- 32
A fine and rare Fabergé gold and enamel miniature chair bonbonnière, workmaster Michael Perchin, St Petersburg, 1899-1903
Estimate
1,000,000 - 1,500,000 USD
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Description
- 2 1/4 in
in the form of a French Empire fauteuil en gondole, the ground engraved to simulate mahogany grain beneath translucent red enamel, the arms and back with pierced lyre-form supports, the seat enamelled in imitation of silk with translucent green over banded wavy engine-turning and decorated with paillions including a central urn, the front with a removable drawer, marked with workmaster's initials, Fabergé in Cyrillic and 72 standard, also with scratched inventory number 1920
Provenance
By direct descent from the original owner
Catalogue Note
Miniature gold and enamel items of furniture such as this fauteuil en gondole are extremely rare.
Other examples, a miniature table in the Louis XVI style and a Louis XV style miniature desk, are preserved in the Collection of H.M.Queen Elizabeth; see, Caroline de Guitaut, Fabergé in the Royal Collection, London, 2003, pp. 192 and 193. A miniature bidet is in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States.
This presently offered chair is based on the designs of Leo von Klenze (1784-1864), Bavarian court architect trained in Berlin and Paris. In 1839 von Klenze was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas I to build the New Hermitage in St. Petersburg and was also given the responsibility for the design of the furnishings. He had earlier designed the furniture for a large part of the Royal residence in Munich. A highly comparable gold and enamel Empire-style armchair, formerly in the Forbes Collection, and also based on a design by von Klenze, is reproduced by Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm et al, Golden Years of Fabergé, Drawings and Objects from the Wigström Workshop, New York, 2000, pp.102 and 103.
Other examples, a miniature table in the Louis XVI style and a Louis XV style miniature desk, are preserved in the Collection of H.M.Queen Elizabeth; see, Caroline de Guitaut, Fabergé in the Royal Collection, London, 2003, pp. 192 and 193. A miniature bidet is in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States.
This presently offered chair is based on the designs of Leo von Klenze (1784-1864), Bavarian court architect trained in Berlin and Paris. In 1839 von Klenze was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas I to build the New Hermitage in St. Petersburg and was also given the responsibility for the design of the furnishings. He had earlier designed the furniture for a large part of the Royal residence in Munich. A highly comparable gold and enamel Empire-style armchair, formerly in the Forbes Collection, and also based on a design by von Klenze, is reproduced by Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm et al, Golden Years of Fabergé, Drawings and Objects from the Wigström Workshop, New York, 2000, pp.102 and 103.