Lily of the Valley from the Moskva

Collectable, large medallion by Carl Fabergé with diamonds & enamel, ca. 1900

Description

This description was automatically translated from German. If you have any questions about this piece of jewellery, we will be happy to help!

Russia on the threshold of the 20th century: Under the last tsar of the Romanov dynasty, Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra, the country - despite all adversities - once again experiences a cultural flowering. In St. Petersburg, the fabulously wealthy nobility celebrated in their palaces. Artists such as Tolstoy, Chekhov and Tchaikovsky create masterpieces that are still the epitome of the Russian soul today. Carl Fabergé, born in St. Petersburg in 1846, became the court jeweller to the Russian tsars with the jewellery he produced, above all the world-famous Fabergé eggs, and supplied the whole of Europe with precious and exceptional luxury jewellery around 1900. The name Fabergé has become synonymous with the lavish splendour of the era around the penultimate turn of the century. His creations, mostly in colourful enamel, quickly became an indispensable status symbol for the rich and beautiful. Even Cartier in Paris copied the designs from St. Petersburg and took a long time to free itself from the shadow of its competitor. The medallion pendant here is a wonderful example of the high quality of design, workmanship and choice of materials in the master's workshop. A large medallion is fashioned from heavy gold, with space for two photographs inside behind glass. The front of this unusual piece of jewellery presents a lily of the valley formed by seven diamonds and surrounded by a curved frame. This frame shimmers in lightly opalescent pale yellow and rose enamel, reminiscent of the petals of fragrant lilies. The central field shows in the matt sheen of fine gold, while the reverse is worked in reddish gold. The medallion is opened by sliding the lids to reveal the two glazed frames. The jewel is marked with the Moscow hallmark for gold with a fineness of 56 zolotnik, which corresponds to 14 carats, and Carl Fabergé's company logo in Cyrillic letters, as known from the literature. Due to the Russian assayer's mark of Ivan Sergeyevich Lebedkin, it can be dated with certainty to the years between 1898 and 1914. The medallion is not only a wonderful piece of Art Nouveau jewellery, but also a rare fine example of the goldsmith's art of the Fabergé workshop. An absolutely desirable collector's item!

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The years around 1900: The new forms of Art Nouveau enriched art and the decorative arts with decorative forms never seen before. In the search for a new art, which should bring man, uprooted by industrialization and the big cities, back into harmony with himself and his environment, they turned to natural forms and created from them their very own, previously unseen designs. In the Europe of these years, centres quickly emerged, each of which took a different approach to the expression of the new style. Initially, dynamic, organic forms emerged in France; Hector Guimard's metro entrances, for example, are famous. This new style was then quickly adopted in all other European countries and always changed in its own way. In Germany, there was a tendency towards geometry, just as in Austria, where the Wiener Werkstätte, with its stricter conception of ornamentation, produced complete works of art that were to influence almost every area of human life. In Spain, on the other hand, there was a tendency towards fantastic forms, and in Great Britain a fashion of its own developed. Especially in the field of jewellery, a series of easily recognisable designs emerged, which are still convincing today due to their freshness in form and colour.

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Size & Details

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Lily of the Valley from the Moskva

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