Rectangular, with tapering sides and two hinged covers, enameled overall in strawberry red over a wavy guilloché ground, within laurel-chased and ribbon-tied reeded borders, the cover set with a silver handle, chased with a rosette and laurel band, interior gilt, marked throughout with ‘Fabergé’ and workmaster’s initials, also with London import marks for 1912
5⁵⁄₈ in. (14.3 cm.) long

Purchased by Robert Younger, later 1st Baron Blanesburgh (1861-1946), from the London branch of Fabergé on 14 October 1912 for £60.

Exhibition catalogue, Fabergé: Exhibition for the Benefit of the Scholarship Fund of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, 1983, p. 60, no. 117 (illustrated).
G. von Hapsburg, M. Lopato, Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller, London, 1993, p. 86, 365, no. 263 (illustrated).
U. Tillander-Godenhielm et al., Golden Years of Fabergé: Drawings and Objects from the Wigström Workshop, Paris, 2000, p. 108 (illustrated).
Exhibition catalogue, Fabergé - Cartier, Rivalen am Zarenhof, Munich, 2003, p. 206, no. 199 (illustrated).

New York, A La Vieille Russie, Fabergé: Exhibition for the Benefit of the Scholarship Fund of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design, April 22 - May 21, 1983, no. 117.
St. Petersburg, Hermitage State Museum; Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs; London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller, June 1993 - April 1994, no. 263.
New York, A La Vieille Russie, Golden Years of Fabergé. Objects and Drawings from the Wigström Workshop, 12 April - 19 May 2000.
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Fabergé - Cartier, Rivalen am Zarenhof, November 28, 2003-April 12, 2004, no. 199.

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Lot Essay

Robert Younger, Baron Blanesburgh (1861-1946) was a Scottish barrister and judge. He was an important client of the London branch of Fabergé between 1909 and 1914. Having graduated from Edinburgh Academy and Balliol College, Oxford, Younger was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1884. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in January 1900 and shortly after became a Master of the Bench at Lincoln's Inn. On 12 October 1923, he was made a life peer with the title Baron Blanesburgh.

In 1909, Younger graduated with a Master of Arts from Balliol College and made his first visit to Fabergé. On this occasion, he purchased an impressive nephrite double-frame with ruby-set varicolor-gold mounts for £34.4s.2d (sold at Christie's, London, 25 November 2013, lot 201) and the Fabergé clock for £147.7s.4d (sold at Christie’s, London, 5 June 2017, lot 226). Benefitting from his professional success and family’s brewing fortune, Robert Younger made other notable purchases from the firm, including a model of a flower and the present card box.

The drawing of the present card box is featured in a surviving Henrik Wigström’s album of working designs and completed pieces, numbered ‘13175’ and dated '25.IX.1912' (U. Tillander-Godenhielm et al., Golden Years of Fabergé: Drawings and Objects from the Wigström Workshop, Paris, 2000, p. 107, pl. 211).