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Exploring Iconic Brands at Auction: Fabergé
For most people, the name Fabergé is synonymous with the fairy-tale splendour of the precious objects created by him and his firm for the Tsarist family of Russia as well as the elites of the Gilded Age. Born Peter Carl - but simply known as Carl - to jeweller Gustav Fabergé in St. Petersburg in 1846, he began his career as an apprentice at the celebrated firm of Keibel, who were goldsmiths and jewellers to the Emperors of Russia. Read on to learn more about this legendary brand and some of the items that have come to auction at Dreweatts.
Interested to find out what your “Fabergé” item might be worth at auction?
The Formative Years
After an early education in his home town, Fabergé moved to Germany to study at the prestigious Dresden Arts and Crafts School where he frequently visited the Green Vault museum and its legendary collection of treasures, before embarking on a Grand Tour around Europe. He would return to St Petersburg in 1870 to run his father's firm which at the time was being run by workmaster and mentor Peter Hiskias Pendin. He would assume control of the business together with his brother Agathon at the death of Pendin in 1882.
The Fabergé Egg
Fabergé's creations were displayed at the Pan-Russian Exhibition in Moscow in 1882 where they caught the eye of Tsar Alexander III himself, who was so impressed that he commissioned the jeweller to create an Easter Egg as a present for his wife Maria Feodorovna. The resulting piece - a white enamelled gold egg that opened up to reveal a golden yoke centre, which in turn revealed a golden hen with ruby eyes - would be the first of 50 consecutive Easter eggs, one each more extravagant and ornate than the last, that cemented the name of Fabergé in the popular psyche forever as well as earn the firm an Imperial Warrant.
The Business Expands
The firm would grow both in reputation and size, with a branch opening in Moscow in 1887 and managed by the brothers Allan, Arthur, and Charles Bowe, and a Royal Warrant from Sweden and Norway in 1897. The St Petersburg premises were moved down the same street to larger premises that would now house a showroom, design studios, a workshop and the Fabergé family apartment. By 1900 the firm employed over 500 people around the time that their display at the Exposition Universelle in Paris helped secure a myriad of important and influential clients and won them a gold medal and the Légion d’Honneur.
Fabergé and London High Society
In 1903, Arthur Bowe travelled to London in order to establish a branch for Fabergé there, where business was initially conducted from the Berners Hotel before moving to Grosvenor Square a year later. They would settle on 48 Dover Street in 1906 where the shop was run by Carl's youngest son Nicholas, as well as open a further branch in Kiev. London's high society, and many members of the Royal family, quickly flocked to the famous jewellers, turning Fabergé's only foreign outlet into one of the Edwardian era's most sought-after jewellers, and in 1911 the shop would move again to 173 New Bond Street alongside other luxury jewellers including Cartier.
War and Revolution
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914 availability of precious metals severely decreased, and the workshops thus turned their hands to manufacturing equipment such as military parts and syringes. The firm was finally forced to close its Bond Street shop when all foreign Russian capital was repatriated in order to fund the war effort, before the Revolution of 1917 saw the House of Fabergé closed down and all stock confiscated the following year. Carl fled to Germany where he was joined by his wife and eldest son a month later. Two of his sons were imprisoned by the Bolsheviks, but would eventually escape safely. Carl would finally move to Switzerland in 1920, where he would pass away three months after his arrival.
An Immortal Legacy
The tragic end of the House of Fabergé has done little to diminish its name, and the ornate beauty of its creations evoke the by-gone world of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky, the fin de siècle glamour of late 19th century Europe, and the exceptional talents of the many craftsmen and designers under the leadership of Peter Carl Fabergé.
Dreweatts Auctions
Dreweatts regularly offers jewellery and objects of vertu from luxury brands such as Fabergé at auctions, with previews at our gallery on Pall Mall, London and at our country-house salerooms in Newbury. The market for jewellery and watches is truly global and Dreweatts operates at both a local and an international level, with buyers and consignors from all over the world.
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For a free auction valuation, please contact the Dreweatts Jewellery Department on: +44 (0) 1635 553 553 | jsw@dreweatts.com or complete our online valuation form here.
