This elegant blue enamel clock was purchased by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna from Fabergé on 18 August 1897 for 200 roubles, and was most likely gifted to her sister Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, who married Prince Louis of Battenberg. Victoria frequently visited her sisters, Alexandra Feodorovna and Elisabeth Feodorovna, both of whom had married into the Russian imperial family, and the sisters maintained a close relationship throughout their lives.

Princess Victoria and Prince Louis of Battenberg married in 1884 and had four children. This clock later descended to their granddaughter Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, a first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Works by Fabergé were often regarded as ideal presents for Christmas, Easter, birthdays, and other significant occasions, serving as a form of social currency among the aristocracy. Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna regularly sent works by Fabergé as gifts for members of their extended European and British royal family.

We are grateful to Dmitry Krivoshey for his assistance with the research of the present lot.