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Legacy
From Russia with Love
Jeweler to the Tsar and other nobility, Fabergé elevated everyday items from pillboxes to pendants, candelabras and cufflinks, and, of course, those incredible imperial Easter eggs, into extraordinary works of art.
By Phyllis Schiller
Famed Russian goldsmith and jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé was born in 1846, two years after his father, Gustav, opened a small jewelry shop in St. Petersburg. By the time he took over the family business in 1870, Fabergé had learned both jewelry-making techniques and an appreciation of European and Russian artistic styles, which he put to creative good use. According to Dr. Géza von Habsburg, Russian art historian and Fabergé guest curator of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, “Carl Fabergé was once a household name in the highest echelons of aristocracy and finance. It is hard to believe that his firm of 500 craftsmen was able to produce over 150,000 articles of jewelry, silver and objects of art, virtually each piece one of a kind.”Marie Betteley, gemologist/dealer of Russian jewelry, works of art and Fabergé, points out that “Carl Fabergé was court jeweler from 1885 until the Bolshevik Revolution. During that time, he became the most popular jeweler in Russia. And that reputation still exists and will continue to exist because of his link with royalty and the imperial family, which is how he became so successful.” The Russian Revolution of 1917 marked the end of both the Romanov dynasty and the Fabergé company in Russia. Fabergé died in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1920, at the age of 74.ARTISTIC SENSIBILITY Many different artistic influences can be found in Fabergé’s work, explains von Habsburg, including archeological style, neorococo or Louis XV, Art Nouveau, neoclassical Louis XVI style and lastly, modernism. “Fabergé’s 50 imperial Easter eggs, produced from 1885 through 1916, are prime examples of all these. In Moscow, he focused more on a ‘Pan-Russian’ style, based on a revival of traditional Russian idioms, as well as Art Nouveau.”What Fabergé did, sums up Mark Schaffer, director of A La Vieille Russie, specialists in Russian fine art and antiques and Fabergé, was to meld the many different design elements into his own style. “So while you see the traditions of Louis XV, some Louis XVI, Art Nouveau and traditional Russian influences, there is also, always, a sense of the unusual.” ROMANCING THE STONEWhether it was a miniature Easter egg pendant or an imperial Easter egg, points out Schaffer, Fabergé created fine art. “It was all essentially jewelry — gold and stones and enamel — just not all wearable.” With both the wearable jewelry and precious objects, says Peter Shemonsky, private jeweler and jewelry historian in San Francisco, California, “Fabergé utilized various colored metals, enamels and gemstones in more of an artistic, painterly fashion. It really was not about the ‘preciousness,’ it wasn’t a matter of encrusting an object with rubies for red and emeralds for green. He used native gemstones, Russian jade and various colored enamels to translate the feeling and essence of the pieces.”Says von Habsburg, “The essence of a jewel or trinket from Fabergé was, and is, its incomparable charm, immediately recognizable design, its novelty and consummate craftsmanship. Fabergé summed up his aesthetic belief in an interview in 1914, stating, ‘… Expensive things interest me little if the value is only in so many diamonds and pearls.’” As was much jewelry from that period in Russia, Fabergé’s jewelry — brooches, pendants — was relatively small, explains Schaffer, “and many pieces didn’t include a huge number of large stones, but they are valued for their artistic quality. When he did use colored stones — aquamarines, amethysts, chalcedony, garnets — they were very carefully and judiciously chosen for effect.” Among Fabergé’s wearable jewelry, continues Schaffer, “there were also beautiful enamel pieces, sometimes with stones, like belt buckles, coat clasps, hat pins, stickpins. You’ll also see cufflinks for men. In fact, Fabergé’s cufflinks can be quite a bit of money.” “Price was an important factor in Fabergé’s popularity,” points out von Habsburg. “Due to the many thousands of objects presented by the Russian imperial family to their relatives in England, Denmark and the German kingdoms, the relative low cost of the items, due to Fabergé’s avoidance of expensive stones — he preferred rose cuts, small colored cabochons and semiprecious stones from Siberia — made them very attractive acquisitions.”Diamonds, says Betteley, “were most often used as accents and not the main feature. He used color gemstones and often hardstones not traditionally used by jewelers, such as rhodonite, a pink stone, nephrite, which is a kind of jade, moonstone and chalcedony.” TECHNICALLY SPEAKINGPerhaps Fabergé’s finest achievement and innovation, states von Habsburg, was his “French” transparent guilloché enamel, “which was comprised of up to seven layers of a glasslike colored substance applied over an engine-turned ground and lovingly polished to achieve the famous immaculate surfaces. Over the years, Fabergé developed a range of over 140 different hues. His use of up to six colors of gold was without parallel in Russia in his time.” Also impressive were his workshops, observes Shemonsky, “where Fabergé had a type of production line of the best craftsmen overseen by a workmaster who coordinated the efforts, maintaining consistent quality. And what was unique to Fabergé was that no two pieces were identical …you might have the same design but the stones changed, the combination of colors changed or the use of gemstone, etc.” ROYAL CACHETHaving the patronage of royalty, says Schaffer, “gave Fabergé a certain cachet. His clients included not only the Tsar and his family, but royalty all across Europe and beyond — the Thai Royal collection is one of the premier in the world.” “These were the objects of the incredibly wealthy; they have an impressive provenance. People want to have that brush with greatness,” says Shemonsky. “It’s about quality but also having this touchstone to the past. And there is only a finite amount of this material out there, which makes it even more desirable. Some people collect specific items or are happy to have just one piece; others collect across the board.” Fabergé’s jewelry is definitely popular, says Schaffer. “We always have a few pieces of his wearable jewelry.” Betteley says she has seen the jewelry come up at auction, “especially the Russian sales. In Paris, I see them occasionally. But there is a huge appeal for Fabergé still today, so prices are very high.”“I do see the jewelry occasionally,” says Shemonsky. “And it brings strong prices; although not the same prices as the objects because of its small size, but there definitely is a market for it.” One of the more “reasonable” items, points out Shemonsky, “is the little miniature enamel egg pendant given at Easter time. Whether made of silver and enamel or silver and stones or hardstones and gold, prices can range from $2,000 to $20,000. When you get into some of the smaller individual silver objects and silverwear, those can also be a little more reasonable in price, under $10,000 at auction.”“Very little of Fabergé’s haute joaillerie survived the 1917 Revolution,” says von Habsburg. “Some of his most famous works of art, his imperial Easter eggs, have been appraised up to and even above $25 million.…Prices for Fabergé’s objects of art began their rapid upward surge in 2004, with the private sale of the Forbes Collection — including nine imperial Easter eggs and around 250 other pieces — to Russian oligarch Victor Vekselberg for over $100 million, and have leveled off since. While exceptional pieces still fetch very high prices, average pieces can be acquired for around half of what they cost five or six years ago.”Article from the Rapaport Magazine - May 2011. To subscribe click here.
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