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

With the inspiration of the highly talented designer, Alma Theresia Pihl, whose two pièces de résistance were The Mosaic Egg, presented in 1914 (now in The Collection of Her Majesty The Queen of England) and the Winter Egg, presented in 1913 and under the direction of Albert Holmström, some of Fabergé's most outstanding works were created. 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 New York, 19 April 2002, lot 150) have provided further insight into the inspiration and realisation of the snow-flake and ice designs. In his article, 'Two Books of Revelation', 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 to 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 Nobel snowflakes came about. The year was 1911 or 1912.'
For similar 'snowflake' pendants see Christie's London, November 20, 1997, lot 183 and Christie's New York, April 20, 2001, lot 136F from the Forbes magazine collection.