Zwemmer at The State Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg

in association with Faberge Arts Foundation Inc.

1993

• •

Geza von Habsburg Marina Lopato

Participating museums

State Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg, Russia 18 June 15 August 1.993

Musee des Arts Dccoratifs Paris, Franc('

24 S('pternber 1993 2 January 1994

Victoria and Albert Museum I ,ondon, England 26January 10Aprill994

This exhibition is co organized by the Faberge Arts Foundation, Washington, D.C., and the State Hermitage Museum , St. Petersburg, in co llaboration with Art ervices International, Alexandria, Virginia.

This exhibition is sponsored by EGF Par fums Faberge Paris and Elida Gibbs, U.K. Additional funding has been provided by Ford Motor Company.

Copyright© I 993 l<'abergc Arts ~'oundation , Washington , D.C.

All rights resNved. o part of this publication ?lay be reprodu ced or transmiued in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Printed and bound in Italy

Translators: Alexander Kan , Nadia Pushkina l•:ditors: ancy Eickc l, Mark Markin Editorial assistance: Sally lloffma.nn Catalogue designer: Derek Birdsall, Omnific Studios, London Catalogue typesellcr: Servis FilmseLLing Ltd, Man chester Catalogue printer: Amilcare Pizzi s.p.a., Milan

ll!'ad <'xhihition designer: Patrick Utcrmann, Munich

l•'ront cover: 1\'liniature R eplica ciflhe Imperial R egalia, cat. I I 1. Stat<' I lermitagc 1\!Juseurn , St. Petcrsburg Back CO\ N: l•'abe rgt'- 's I m pPrial Warrant

Russian edition distributed exclusively by: A. Zwemmer Limited State Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg Russia

A Note on Transliteration

For the benefit of the general reader, Russian names that will be familiar from previous publications have retained their Western spellings, such as Car! Faberge, AlexandPr HT, 1 ic holas 11 , and Bolshaya Morskaya treet. A modified Library of Congress transliteration system was employed with names beyond the immediate family circle of Tsar Nicholas JJ. Among the exceptions are the names Alexei (in association with the Tsarevich), Xenia, and Felix.

Prefixes of Russian inventory numbers have also been transliterated .

Contents

7 List of Lenders

Director's Statement

8 Mikhail Piotrovski, State Hermitage Museum

10 Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, Victoria and Albert Museum

11 Sponsor's Statement Paifums Faberge

12 Introduction Faberge Arts Foundation

14 Foreword Geza von Habsburg and Marina Lopato

17 Faberge in Our Time A. Kennetlz Snowman

20 History of the Ilouse of Faberge Geza von Habsburg

38 Chronology of the Ilouse of Faberge in Its Time Geza von Ilabsburg

54· New Insights into Faberge from Russian Documents Marina Lopato

71 A Few Remarks Concerning imperial Easter Eggs Marina Lopato 76 imperial Easter Eggs: A Technical Study Carol Aiken

84 ew Light on the Workshop of Tlenrik Wigstrom Ulla Tillander-Godenlzielm

104· The Moscow Workshops Anne Odom

116 Faberge and the Paris 1900 Exposition Universelle Geza von 1/absburg

124 The London Branch Geza von Habsburg

132 Faberge Drawings in the I Iermitage Collection Karina Orlova and Larisa Zavadskaia

134 Faberge's Houses in St. Petersburg Boris Ometov

142 Kshesinskaia's Memories Galina Smorodinova

148 A Treasure Found in Solianka Street Tatiana Munlian

152 Tracing Faberge Treasures after 1918 Alexander von Solodko.JJ

160 Faberge and America Paul Scha./Jer 165 'Fauxberge' Geza von l-fabsburg

168 Catalogue of Works

438 Hallmarks Geza von Habsburg

444 Birbaum Memoirs Introduction and notes by Marina Lopato

4·62 Select Bibliography

467 Index

At the Rebirth of St Petersburg

White nights cif the northern city, Blue eyes cif one cif its wom en

L ight brims up over the Pole, limning

W ith swfaces cif serenity

Gold spires, g reen squares, g rey river Where today's dusk is tom orrow's dawn

Sheets of light under the swansdown Sky sweep through, around, over,

Unsilting every dulled sense, Flexing every frozen mood Of the stranger f rom a lower latitude. Peeling f rom lulled waters, sky -silence,

H ow can such fineness run so rich? Laminations cif light, ermine, almond,

D issolved into the wholly transparent: A fluid purity to leach

Out the crass, the quotidian, Mind blanched to take stronger hues

A nd above all her eyes/ That blue's Even m ore confirmatory than

A ll those wide winged whitenesses:

With an unstinting radiance Of acceptance, cif endurance Inexhaustible as the rich skies.

