Chosen by King Edward VII

Many gifts were presented to King Edward VII during his reign to mark important public events as well as personal anniversaries. Few were chosen by the monarch, however; once a fashion was established, he was gifted innumerable undesirable sideboards and cane handles on ceremonious occasions. In light of this repetition and lack of imagination, King Edward VII invited the famous court jeweller Fabergé to Buckingham palace. The King would review various objects of vertu brought to him by Fabergé at the palace, keeping those that he liked. During one of these regular visits to Buckingham palace, the King did not select anything, however, and the employees of Fabergé’s London branch became concerned.

Anxiety over the fate of the firm in London without the King’s patronage was soon alleviated, however, when Captain Larnach came to the shop under the directive of King Edward VII. The successful horse owner had been sent to Fabergé to purchase a hippopotamus cigar-lighter in nephrite, which had previously caught the King’s eye.

In his 1949 publication on the life and works of Peter Carl Fabergé, Henry Bainbridge, who was manager of the London Branch of Fabergé, describes the event:

‘Whether following a practice, or on his own initiative, most likely the latter, King Edward during his reign gave tradesmen an opportunity from time to time, to show their wares to him at Buckingham Palace, and Fabergé, through his representative, took his turn. The King kept what he wanted and returned the rest, but a time came when he took nothing, and we all scratched our heads at 48 Dover Street where Fabergé was then established in London, in fact we came near to collapse. Fabergé had shot his bolt and sooner we shut up shop the better, so we began to think.

And so we thought for a fortnight when a certain Captain L. arrived.  If we were bordering on prostration he was in tears:  For a long time,’ he said, ‘I have been searching for a certain print of a racehorse to give to the King, and now that I have found it he won’t have it. Instead, he said:

I give an illustration of the lighter in Plate 69. So it was that a cloud lifted, and many more clouds, for as time went on it was clear that the King knew Fabergé’s stock better than we did ourselves.’ (H. Bainbridge, Peter Carl Fabergé: His Life and works, London, 1949, p. 82, illustrated pl. 69)

Bainbridge’s account of the King’s personal choice of this hippopotamus cigar lighter in nephrite is further supported by the ledgers of Fabergé’s London branch. According to the ledgers, a cigar lighter in the form of a nephrite hippopotamus with rose-cut diamond-set eyes was acquired from the London Branch of Fabergé by Miss (Keyser) Larnach for £98 and 10s (cost price 501 rubles) on 6 November 1908.

The Captain L. in Bainbridge’s papers refers to Captain James Larnach, who followed the King’s instructions, and purchased the amusing and individuated hippopotamus lighter he had reserved from Fabergé in 1908.

Captain Larnach

Captain James Larnach was the breeder and owner of Jeddah (1895-1909), who was a British thoroughbred racehorse and sire. Jeddah claimed his place in history in 1898 as the first horse to win The Derby at odds of 100/1. He then went on to win the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot. Notably Jeddah shared the same trainer, Richard Marsh, as King Edward’s Derby winners Persimmon, Diamond Jubilee and Minoru.

Winning the Derby awarded you special standing in elite Edwardian society and Captain Larnach would have entered directly into King Edward’s immediate social circles with his horse’s illustrious record.

King Edward’s love of Fabergé and racehorses were intertwined, and it is not surprising that he would ask Captain Larnach for a piece of specifically chosen Fabergé over another equine print. The King’s most successful horse Persimmon was one of only two animals in the famous Sandringham commission of Fabergé animals to have been made in silver (C. de Guitaut, Fabergé’s Animals, A Royal Farm in Miniature, pp. 62-65). The important role of horseracing and the King’s fondness for thoroughbreds is further demonstrated by the purchase by Queen Alexandra of the most expensive items enamelled in the king’s racing colours, a clock and frame with a photograph of Persimmon for £70 each (K. McCarthy, Fabergé in London: The British Branch of the Imperial Russian Goldsmith, China, 2017, p. 130.)

Agnes Keyser

The Miss (Keyser) listed in Fabergé’s ledgers for this hippopotamus cigar-lighter in nephrite refers to Agnes Keyser (1852-1941). ‘Sister Agnes’ as Ages Keyser became known, was a longtime mistress to King Edward VII. Alongside Alice Kepple, she remained in a relationship with the King until he died in 1910.

Agnes was the wealthy daughter of a British stock exchange magnate, who launched her into Edwardian society by buying her 17 Grovsenor Crescent, Hyde Park Corner as a base to build up a circle of ‘the best people’ (R. Hough, Sister Agnes: The History of King Edward VII’s Hospital for Officers 1899-1999, London, 1998, pp. 5-17).

On 27 February 1898 Agnes and her sister Fanny were invited to supper at the home of Alice and George Kepple, it was there that she met Edward, Price of Wales. This meeting at the home of Edward’s longstanding mistress commenced a new and lasting friendship between Agnes and him. It was a relationship that saw the advent of the Second Boer War and, at the suggestion of the Prince of Wales, Agnes Keyser turned her Belgravia mansion into an infirmary for wounded officers. Edward further suggested Agnes call herself ‘Sister Agnes’ and the house at Grosvenor Crescent eventually became known as King Edward VII’s Hospital Sister Agnes.

Agnes never married, which gave her the position and freedom to create deeper emotional bonds with the King than he had with other mistresses. In comparison to his very public liaison with Alice Kepple, Agnes and the King preferred a more discrete affair.

In the last days of King Edward’s life, when he returned from Sandringham with a chest infection and cough, it was Alice’s house where he sought comfort rather than in his own home. He visited Agnes on 2 May 1910, seeking her care and affection, only to die four days later (p. 12).

