Fabergé Friday

Cold January is a good month for sitting inside playing card. And of course you need a nice card box to put your deck in! Like this one by Fabergé for example. It was made by workmaster Mikhail Prekhin, around 1890.

The box is made of aventurine quartz, and decorated with gold ornaments, rose-cut diamonds and olivines. On top sits the initials of Grand Duchess Xenia of Russia, who first owned it. It was later acquired by Queen Mary of the United Kingdom, which now makes it part of the Royal Collection. The dimensions of the card box are 3.5'' x 2.5'' x 1.9'' (9 x 6.4 x 4.7 cm).

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Fabergé Friday

You have to excuse the loss of Fabergé Friday last week. I was performing in the International Stockholm Burlesque Festival that day. So, well, I was a bit busy getting my striptease on... But here we go again, and today I have a pine tree for you. It was made around the year 1908!

The gold pine tree sits in a pot carved from bowenite on a platform of aventurine quartz. Amidst the pine needles sits little brilliant-cut diamonds. This botanical study is said to have been modelled from life at Sandringham, perhaps in 1907 when Fabergé's sculptors were there working on a commission for animal portrait models for King Edward VII. In 1908 the Prince of Wales, later King George V, bought this plant from Fabergé's London branch. It can now be found in the Royal Collection.

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