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Lot Essay
The Hammer Galleries invoice for this cornflower records its provenance as in the collection of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. Although this flower does not have a Fabergé scratched inventory number that would confirm the exact provenance, it is very likely that it was acquired by Armand Hammer through sales of the Imperial collections arranged by the Soviet government in the late 1920s to early 1930s.
Several Fabergé cornflower studies are known, including those in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (previously in the Yusupov Collection), in the Royal Collection Trust, London, and in the collection of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, formerly part of Lillian Thomas Pratt collection. Further examples of cornflower studies have appeared at auction in recent years: Sotheby’s, London, 27 November 2012, lot 560, and Christie’s, London, 24 November 2014, lot 215.
Several Fabergé cornflower studies are known, including those in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (previously in the Yusupov Collection), in the Royal Collection Trust, London, and in the collection of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, formerly part of Lillian Thomas Pratt collection. Further examples of cornflower studies have appeared at auction in recent years: Sotheby’s, London, 27 November 2012, lot 560, and Christie’s, London, 24 November 2014, lot 215.