found at a flea market in the
American Mid-West. Arguably the
finest eggs were made in 1913
and 1914 and presented just
before the outbreak of World War
I. My personal favorite is the 1913
Winter Egg (Private Collection,
London). Measuring just over
14 cm high, it is comprised of
3 blocks of rock-crystal, its thin
hinged shell engraved with frost
motifs and encrusted with 1,308
rose-cut diamonds. It stands on a
rock of ice set with rose diamonds
within “rivulets” of melting ice; the
surprise is a diamond-set platinum
basket of wood anemones.
Truly, a stroke of genius by this
extraordinary craftsman.
Princess Dagmar of Denmark,
married as Maria Feodorovna,
wife of Tsar Alexander III,
mother of Tsar Nicholas II, was
particularly fond of the great
Russian craftsman, whom she
called “dear old Fabergé” and
wrote so to her sister, (Dowager)
Queen Alexandra of Great
Britain just after Easter, describing
Fabergé’s “Grisaille Egg” of 1914
which she had just received:
“It is an unbelievably beautiful
and superbly fine piece of work.
Fabergé is the greatest genius
of our time. I also told him: “Vous
êtes un génie incomparable.”
She also collected hardstone
animal figures and flowers, a
passion which she passed onto
her sister Queen Alexandra,
whose descendant, Queen
Elizabeth II, owns the finest
collection of such figurines today.
Nicholas II was particularly fond
of Fabergé’s expensive hardstone
figures, of which he was an avid
collector. Both Nicholas and
his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna
(Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt),
when traveling, gifted numerous
Fabergé objects to their relatives
in Germany.
Q5. In 2011, you were
‘Fabergé Guest Curator’ at
the Virginia Museum of Arts in
Richmond Exhibition entitled
‘Fabergé Revealed’. Why did
you call it that and how did
the general public respond?
GVH: The Fabergé collection at
the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
in Richmond was bequeathed
to the Museum by Lillian Thomas
Pratt in 1947, wife of a General
Motors Vice President, by whom it
was formed between 1933 and
1940. With its 5 Imperial Eggs, it
has since been one of the most
loved public attraction of the
museum.
Ever since my first visit in 1990, I
was intrigued by what appeared
to me a discrepancy between
the incredibly fine craftsmanship
of many works exhibited
and what looked like several
problematic pieces. I requested
the opportunity to study the
collection in depth and produce
the catalogue for a major
exhibition. I warned the museum’s
director that there would be a
Polo De’Marco July 2020