A Fabergé sculptural bonbonnière in the form of an ostrich, workmaster Julius Rappoport, St Petersburg, circa 1895

Kenneth Snowman writes in his introduction to Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller, [1] the 'compositions designed by the St Petersburg masters and his artists were offered to Russians at a time when they were particularly susceptible to just such an injection of glamour and novelty, for they were a bored and disenchanted society'.

Few works of art could be regarded as more appealing and amusing than this bonbonière in the form of an ostrich. Exotic animals were unfailing popular in Fabergé works of art, the elephant is most commonly found carved as a hardstone figurine, from this sale see lot 625 and as cufflinks lot 598. Fabergé also favoured kangaroos, monkeys, turtles, snakes and frogs to name but a few. Ostriches do not appear to be as typical; one of the few examples in a public collection is held in the Royal Collection, formed from chalcedony, gold and rose-cut diamonds.

Some of the most desirable animal compositions are those designed with a more practical purpose. Comparable examples are a silver table lighter in the form of an elephant; the trunk holds the wick;[2] a caviar bowl shaped as a sturgeon and a silver spirit lamp shaped as a baboon.[3] The best works of this type are invariably attributed to Julius Rappaport, Fabergé's foremost silversmith who workshop was based in Moscow. The exceptional silver chasing of the ostrich feathers and realistic form of this subject are indicators of Rappaport's work. It could also be only he who would have the confidence and audacity to design a work of art around the fragile husk of an ostrich egg.

[1] Hapsburg / Lapato, Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller, The State Hermitage Museum, 1993, p.17
[2] Alexander von Solodkoff, Fabergé, Pyramid, 1988, p.79
[3] Hapsburg / Lapato, Ibid, p.328, 329