The most famous works of Carl Faberge are, of course, the famous Easter eggs. However, connoisseurs of jewelry art consider its flowers to be a true masterpiece. The “pedigree” of exquisite Faberge stone flowers has oriental roots.
The leading foreman of the company Franz Bierbaum left a written testimony: “For the first time we drew attention to this branch of Chinese art, when they brought us a bouquet of chrysanthemums to be repaired. Thanks to the skillful selection of tones and transparency of some of the stones, this work made an excellent impression.
Faberge stone flowers – Chinese bouquet
A precious herbarium began with the restoration of the Chinese bouquet. Faberge caught fire, began to come up with his own flower arrangements. He approached every business thoroughly: a greenhouse was built at the Moscow workshop they grew plants that served as “models” for stone bouquets. A working album of Faberge has survived with detailed photographs of fresh flowers, including lilies of the valley, which served as a prototype for the Empress’s basket.
Basket with lilies of the valley
In 1896, Alexandra Feodorovna received a bunch of Faberge lilies of the valley as a gift from the merchants of Nizhny Novgorod a copy of an ancient Chinese palace decoration. The Empress was delighted with pearl-diamond lilies of the valley with jade leaves, in a golden basket. Since then, this bouquet has usually been on her table.
The designers of the Faberge house have repeatedly repeated wild rose, lilies of the valley, mountain ash, raspberry, dandelions. The vases were almost always made of rock crystal, the transparency of which created the illusion of a vessel filled with water. Stems, usually gold, with special engraving. Leaves are jade, delicately carved or enamelled. Flowers were usually not branded they were too fragile. There was no stigma on the Faberge platinum either.
Dandelion
The famous “Dandelion” is now kept in the Kremlin Armory. Stem of gold, leaves of jade. But the most striking thing is natural dandelion fluff at the ends of the silver stamens. Until now, jewelers cannot understand how Faberge managed to fix the most delicate fluff, which crumples from any touch. But even this was not enough for the master, there are small rose-cut diamonds scattered on top, which sparkle like morning dew under the right lighting. Scientists have long doubted the naturalness of the feathers. An expert from the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University was invited to the museum, who confirmed: yes, this is real fluff and named the date of collection. Which absolutely identified the rarity with the year of production.
Pansies
“Pansies” is the only flower in the world of Faberge equipped with a mechanism with portrait miniatures. The flower was made in 1904 and presented by Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for the tenth anniversary of their marriage. When the button is pressed, the petals of the flower open and miniature portraits of the daughters and son of the imperial couple become visible.
