a fine and rare fabergé gold, enamel and jeweled bonbonnière, workmaster henrik wigström, st. petersburg, circa 1908

in Renaissance style, in the form of a doge's cap, enameled translucent oyster over a ground engraved with stylized foliage, with hinged cover and with two gold bands set with sapphires, seed pearls, rose-cut diamonds, emeralds and square-cut rubies,  marked with initials of workmaster and 72 standard, also with scratched inventory number 15741, and with London import marks for 1908.

The Kazan Collection, sold, Christie's, New York, April 15, 1997, lot 177

New York, A La Vieille Russie, The Art of Peter Carl Fabergé, 1961, no.129

M. Y. Ghosn, Objets de Vertu par Fabergé, Paris, 1996, no.143

This small box for bonbons exemplifies the creative genius of Fabergé and his credo as quoted in Town and Country Magazine of 1914, “Clearly if you compare my things with those of such firms as Tiffany, Boucheron and Cartier, of course you will find that the value of theirs is greater than of mine. As far as they are concerned, it is possible to find a necklace in stock for one and a half million rubles. But of course these people are merchants and not artist-jewellers. Expensive things interest me little if the value is merely in so many diamonds or pearls.” See, A. Kenneth Snowman, Carl Fabergé, Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia, New York, 1979, p.11. An almost limitless variety of shapes and colors were employed by Fabergé in the production of such delightful items as this small objet de vertu. Only one other bonbonnière of similar shape is known but it differs from the present example in the colouring and the treatment of the gold bands. It is enameled translucent yellow and the gold bands are filled with opaque white enamel. See, Géza von Habsburg, Fabergé, Geneva, 1987, where it is reproduced p.245.