Faberge: imperial jeweller

Zwemmer
at
The State Hermitage Museum
St. Petersburg
in association with
Faberge Arts Foundation Inc.
1993
•
•
Geza von Habsburg
Marina Lopato
Participating museums
State Hermitage Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia
18 Jun e 15 August 1.993
Russian edition distributed exclusively by:
A. Zwemmer Limited
State Hermitage Museum
St. Petersburg
Russia
Musee des Arts Dccoratifs
Paris, Franc('
24 S('pternber 1993 2 January 1994
Victoria and Albert Museum
I ,ondon, England
26January 10Aprill994
This exhibition is co organized by the Faberge Arts Foundation,
Washington, D.C., and the State Hermitage Museum ,
St. Petersburg, in co llaboration with Art ervices International,
Alexandria, Virginia.
This exhibition is sponsored by EGF Par fums Faberge Paris and
Elida Gibbs, U.K.
Additional funding has been provided by Ford Motor Company.
Copyright© I 993 l<'abergc Arts ~'o undation , Washington , D.C.
All rights resNved. o part of this publication ?lay be reprodu ced
or transmiued in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Printed and bound in Italy
Translators: Alexander Kan , Nadia Pushkina
l•:ditors: ancy Eickc l, Mark Markin
Editorial assistance: Sally lloffma.nn
Catalogue design er: Derek Birdsall, Omnific Studios, London
Catalogue typesellcr: Servis FilmseLLing Ltd, Man chester
Catalogue printer: Amilcare Pizzi s.p.a., Milan
ll!'ad <'xhihition designer: Patrick Utcrmann, Munich
l•'ront cover: 1\'liniature R eplica ciflhe Imperial R egalia,
cat. I I 1. Stat<' I lermitagc 1\!Juseurn , St. Petcrsburg
Back CO\ N: l•'abe rgt'-'s I m pPrial Warrant
A Note on Transliteration
For the benefit of the general reader, Russian names that will be
familiar from previous publications have retained their Western
spellings, such as Car! Faberge, AlexandPr HT, 1 ic holas 11 , and
Bolshaya Morskaya treet. A modified Library of Congress
transliteration system was employed with names beyond the
immediate family circle of Tsar Nicholas JJ. Among the exceptions
are the names Alexei (in association with the Tsarevich), Xenia,
and Felix.
Prefixes of Russian inventory numbers have also been
transliterated .
Contents
7
8
10
11
12
14
List of Lenders
Director's Statement
Mikhail Piotrovski, State Hermitage Museum
Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, Victoria and Albert Museum
Sponsor's Statement Paifums Faberge
Introduction Faberge Arts Foundation
Foreword Geza von Habsburg and Marina Lopato
17
20
38
54·
71
76
84
104·
116
124
132
134
142
148
152
160
165
Faberge in Our Time A. Kennetlz Snowman
History of the Ilouse of Faberge Geza von Habsburg
Chronology of the Ilouse of Faberge in Its Time Geza von Ilabsburg
New Insights into Faberge from Russian Documents Marina Lopato
A Few Remarks Concerning imperial Easter Eggs Marina Lopato
imperial Easter Eggs: A Technical Study Carol Aiken
ew Light on the Workshop of Tlenrik Wigstrom Ulla Tillander-Godenlzielm
The Moscow Workshops Anne Odom
Faberge and the Paris 1900 Exposition Universelle Geza von 1/absburg
The London Branch Geza von Habsburg
Faberge Drawings in the I Iermitage Collection Karina Orlova and Larisa Zavadskaia
Faberge's Houses in St. Petersburg Boris Ometov
Kshesinskaia's Memories Galina Smorodinova
A Treasure Found in Solianka Street Tatiana Munlian
Tracing Faberge Treasures after 1918 Alexander von Solodko.JJ
Faberge and America Paul Scha./Jer
'Fauxberge' Geza von l-fabsburg
168
Catalogue of Works
438
444
4·62
467
Hallmarks Geza von Habsburg
Birbaum Memoirs Introduction and notes by Marina Lopato
Select Bibliography
Index
At the Rebirth of St Petersburg
Wh ite nig hts cif the northern city,
Blue eyes cif one cif its wom en
L ight brims up over the P ole, limning
W ith sw faces cif serenity
Flat am ethyst ovals of sprites with
Snake-fascinations, snake-fears
In the cold springs, white-birch-hidden m eres,
P roj ected unjeeling from my th
-And yet the inhuman has firmed
The depth and streng th of that blue:
Gold spires, g reen squares, g rey river
Where today's dusk is tom orrow's dawn
Sheets of lig ht under the swansdown
Sky sweep through, around, over,
H ere life's been indentured to
Trol4 golem, the undead, the damned,
Unsilting every dulled sense,
Flexing every froze n m ood
Of the stranger f rom a lower latitude.
