The House of Fabergé (; ) is a jewellery maison founded in 1842 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, by Gustav Fabergé. In 2007, it was re-established as Faberge UK Limited, the luxury jewellery house based in London.
Gustav's sons, Peter Carl and Agathon grew the business until the October Revolution in 1917. The firm was renowned for designing elaborate, jewel-encrusted Fabergé eggs for Russian Tsars, as well as a range of high-quality, intricate jewellery pieces, boxes, desk items, hard stone sculptures and gifts. In 1924, Peter Carl's sons Alexander and Eugène Fabergé opened Fabergé & Cie in Paris, France, making similar jewellery with the firm's stamp styled as FABERGÉ, PARIS.
In 1937 Samuel Rubin started a perfume business using the Fabergé name without permission from the family. After a settlement for the use of the name, Rubin expanded his business and his company was resold many times in which the Fabergé name was used for clothing, other perfumes and colognes such as Babe and Brut, hair products and film productions.
Imitation "Fauxbergé" objects and "Fabergé-style" products occurred during the 20th century but Fabergé eggs continued to develop cultural significance through collections, exhibitions, auctions, television, film and pop-culture references that play on the rarity, quality and value of its designs.
Early years
The Fabergé family's origins can be traced back to 17th-century France, under the name Favri. The Favris lived at the village of La Bouteille in the Picardy region of northern France. However, they fled the country during or shortly after 1685 because of religious persecution following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. An estimated 250,000 fellow Huguenots, as the movement of French Protestants was known, became refugees.
During the family's progress eastward through Europe, its name changed progressively from Favri through Favry, Fabri, Fabrier, Faberges, and then to Faberge without an accent. At Schwedt-on-Oder northeast of Berlin, in the second half of the 18th century, a Jean Favri (subsequently Favry) is known to have been employed as a tobacco planter. By 1800, an artisan called Pierre Favry (later Peter Fabrier) had settled in Pärnu, in the Baltic province of Livonia (now Estonia). A Gustav Fabrier was born there in 1814. By 1825, the family's name had evolved to "Faberge".
In the 1830s, Gustav Faberge moved to Saint Petersburg to train as a goldsmith under Andreas Ferdinand Spiegel, who specialised in making gold boxes. Later, he continued his training with the celebrated firm of Keibel, goldsmiths and jewellers to the emperors. In 1841, upon completing his apprenticeship, Fabergé earned the title of Master Goldsmith.
Later that year, he married Charlotte Jungstedt, the daughter of Carl Jungstedt, an artist of Danish origin. In 1846, the couple had a son, Peter Carl Fabergé, popularly known as Carl Fabergé.
Carl Fabergé
Carl Fabergé was educated at the Gymnasium of St Anne's. This was a fashionable establishment for the sons of the affluent middle classes and the lower echelons of the nobility, indicating the success of his father's business. Gustav Fabergé retired to Dresden in 1860, leaving the firm in the hands of managers outside of the Fabergé family while his son continued his education. The young Carl undertook a business course at the Dresden Handelsschule (trade school). Carl was sent to England to learn English, and he continued with his Grand Tour of Europe. He received tuition from respected goldsmiths in Frankfurt, France and England, attended a course at Schloss's Commercial College in Paris, and viewed the objects in the galleries of Europe's leading museums. He was also apprenticed by the jeweler Josef Friedman of Frankfurt-am-Main.
Carl returned to Saint Petersburg in 1864 and entered his father's firm. Although Carl was just 18 years old, he continued with his education and was tutored by Hiskias Pendin, the manager of the firm. He took over his father's firm in 1872. In 1881, the firm moved to larger street-level premises at Bolshaya Morskaya. Following Pendin's death in 1882, Carl was the acknowledged head of the firm. Three other significant events happened that year. He was awarded the title of Master Goldsmith. Agathon Fabergé, his younger brother by 16 years, joined the business. While Agathon's education was restricted to Dresden, he was noted as a talented designer who provided the business with fresh impetus, until his death 13 years later.
Rise to prominence Following Carl's involvement with repairing and restoring objects in the Hermitage Museum, the firm was invited to exhibit at the Pan-Russian Exhibition of Industry and the Arts in Moscow in 1882, where Carl and Agathon Fabergé were a sensation. One of the Fabergé pieces displayed at the exhibition was a replica of a 4th-century BC gold bangle from the Scythian Treasure in the Hermitage Museum. Tsar Alexander III declared that he could not distinguish Fabergé's work from the original. He ordered that specimens of work by the House of Fabergé should be displayed in the Hermitage Museum as examples of superb contemporary Russian craftsmanship. In 1885, the House of Fabergé was bestowed with the coveted title "Goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial Crown", beginning an association with the Russian tsars.
The Imperial Easter eggs
In 1885, Tsar Alexander III commissioned Carl Fabergé to make an Easter egg as a gift for his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna. Its "shell" was enamelled in gold to represent a normal hen's egg and its novelty was in opening to reveal a gold yolk, which in turn opens to produce a gold hen. Lastly, the hen opened to reveal a miniature replica of the Imperial Crown from which a miniature ruby egg was suspended. Although the crown and the miniature egg have been lost, the rest of the Hen Egg, as it is known, is now in the collection of Victor Vekselberg.
