BY FABERGÉ, ST. PETERSBURG, 1913, WITH SCRATCHED INVENTORY NUMBER 98552

Both the discovery of the stock books, with drawings illustrating the items produced in the workshop of Albert Holmström between 1909 and 1915, and the sale of the Winter Egg (Christie's Geneva 16 November 1994, lot 464) have provided further insight into the inspiration and realization of the snow-flake design. In his article, 'Two Books of Revelations', Apollo, (September 1987), p. 155, A. Kenneth Snowman quotes from a letter of December 30, 1986 from Mrs. Ulla Tillander in Helsinki: 'The text of the sketch books seems to be in Alma's handwriting...In 1911 she got a chance to do designs of her own. Alma remembered very vividly the day there was an order from the Nobel Office, very urgently to make up forty small pieces, in a new design...As ice crystals were very frequent on the draughty window glasses in those days, she suddenly got her inspiration from those. This is how the Nobel snowflakes came about. The year was 1911 or 1912.'
For another example of a gemset platinum and rock-crystal 'snowflake' pendant, see Christie's London, 20 November 1997, lot 183.