Peeling f rom lulled waters, sky -silence,
M ean Jury has raved, ravenous,
D own these streets, with claws of torture,
War, famine, lies, slaughter.
T error-hammer, fals ehood-furnace
H ow can such fineness run so rich?
Laminations cif light, ermine, almond,
D issolved into the wholly transparen t:
A fluid purity to leach
Crushed the selfish, or just weak, to m ere
Clinker, to twisted scrap; but
The fine, the firm, with eyes half-shut
Was forged through years in that fire
Out the crass, the quotidian,
Mind blanched to take stronger hues
T o a gentle streng th, to a charm
Against all that 's false and crue4·
A nd that blue is the sheen if a steel
It took white heals to anneaL
A nd above all her eyes/ That blue's
Even m ore confirmatory than
A ll those wide w inged whitenesses:
With an unstinting radiance
Of acceptance, cif endurance
Inexhaustible as the rich skies.
Profound plenitude, then·
ot the thin blue cif the shallows,
Of th e village g irl gaze that goes
With blonde plaits; nor like the alien
6
But now the white night is coo4
The eyes upon mine are calm
Robert Conquest
List of Lenders
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
Her Majesty Queen Margrethe of Denmark
Central Naval Museum, St. Petersburg
Elagin Palace Museum, St. Petersburg
Mrs Tatiana N . Gubareva, St. Petersburg
Kremlin Armoury Museum, Moscow
Pavlovsk Palace Museum, Pavlovsk
'Peterhof State Museum -Reserve, Peterhof
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
State Historical Museum, Moscow
Lady Myra Butter and Lady Georgina Kennard
Ermitage Ltd., London
Kasteel Huis Doorn, Doorn, The Netherlands
Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris
Dmitri Martyniuk
Joan and Melissa Rivers
Mrs A. Kenneth Snowman, London
Gerald M. Sylvar
Baron Tlans Heinrich Thyssen -Bornemisza, Lugano
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
W artski, London
Madame Josiane Wool£, France
A La Vieille Russie
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
The FORBES Magazine Collection, ew York
Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C.
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
Waiters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland
Private collections
Several anonymous loans have been organized by courtesy of
Wartski, London; A. Tillander, H elsinki; and A La Vieille
Russie.
7
!Jirector's Statement
H
The name F'aberge is world-renowned. Objects bearing his
trade mark are the dream of collectors and museums.
l"aberge exhibitions have flooded th e world; hi s name
resounds like a fairy tale of luxury and beauty.
F'aberg ''s beautiful objects not only bring us
immeasurable pleasure but they also teach us a lot. They
show us how jewellery, an applied art form, can become
great art and enter th e world's cul tural heritage alongside
masterpieces of painting and sculpture. Furthermore, they
teach us that the crafts and other disp arate art forms should
be treated with equal respect. The Faberge style is one of
historicism, a combination of methods, tech niques, and
aesthetics of various epochs. T h is style was once
condescendingly labelled eclecticism. On ly recently h as it
been accorded the same righ ts as oth er trad itionally
respected art styles.
Faberge's oeuvre is a marvellous merger of European and
Russian artistic traditio ns, and not only because of the
renowned lmperial Easter eggs. Faberge workshops
produced masterpieces equally eloquent in th e stylistic
languages of both Russia and western Europe.
Objects bearing the Faberge name perfectly com bine th e
personal tastes and talents of the founder of t h e jewellery
firm and its many masters. Personal and group efforts were
brought together without sacrificing individuality. The style
rightfully bears the name of Faberge, but proudly standing
behind that name, unforgotten, are those m asters wh o
created it.
The Faberge style is an amalgam of world achievements
in art, but at the same time it embodies many of the
characteristic features of the twentieth century. Faberge's
reputation swept across Europe at the dawn of this century,
beginning with the 1900 Exposition UniverseLLe in Paris.
It continues to sh ine as brightly at the end of the century,
as is evidenced by this exhibition, among the largest and
most representative of those organised to date.
In enjoying the art of Faberge we can see distinctly how
labour and creativity combine to produce masterpieces, and
how real art, which constitutes the pride of humankind, is
born. The State Hermitage, the coll ections of which were a
source of inspiration for Faberge himself, is happy and
proud to be a participant and a host of this exhibition, and
to be able to share its treasures with thousands of art
admirers.
Researchers of The State Hermitage
who worked on the catalogue:
V. A. Chernyshev
M. Dobrovolskaia
0. G. Kostiuk
M. N . Lopato
K. A. Orlova
E. S. hchukina
L. A. Yakovleva
L. A. Zavadskaia
Chiefs of restoration workshops:
A. I. Bantikov
V. V. Kashcheev
V. A. Kozyreva
N. S. Pinyagina
Chief designer:
V. A. Pavlov
Mikhail Piotrovski
Director
Stale Hermitage
Deputy Director:
V. Yu. Matveev
9