The tradition of giving a surprise Easter egg by Carl Fabergé continued and he produced 50 Imperial Eggs in total, with increasing detail and elaborate decoration. The form of each egg was a secret and each one was designed to contain a surprise. Apart from Alexander III's gifts to Empress Maria, Fabergé produced eggs for Nicholas II to present to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and his wife the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Of these, 43 are known to have survived.
Hardstone sculptures
Amongst Fabergé's more popular creations were the miniature hardstone carvings of people, animals, and flowers carved from semi-precious or hardstones and embellished with precious metals and stones. The most common animal carvings were elephants and pigs, but they also included custom-made miniatures of pets belonging to the British Royal family and other notables. The flower sculptures were complete figural tableaus, which included small vases in which carved flowers were permanently set, the vase and "water" were done in clear rock crystal (quartz) and the flowers in various hardstones and enamel. The figures were typically only 25–75 mm long or wide, with some larger and rarer figurines reaching 140–200 mm tall, and were collected throughout the world; the British Royal family has over 250 items in the Royal Collection, including pieces made by Michael Perkhin and Henrik Wigström. Other important Fabergé miniature collectors were Marjorie Merriweather Post, her niece Barbara Hutton and even Fabergé's competitor Cartier, who in 1910 purchased a pink jade pig and a carnelian (agate) fox with cabochon ruby eyes set in gold.
Other Fabergé creations The House of Fabergé also stocked a full range of jewellery and other ornamental objects. There were enameled gold and silver gilt, as well as wooden photograph frames, gold and silver boxes, desk sets, walking sticks, doorbells, and timepieces. Quality was assured by every article made being approved by Carl Fabergé, or in his absence by his eldest son Eugène, before it was placed into stock. The minutest of faults would result in rejection.
Continued expansion The House of Fabergé won international awards and became Russia's largest jewellery firm employing some 500 artisans and designers. In the early 20th century, the headquarters of the House of Fabergé moved to a purpose-built, four-storey building in Bolshaia Morskaia. Branches were also opened in Moscow, Odesa and London. From England, the company made annual visits to the Far East.
Fabergé's work was highly sought after by European monarchs. Among his most enthusiastic patrons was Queen Alexandra, who became "Fabergé's great patroness of the West" and spurred British interest in this Russian jeweler. The wife of King Edward VII and sister to Empress Maria Feodorovna, Queen Alexandra frequently exchanged Fabergé objets d'art as gifts with her family. King Edward VII, along with his son, King George V, his wife, Queen Mary, and later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, were also among Fabergé's royal collectors.
After 1918 World War I resulted in concern and they experienced declining sales. Faberge's St Petersburg headquarters was closed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Carl Fabergé left Russia on the last diplomatic train for Riga. The revolution in Latvia started in the middle of the following month, and Carl was again fleeing for his life to Germany, first to Bad Homburg and then to Wiesbaden. The Bolsheviks imprisoned his sons Agathon and Alexander. Initially, Agathon was released to value the treasures seized from the Imperial family, aristocrats, wealthy merchants, and Fabergé, among other jewellers. He was again imprisoned when the Bolsheviks found it challenging to sell this treasure at Agathon's valuations. With Europe awash with Russian jewels, prices had fallen. Madame Fabergé and her eldest son, Eugène, avoided capture by escaping under the cover of darkness through the snow-covered woods by sleigh and on foot. Towards the end of December 1918, they had crossed the border into the safety of Finland.
In Germany, Carl Fabergé became seriously ill. Eugène reached Wiesbaden in June 1920 and accompanied his father to Switzerland, where other members of the family had taken refuge. Carl Fabergé died at the Hotel Bellevue in Lausanne on 24 September 1920. His wife Augusta died in January 1925. Although Alexander managed to escape from prison when a friend bribed guards, Agathon failed in making his escape from the USSR until November 1927 when he, his wife Maria, and son Oleg, together with four helpers, escaped by sleigh under cover of darkness across the frozen Gulf of Finland. Agathon and his family spent the rest of their lives in Finland.
Fabergé & Cie, Paris In 1924, Alexander and Eugène established Fabergé & Cie in Paris, where they had a modest success making the types of items that their father retailed years before. To distinguish their pieces from those made in Russia before the revolution, they used the trademark FABERGÉ, PARIS, whereas the Russian company's trademark was just FABERGÉ. They also sold jewelry and had a sideline in repairing and restoring items made by the original House of Fabergé. Fabergé & Cie lost a legal case in Hong Kong in 1984, in a dispute with Fabergé cosmetics over trademark rights in the use of the name 'Fabergé' for jewellery. Fabergé & Cie continued to operate in Paris until 2001.
Reputation The reputation of Fabergé as a producer of the highest standard was maintained by publications and major exhibitions, such as those at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1994 and the Royal Collection in 2003–2004.