FABERGÉ

The House of Fabergé (French pronunciation: ​[fabɛʁʒe]; Russian: Дом Фаберже) is a jewellery firm founded in 1842 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, by Gustav Faberge, using the accented name Fabergé.^[1] Gustav’s sons, Peter Carl and Agathon, and grandsons followed him in running the business until it was nationalised by the Bolsheviks in 1918. The firm was famous for designing elaborate jewel-encrusted Fabergé eggs for the Russian Tsars, and for a range of other work of high quality and intricate detail. In 1924, Peter Carl’s sons Alexander and Eugène Fabergé opened Fabergé & Cie in Paris, making similar jewellery items and adding the name of the city to their rival firm’s trademark, styling it FABERGÉ, PARIS.

In 1937, the rights to the Fabergé brand name were sold to Samuel Rubin for the marketing of perfume. The brand name was then resold in 1964 to cosmetics company Rayette Inc., which changed its name to Rayette-Fabergé Inc. As the name was resold more times, Fabergé companies (such as Fabergé Inc.) launched clothing lines, the cologne Brut (which became the best-selling cologne at the time), the perfume Babe, hair products, and also undertook film production. The brand changed hands a few more times, and jewellery was eventually added back to the product lines. Next to branded Fabergé products, the world market has been continuously supplied with imitation “Fauxbergé” items and “Fabergé-style” products. Today, the brand is solely used for jewellery items and gem stones.

Carl Fabergé

Carl Fabergé was educated at the Gymnasium of St Anne’s. This was a fashionable establishment for the sons of the affluent middle classes and the lower echelons of the nobility, providing an indication of the success of his father’s business. Gustav Fabergé retired to Dresden, Germany in 1860, leaving the firm in the hands of managers outside of the Fabergé family while his son continued his education. The young Carl undertook a business course at the Dresden Handelsschule. At the age of 18, he embarked on a Grand Tour. He received tuition from respected goldsmiths in Frankfurt, Germany, France and England, attended a course at Schloss’s Commercial College in Paris and viewed the objects in the galleries of Europe’s leading museums.

Carl returned to St Petersburg in 1872, aged 26 years. For the following 10 years, his father’s workmaster, Hiskias Pendin, acted as his mentor and tutor. In 1881, the company moved to larger street-level premises at 16/18 Bolshaia Morskaia. Following Pendin’s death in 1882, Carl took over the running of the firm. Three other significant events happened that year. He was awarded the title of Master Goldsmith. Agathon Fabergé, his younger brother by 16 years, joined the business. While Agathon’s education was restricted to Dresden, he was noted as a talented designer who provided the business with fresh impetus, until his death 13 years later.

The Imperial Easter eggs

In 1885, Tsar Alexander III commissioned the House of Fabergé to make an Easter egg as a gift for his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna. Its “shell” is enamelled on gold to represent a normal hen’s egg. This pulls apart to reveal a gold yolk, which in turn opens to produce a gold chicken that also opens to reveal a replica of the Imperial Crown from which a miniature ruby egg was suspended. Although the Crown and the miniature egg have been lost, the rest of the Hen Egg as it is known is now in the collection of Victor Vekselberg.

The tradition of the Tsar giving his Empress a surprise Easter egg by Carl Fabergé continued. From 1887, it appears that Carl Fabergé was given complete freedom as to the design of the Imperial Easter eggs as they became more elaborate. According to the Fabergé Family tradition, not even the Tsar knew what egg form they would take: the only stipulation was that each one should contain a surprise. The House of Fabergé completed 50 Imperial eggs for Alexander III to present to his Empress and for Nicholas II to present to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and his wife the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.^[4] Of these, 43 are known to have survived.