coache's original colors, the little replica is then surmounted by the Imperial Crown in rose cut diamonds and six double-headed eagles on the roof. The windows are made of rock crystal, and the platinum tyres decorated with a diamond-set trellis in gold. On either door there sits an Imperial eagle in diamonds. The miniature is complete with moving wheels, opening doors, actual C-spring shock absorbers and a tiny folding step-stair. Missing from the replica is an emerald or diamond pendant that hung inside the coach, and a glass-enclosed jadeite stand for the display of the carriage, as well as a stand made of silver-gilt wire.

When the Hermitage undertook to refurbish the original coach some years ago, they actually used the tiny replica to work from. That's how well it was copied!

The "Coronation egg" has been shown in temporary exhibits at different museums around the world. Currently it is owned by one of the Russian oligarchs - Viktor Vekselberg.  

Fabergé Friday

It's the day before Christmas Eve - the day we celebrate Christmas here in Sweden - so what can fit better than a blog post about Easter eggs?! Or, more exactly, one named the "Rosebud egg" - Imperial Easter Egg number eleven, from the year 1895! This egg was made for Tsar Nicholas II, who gave it to his wife Alexandra Feodorovna.

Made out of red enamel, the egg is then decorated with rows of diamonds, garlands of gold laurel and Cupid's arrows. 

On top sits a miniature of Nicholas II, and in the base, the year of creation is set underneath a diamond.

The egg opens up like a bonbonnière to reveal a yellow-enameled rosebud. Originally the bud contained two surprises of it's own - a miniature replica of the Imperial crown, representing Alexandra's new life as Empress of Russia, and a ruby egg pendant hanging within it. Only the pendant is now to be found though...

Princess Alexandra missed the rose garden of Rosenhöhe, Darmstadt, where she lived before marrying Nicholas and moving to Russia to become it's new Empress. The yellow tea rose was the most valued in the Empress' native Germany, but the climate in St Petersburg was too harsh to grow it there. The "Rosebud egg" was then made to remind her of her beloved roses, at her first Easter with her new husband.

For decades this egg was missing, reputed to have been damaged in a marital dispute. Now though, it has been found, and is part of Christian Thomas Lee's art collection.