Jewellery based on treasures excavated in 1830 and during the 1860s near Kerch in the Crimea was made in the early 1880s by Erik Kollin, chief workmaster for Fabergé, at the suggestion of Count Grigorii Stroganov, President of the Imperial Archeological Commission. The Scythian treasures, housed in the Hermitage, had priviously been published, but without illustration of the bangles. Through careful study of the original works, Kollin and his apprentices become highly skilled in the art of the ancient goldsmiths and when the pieces were shown by Fabergé at The Moscow Pan-Russian Exhibition in 1882 and The Nuremberg Arts Exhibition in 1885 they were awarded a gold medal and brought the Fabergé brothers international acclaim. The taste for "Etruscan" jewellery in vogue at this time led to great interest in the "Scythian" pieces which were copied by Castellani and Philllips in London and produced in some quantity at Kollin's workshop in St. Petesburg, for Fabergé. The style is widely documented and the present example most closely resembles the bangle signed E.K., exhibited in New York, Cooper Hewitt Museum, Fabergé Jeweler to Royalty (1983), no. 51

Cf. A. K. Snowman, Carl Fabergé Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia (London, 1979), p. 48; G. Munn, Castellani and Giuliano (London, 1984), pp. 115-116, 185, 186 and 191, illus. 189; H. Tait, The Art of the Jeweller (London, 1984) p. 156 and Fig. 88; G. von Habsburg, Fabergé (London, 1988), pp. 66-68, no. 88