‘Agnes Keyser was a sympathetic, forceful, selfless, wise, practical and severe person whose main role in Edward’s later life was to keep the prematurely aged bronchial and grossly overweight monarch alive as long as possible… Edward thrived on Agnes’s role as nanny, mother, confidante…’ (R. Lamont-Brown, Edward VII's Last Loves: Alice Keppel and Agnes Keyser, 1998, p. 12)

Agnes continued her humanitarian work into her seventies, housing soldiers throughout World War I. She also maintained royal connections late in life and records show she saw King George V and Queen Mary regularly in London and she was a visitor at Abergeldie and Balmoral between 1921 and 1935 (R. Lamont-Brown, op. cit., pp.194-195). Due to her age and the threat of bombing, Agnes left London during World War II, relocating to Buckland House in Oxfordshire (then Berkshire). It was there she died on 11 May 1941, attended by one of her own nurses. In her will Agnes Keyser left Princess Mary, the Princess Royal and only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, her ‘elephant’ cigarette lighter which King Edward VII had given her (R. Lamont-Brown, op. cit., p.197).

The record of this gift of an ‘elephant’ cigarette lighter from King Edward VII in Agnes’s will alongside her purchase of a ‘hippopotamus Cig lighter’ in Fabergé’s London Ledgers gives insight into what must have been a whimsical zoological exchange. One can easily imagine the King and his mistress confidante smoking together with the amusing lighters they had gifted one another. As noted in her biography, ‘…Agnes lived through the vogues of the Prince of Wales and the Marlborough House Set where sinning was done with style.’ (R. Lamont-Brown, op. cit., p. 218)

Interestingly the Royal Collection includes a large Fabergé nephrite cigar lighter in the form of a frog (RCIN 40413). The cigar lighter was executed in Henrik Wigström’s workshop circa 1906 and is thought to have been specifically made for King Edward VII at Queen Alexandra’s request.

Returned by Queen Alexandra

Given the hippopotamus lighter was a gift to King Edward VII, questions naturally arise as to why it is not currently held in the British Royal Collection. Henry Bainbridge explains in his papers, however, that following the King’s death Queen Alexandra returned gifts back to his friends as souvenirs of the King:

‘… It was then I heard that after the death of the King, Queen Alexandra gave back to each of his friends something which they at some point had given him.' (H. Bainbridge, op. cit., p. 82)

The most notable example of this is the famous blue enamelled cigarette case adorned with an ‘eternal’ diamond-set snake that Alice Kepple had given the monarch. King Edward has treasured the cigarette case and, after he died, Queen Alexandra acknowledged Alice Kepple’s relationship with her husband by returning it as a souvenir (K. McCarthy, op. cit., p. 130).

Berry-Hill

Henry Bainbridge’s account of the hippopotamus cigar lighter in nephrite that was gifted to King Edward VII is accompanied by a photographic plate of the object captioned: ‘By courtesy of Messrs. Berry-Hill’.

By 1949, when Bainbridge published his account of Fabergé, Berry-Hill Galleries clearly had control of this hippopotamus cigar-lighter. Berry-Hill Galleries were established in London and New York and traced its lineage to the seventeenth-century London firm of Berry. In 1900, Berry became affiliated with Lazarus Hill, selling its stock of antiques, objets d’art and paintings. The business remained in the Hill family and was eventually run by two cousins, Frederick Hill and James Berry Hill. The present lot carries the provenance of Frederick Berry Limited, London and was sold with documents dated 1936, corresponding with the caption in Bainbridge’s book.

Raymond Schlager

From Frederick Berry Limited, ownership of the present Fabergé hippopotamus lighter transferred to Raymond Schlager. Schlager was a ‘high society jeweller’ and was an icon in his business. His client base included wealthy individuals internationally, elite tennis players and rock stars such as Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John. It is from Mr Raymond Schlager’s collection that the present hippopotamus lighter was offered at Sotheby’s, New York on 12 December 1979, as lot 331.

The Peltier Collection

Following its sale at Sotheby’s, the present nephrite lighter formed part of the collection of James R. and Ann A. Peltier. Chinese Jades were the passion of the Peltiers and they assembled a formidable collection of carvings. Much of the collection was donated over the years to the LSU Museum of Art. At the time of the exhibition Whispers from the Stone: The James R. and Ann A. Peltier Collection of Chinese Jade in 2006, the Museum newsletter described the Peltier’s impressive collection:

‘Certainly, all of these aspects—the requisite skill, symbolic associations, and natural beauty—captured Dr. Peltier’s interest. A retired maxillofacial surgeon from Thibodaux, La., Dr. Peltier began collecting jade in the mid-1970s. Over the years he developed an eye for Qing dynasty (1644- 1911) carving, and was especially appreciative of carvings dating from the rule of Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796). Qianlong was a tremendous patron of the arts, and his passion was jade…A large increase in the jade supply during the Qing dynasty allowed for larger and more ambitious and larger carvings.

Dr. Peltier’s collection includes several works indicative of these advances, two being jade mountains, produced from large boulders. Both impressively carved, one is adorned with scenes of scholars and attendants amidst pavilion retreats, while the other depicts a pair of horses on a rocky mountain path. Each piece is the equivalent of a Chinese landscape scroll painting in three dimensional form. Yet another superb piece is the jade pillow in the form of a crouching boy—again of considerable size..’

Given the inclusion of Chinese jades of considerable size in the Peltier Collection, it is not surprising that this Faberge hippopotamus carved from a very large and richly coloured boulder of nephrite would have caught the collector’s eye. It is from this collection that the present impressively large and royally provenanced Fabergé lighter appears as an exciting rediscovery.