di Portanova: A Fabergé jewelled gold-mounted rock crystal and guilloché enamel frame, workmaster Mikhail Perkhin, St Petersburg, 1899-1903

Bentley, London

The di Portanova Collection

Their sale, Christie's New York, 25 October 2000, lot 527

The use of a thin panel of rock-crystal to form the body of a frame or clock is rare amongst Fabergé’s oeuvre. As such, there are only a few true comparables to the present lot. The most similar perhaps, is a desk clock belonging to the Royal collection, also executed by Mikhail Perkhin, which features a similar diamond-set enamelled bezel and arrow motifs (see RCIN 40100). For another comparable rock-crystal frame executed by Mikhail Perkhin, circa 1900, see A. von Solodkoff, Fabergé, Juwelier des Zarenhofes, Hamburg, 1995, p.141.

It appears as if the difficulty that came with working with the fragile rock-crystal is the reason behind why it was so seldom used for the purposes of creating a frame or clock base. Franz Birbaum, Fabergé's chief workmaster, remarked the following on the material:

‘The friability of rock crystal demanded of the craftsmen a particular skill, and its setting was entrusted only to the most experienced workmaster. It could not tolerate the slightest heat and the settings were never soldered, even with thin tin, but were assembled with clips and in other ways’ (quoted in Birbaum's Memoirs, in G. von Habsburg and M. Lopato, Fabergé: Imperial Jeweller, London, 1993, p. 457).

As such, the present lot should be considered amongst the highest calibre of Fabergé’s frames, not only due to its rarity, but because it is also indicative of the most experienced craftsmanship of the firm and of their virtuosity with working with hardstone materials. 

The di Portanova collection

The present lot is further distinguished by its notable provenance, formerly part of the important collection of Baron and Baroness Enrico and Monica di Portanova. Originally a jeweller in Rome, Baron di Portanova arrived in America in the early 1960s, inheriting a large sum which funded his eclectic collection of pictures, furniture and objects of vertu bedecking the Portanovas’ mansions across North America, Mexico and Italy. 

Fabergé was a hallmark of the di Portanova’s art collection: Meredith Etherington-Smith recalls visiting the di Portanova residence in Acapulco, Mexico, where the Baron would be prone to engage visitors by showing them an ‘exquisite piece of Fabergé hidden in a box’. 

Important works from this collection include an impressive Imperial presentation frame gifted from Tsar Nicholas II to Abol-Ghasem Khan Gharagozlou, Nasser-ol-Molk, Regent of Persia, sold, Christie’s London, 25 October 2000, lot 510; and a rare Faberge gold-mounted moss agate clock and barometer, sold, Christie’s London, 25 October 2000, lot 496.