Important Silversmiths – Erik August Kollin
After his apprenticeship in Finland, where he was born, Erik Kollin moved to St. Petersburg, where he registered as a goldsmith and started working for August Holmstrom.
In 1868 he qualified as master goldsmith and two years later he opened his own workshop. Kollin worked exclusively for Fabergé and from 1870 to 1886 he held the role of head workmaster for the company.
His fine replicas of the Kerch antiquities attracted universal attention and were awarded the gold medal at the Exhibition of Applied Arts in Nuremberg (1885). The first Imperial Egg, the Hen Egg realised in 1885, is attributed to him.
Michael Perkhin replaced Kollin as head workmaster in 1886. Nevertheless, Kollin kept supplying Fabergé until his death, in 1901.
Among the highlights of his work, it is worth to mention a rock crystal miniature terrestrial globe belonged to Tsar Nicholas II in 1897 and subsequently purchased by Queen Mary in 1928, and a red and yellow gold cup, dated 1874, one of the earliest Fabergé pieces in the Royal Collection.
