PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION

A Rare and Highly Important Carved Carnelian Figure of a Gnome Mounted as Scent Flask

MARKED FABERGÉ, WORKMASTER'S MARK OF HENRIK WIGSTRÖM, ST. PETERSBURG, 1908-1917

細節

A Rare and Highly Important Carved Carnelian Figure of a Gnome Mounted as Scent Flask
Marked Fabergé, workmaster's mark of Henrik Wigström, St. Petersburg, 1908-1917
Humorously carved in a seated position wearing a coat and hat, with his hands in his pockets, set with cabochon sapphire eyes, the rim of the hinged hat set with a band of rose-cut diamonds, enclosing a gold dauber, the base designed as a hand seal and engraved with the crowned Cyrillic monogram 'AF' for Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, with velvet lined red leather Wartski box, fully marked
3 in. (7.6 cm.) high

來源

Purchased from Wartski, London, invoice dated 9 February 1973

出版

Exhibition catalogue Fabergé 1846-1920, pp. 82 and 90, no. M25.

展覽

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Fabergé 1846-1920, June 23 September 25, 1977, no. M25.

更多詳情

The present figure is, on a technical level, an example of Fabergé's stone carving at its finest. The carver, working with a single piece of stone, has sensitively read the natural variations of color, so that the veins of grey-blue and grey-brown are perfectly aligned with the location of the figure's face, hair, and beard. Comparisons can be drawn to other sensitively read and finely carved Fabergé hardstone models of animals, such as two chimpanzees (Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition catalogue, op cit, p. 15, C1 and C3) and several models in the British Royal Collection (Caroline de Guitaut, Fabergé in the Royal Collection, London, 2003): a dormouse, p. 72, cat. 54; an ostrich p. 87, cat. 84; and a penguin, pp. 88-89, cat. 88. On an aesthetic level, the present figure is an example of Fabergé's stone carving at its most whimsical. It is similar in spirit to a composite figure of a cook (Geza von Hapsburg, Fabergé Hofjuwelier der Zaren, Munich, 1986, pp. 212-213, fig. 388) and to the composite figure of Tweedledum and Tweedledee from Alice in Wonderland in the Thai Royal Collection (Fabergé, Office of Her Majesty's Private Secretary, 1983., pp. 160-161, illustrated).