ANTIQUE 19thC IMPERIAL RUSSIAN FABERGE SOLID SILVER BOWL, RAPPOPORT c.1894

DESCRIPTION

Antique 19th Century Imperial Russian solid silver presentation bowl in the Rococo style decorated with gilding and embossing with the inscription “From the Czar of Russia to Sir Myles Fenton 1894” engraved in the cartouche (“from the Russian Tsar to Sir Michael Fenton 1894”). Hallmarked Russian Imperial Faberge silver presentation bowl, St. Petersburg, Julius Rappoprt 1894. Marked 88 (915 standard), FABERGE in Cyrillic , "IP" - master • Julius Rappoport, and inventory number 344.

The history of Fabergé (in Russian: Фаберже) begins in France back in 1685 when, due to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes the family had to leave the country to escape the prosecution against Huguenots and moved to Pernau, in the Baltic province of Livonia (now Estonia). Over the years the family name changed from Favri, to Fabrier and finally became Fabergé.

Gustav Faberge, born in 1814, moved to St. Petersburg where he was apprenticed to Andreas Spiegel, a goldsmith specialised in gold boxes. In the late 1820s we find him working for Keibel, goldsmith to the Imperial family. In 1842 Gustav opens his own shop in Bolshaya Morskaya, an elegant street of St. Petersburg.

His son Peter Carl was born in 1846. After his first studies, he left St. Petersburg to travel to Europe where he met the greatest goldsmiths and visited the most important museums and collections, learning techniques and styles. In 1870 he was back in St. Petersburg and took over the company after his father’s retirement. In 1882 his younger brother Agathon joined the firm. The following year Peter Carl received a royal warrant from Alexander III.

In 1886 Michael Perkhin was appointed head workmaster: under his direction the most popular Fabergé themes were introduced: eggs, animals, flowers, objects of vertu in hard stones and precious metals. It’s the beginning of the richest and most creative period in the firm’s oeuvre.

In 1885 the Czar Alexander III commissioned Fabergé an Easter Egg for his wife and gave birth to a legendary tradition that lasted until 1917. The Imperial eggs made by Fabergé are 50 in total.

The extension of Fabergé’s reputation corresponded to the extension of the business and the opening of new branches in Moscow (1887), Odessa (1890) and Kiev (1905).

In 1900 Peter Carl Fabergé participated to the Exposition Universelle in Paris where he was acclaimed ‘Master’ and appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour.

Agathon died in 1895 and Perkhin in 1903, succeeded by Henrik Wigstrom as head workmaster.
In 1906 the firm opened a retail shop in London Mayfair, at 48 Dover Street.

The outbreak of Russian Revolution in 1917 forced Fabergé to escape from Russia with his family, where his company was taken over by the revolutionary committee and nationalised. Peter Carl died in Switzerland in 1920.

Two of his four sons, Alexander and Eugéne, settled in Paris and in 1924 they founded Fabergé & Cie. The company retailed artworks in the Fabergé style with mark ‘Fabergé, Paris’ to distinguish them from the ones created in Russia before the Revolution.

Fabergé has always been synonym of opulence and finest quality. The combination of precious materials and supreme craftsmanship applies both to non-utilitarian objects such as eggs, miniature animals and flowers and practical utility items. Nowadays some of the famous Easter Eggs and decorative objects made between 1885 and 1917 are displayed in the most important international museums, treasured by collectors and sought after at auctions.

Provenance:

In accordance with the revealed archival documents, this bowl, paired with a cup in a similar style, was purchased by the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty on July 7, 1893 for 175 rubles.

• The Imperial gift from Nicholas II to Sir Mile Fenton in 1894.
• Later in a private collection - USA.

The cup was purchased in 1987 at the Sothebys auction in Geneva by the New York firm A La Vieille Russe and sold to the famous Faberge collection of the American tycoon Michael Forbes. The cup became known as the "Fenton Glass" and was widely exhibited between 1987 and 1996. along with other Faberge masterpieces from the Forbes collection.

Sir Mile Fenton (1830–1918) was one of the most important railway leaders in Great Britain in the second half of the 19th century. Starting his career in 1845 as a delivery boy, Fenton quickly rose through the ranks and in 1865 was appointed general manager of the Metropolitan Railway in London. in 1880, when this company merged with the South Eastern and Chatham Railroad, Fenton became general manager of the combined company. For his services in the development of the railway industry, Mile Fenton was knighted by the British Queen, and also received the titles of Knights of the French Legion of Honor and the Order of Leopold of Belgium.

In June 1894, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich (future Emperor Nicholas II) in the company of the Princess of Hesse (his future wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna) spent a month in Great Britain on the occasion of the wedding of his cousin Prince George, Duke of York, future King George V.

Members of the Russian imperial family used to give gifts to people they met during their trips abroad. Often these gifts were given later, which explains why in this case the inscription on the glass is “from the king”, and not “from the crown prince”. Nikolai Alexandrovich ascended the Russian throne on November 1, 1894.

CONDITION

In Great Condition - No Damage.

SIZE

Height: 5.7cm
Width: 14cm
Weight: 289g