Lot 178

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A RARE AND IMPORTANT GUILLOCHÉ ENAMEL, TWO-COLOR GOLD-MOUNTED SILVER-GILT DESK CLOCK

BY FABERGÉ, WORKMASTER HENRIK WIGSTRÖM, ST. PETERSBURG, 1908-1917

Price Realised USD 504,000

Estimate

USD 200,000 - USD 250,000

Closed: 22 Oct 2024

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A RARE AND IMPORTANT GUILLOCHÉ ENAMEL, TWO-COLOR GOLD-MOUNTED SILVER-GILT DESK CLOCK

BY FABERGÉ, WORKMASTER HENRIK WIGSTRÖM, ST. PETERSBURG, 1908-1917

Price Realised USD 504,000

Closed: 22 Oct 2024

Price Realised USD 504,000

Closed: 22 Oct 2024

Details Lot Essay More from

Of shaped tapering form with a domed top, centering a white enamel dial with Roman chapters and gold hands within a seed-pearl bezel, the body enameled overall in translucent light blue over a wavy guilloché ground, the front painted in sepia with a view of the Admiralty in St. Petersburg, the sides and top similarly painted with foliate branches in sepia, the reverse with three hinged reeded gold key-hole covers, on a silver-gilt base with a green gold acanthus-chased rim raised on four bun-feet, marked on mount and under base with 'Fabergé' in Cyrillic and workmaster's initials
4³⁄₈ in. (11 cm.) high

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 6-8 December 1993, lot 612.

Exhibition catalogue, Countdown To The Millennium, London, 1999, no. 16 (illustrated).
U. Tillander-Godenhielm et al., Golden Years of Fabergé: Drawings and Objects from the Wigström Workshop, Paris, 2000, p. 149 (illustrated).
I. Collins, Fabergé: from St. Petersburg to Sandringham, Norwich, 2017, p. 131 (illustrated).
K. McCarthy, Fabergé in London: The British Branch of the Imperial Russian Goldsmith, United Kingdom, 2017, p. 218 (illustrated).
Exhibition Catalogue, Fabergé: Romance to Revolution, London, 2021, p. 132, no. 111 (illustrated).

London, Tessier, Countdown To The Millennium, London, 12-20 November 1999, no. 16.
New York, A La Vieille Russie, Golden Years of Fabergé. Objects and Drawings from the Wigström Workshop, 12 April - 19 May 2000.
Norwich, Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Fabergé: from St. Petersburg to Sandringham, 14 October 2017 – 11 February 2018.
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Fabergé: Romance to Revolution, 20 November 2021 – 8 May 2022, no. 111.

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Lot Essay

This beautiful and rare clock is one of the most iconic desk clocks created by Fabergé. The view of the Admiralty in St. Petersburg, delicately painted in sepia enamel, together with its unusual shape and very fine guilloché enamel make this clock one of the most impressive examples that survived.

The recently discovered Bainbridge Papers which include a daybook and a diary of Henry Bainbridge, the manager of the London Fabergé shop, revealed a fascinating sketch of this clock made by Bainbridge during his visit to St. Petersburg in 1910. Whilst there, he sketched stock pieces in his notebook and made a note of their prices, costs and stock numbers. In his role as a manager, Bainbridge used to suggest which pieces are to be made for the London branch. This particular clock was certainly of interest to him, as it is sketched in his daybook and described as ‘Clock. Blue opal.[escent] with view of Admiralty’ (see illustration, ©Wartski, London). An inventory number '19326' and the cost of 525 roubles, which was a large sum for a clock, are noted next to his pencil drawing (see K. McCarthy, , United Kingdom, 2017, p. 219).

The Admiralty is one of St. Petersburg’s oldest buildings and a focal point of the city’s main streets. Construction of the Admiralty began in 1704 in accordance with Peter the Great's personal designs and was originally built as a fortified shipyard. A tower and spire, which are featured on the present clock, were constructed between 1806 and 1823 by the architect Andreyan Zakharov.

The clock forms part of a series of objects decorated with important monuments of St. Petersburg, inspired by the city’s Bicentenary in 1903. The surviving album of Wigström's designs contains a number of works with images of buildings and monuments of St. Petersburg. The tradition of using famous monuments and city views to decorate Russian snuff boxes, porcelain and glass works in the 18th and 19th centuries was well-known to Fabergé, and he continued to popularise the views of the city, encapsulating St Petersburg's most famous landmarks in miniature.