Profound plenitude, then· ot the thin blue cif the shallows,

Of the village g irl gaze that goes With blonde plaits; nor like the alien

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Flat am ethyst ovals of sprites with Snake-fascinations, snake-fears In the cold springs, white-birch-hidden meres,

P roj ected unjeeling from my th

-And yet the inhuman has firmed

The depth and streng th of that blue:

H ere life's been indentured to Trol4 golem, the undead, the damned,

M ean Jury has raved, ravenous, D own these streets, with claws of torture, War, famine, lies, slaughter. Terror-hammer, falsehood-furnace

Crushed the selfish, or just weak, to mere

Clinker, to twisted scrap; but The fine, the firm, with eyes half-shut Was forged through years in that fire

T o a gentle streng th, to a charm Against all that 's false and crue4· A nd that blue is the sheen if a steel It took white heals to anneaL

But now the white night is coo4 The eyes upon mine are calm

Robert Conquest

List of Lenders

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

Her Majesty Queen Margrethe of Denmark

Central Naval Museum, St. Petersburg

Elagin Palace Museum, St. Petersburg

Mrs Tatiana N . Gubareva, St. Petersburg

Kremlin Armoury Museum, Moscow

Pavlovsk Palace Museum, Pavlovsk

'Peterhof State Museum-Reserve, Peterhof

State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg State Historical Museum, Moscow

Lady Myra Butter and Lady Georgina Kennard

Ermitage Ltd., London

Kasteel Huis Doorn, Doorn, The Netherlands

Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris Dmitri Martyniuk

Joan and Melissa Rivers

Mrs A. Kenneth Snowman, London Gerald M. Sylvar

Baron Tlans Heinrich Thyssen -Bornemisza, Lugano

Victoria and Albert Museum, London W artski, London

Madame Josiane Wool£, France A La Vieille Russie

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

The FORBES Magazine Collection, ew York

Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C.

New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana

Waiters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland

Private collections

Several anonymous loans have been organized by courtesy of

Wartski, London; A. Tillander, H elsinki; and A La Vieille

Russie.

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!Jirector's Statement

H

The name F'aberge is world-renowned. Objects bearing his

trade mark are the dream of collectors and museums. l"aberge exhibitions have flooded th e world; hi s name

resounds like a fairy tale of luxury and beauty.

F'aberg ''s beautiful objects not only bring us

immeasurable pleasure but they also teach us a lot. They show us how jewellery, an applied art form, can become

great art and enter the world's cul tural heritage alongside

masterpieces of painting and sculpture. Furthermore, they

teach us that the crafts and other disparate art forms should

be treated with equal respect. The Faberge style is one of

historicism, a combination of methods, tech niques, and

aesthetics of various epochs. T h is style was once

condescendingly labelled eclecticism. Only recently h as it

been accorded the same righ ts as oth er trad itionally

respected art styles.

Faberge's oeuvre is a marvellous merger of European and

Russian artistic traditions, and not only because of the

renowned lmperial Easter eggs. Faberge workshops

produced masterpieces equally eloquent in th e stylistic

languages of both Russia and western Europe.

Objects bearing the Faberge name perfectly combine th e

personal tastes and talents of the founder of t he jewellery

firm and its many masters. Personal and group efforts were

brought together without sacrificing individuality. The style

rightfully bears the name of Faberge, but proudly standing

behind that name, unforgotten, are those m asters wh o

created it.

The Faberge style is an amalgam of world achievements in art, but at the same time it embodies many of the

characteristic features of the twentieth century. Faberge's

reputation swept across Europe at the dawn of this century,

beginning with the 1900 Exposition UniverseLLe in Paris.

It continues to sh ine as brightly at the end of the century,

as is evidenced by this exhibition, among the largest and

most representative of those organised to date.

In enjoying the art of Faberge we can see distinctly how labour and creativity combine to produce masterpieces, and

how real art, which constitutes the pride of humankind, is

born. The State Hermitage, the collections of which were a

source of inspiration for Faberge himself, is happy and

proud to be a participant and a host of this exhibition, and

to be able to share its treasures with thousands of art admirers.

Mikhail Piotrovski

Director Stale Hermitage

Researchers of The State Hermitage

who worked on the catalogue: V. A. Chernyshev

M. Dobrovolskaia

0. G. Kostiuk

M. N. Lopato K. A. Orlova

E. S. hchukina

L. A. Yakovleva

L. A. Zavadskaia

Chiefs of restoration workshops:

A. I. Bantikov

V. V. Kashcheev

V. A. Kozyreva

N. S. Pinyagina

Chief designer:

V. A. Pavlov

Deputy Director: V. Yu. Matveev

9