Empress Alexandra Feodorovna: An Imperial Fabergé Guilloché Enameled Gilt Silver and Rose Gold-Mounted Maple Pedestal Frame...

Description

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna: An Imperial Fabergé Guilloché Enameled Gilt Silver and Rose Gold-Mounted Maple Pedestal Frame
Fabergé, Workmaster Victor Aarne, St. Petersburg before 1899, with scratched inventory number 55941
6-3/4 x 2 x 1-5/8 inches (17.1 x 5.1 x 4.1 cm)
82 grams (2.6364 troy ounces)

PROVENANCE:
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, acquired May 8, 1897, for 75 rubles;
Private Collection, Australia.


This exquisite frame is a superb example of Fabergé's interpretation of the Louis XVI style, and was billed to the Empress on May 8, 1897. The date is interesting as the Emperor's birthday was on the 6th of the same month, and the frame may have been acquired in conjunction with the event. The frame is the type of object the Empress enjoyed, and the lilac-grey enamel and pale wood are very much in keeping with the taste of the Empress later seen in the decoration of her private quarters at the Alexander Palace, particularly the Lilac Study (often called the Mauve Boudoir) and the Maple Room. The bill describes the frame in German: "Rahmen Weiss holz - Säule L(udwig) XVI vergoldet mit grau email." [Frame of pale wood - Louis XVI Pedestal, Gilded with grey enamel].

This frame is closely related to another example formerly in the collection of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna and currently in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum (Inventory number ERO-6571). The frame was confiscated from the St. Petersburg palace of the Grand Duchess, and entered the collection of the Hermitage in 1950 after it was handed over from the collections of the State Museum of Ethnography of Peoples of the USSR, Leningrad, which was a beneficiary of a great deal of confiscated Imperial Material. Interestingly, the frame now in the collection of the Hermitage bears a consecutive inventory number to the offered lot: 55942.

Heritage Auctions thanks Valentin Skurlov for his assistance with the research of this lot.

Property of a Lady



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