Lot 489

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IMPORTANT WORKS BY FABERGÉ FORMERLY IN THE WERNHER COLLECTION, LUTON HOO

A GEM-SET GUILLOCHÉ ENAMEL AND TWO-COLOUR GOLD-MOUNTED CHALCEDONY DOUBLE BELL-PUSH

BY FABERGÉ, WORKMASTER MICHAEL PERCHIN, ST PETERSBURG, 1899-1903, SCRATCHED INVENTORY NUMBER 2619

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GBP 15,000 - GBP 20,000

Bidding starts: 3 days

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A GEM-SET GUILLOCHÉ ENAMEL AND TWO-COLOUR GOLD-MOUNTED CHALCEDONY DOUBLE BELL-PUSH

BY FABERGÉ, WORKMASTER MICHAEL PERCHIN, ST PETERSBURG, 1899-1903, SCRATCHED INVENTORY NUMBER 2619

Bidding starts: 3 days

Shaped rectangular, the chalcedony base applied with a gold panel, enamelled in translucent red over a wavy guilloché ground, centring an octagonal white guilloché enamel plaque painted with dendritic motif, flanked by green gold laurel sprays, each enclosing a cabochon moonstone and sapphire push pieces, the base with a gadrooned gold mount, marked under base with ‘Fabergé’ in Cyrillic and workmaster’s initials
2¹⁄₂ in. (6.5 cm.) wide

Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (1847-1928), purchased from the St Petersburg branch of Fabergé on 31 December 1899 for 160 roubles.
Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich (1861-1929) and Countess Sophie of Merenberg, Countess de Torby (1868-1927).
By descent to Lady Zia Wernher (1892-1977).
By descent in the family.

G. von Habsburg, Fabergé, Munich, 1986, p. 230, no. 438 (illustrated).

Munich, Kunsthalle of the Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Fabergé, 5 December 1986 - 8 March 1987, no. 438.

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Lot Essay

This exquisite double bell-push with scratched inventory number ‘2619’ is recorded on the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna’s invoice from Fabergé dated 31 December 1899. The invoice lists eight items and is inscribed in French ‘Noël’, suggesting that these were Maria Feodorovna's Christmas gifts for her family and friends.

Maria Feodorovna and her sister Queen Alexandra were among the main patrons of Fabergé, regularly buying each other gifts for Christmas, Easter, birthdays and other occasions. There is a large number of Fabergé pieces in the Royal Collection that were exchanged by members of the British and Russian royal families as gifts.

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