home » We knit » Carl Faberge his work. Carl Faberge - biography, information, personal life

Carl Faberge his work. Carl Faberge - biography, information, personal life

We associate the name of Peter Carl Faberge with brilliantly executed jewelry Easter eggs. The famous jeweler was born in Russia in St. Petersburg on May 30, 1846. Father - Gustav Faberge was from Pärnu (Estonia) and came from a German family, his mother - Charlotte Jungstedt, was the daughter of a Danish artist. In 1841, Faberge Sr. received the title of "Jewellery Master" and in 1842 founded a jewelry company in St. Petersburg on Bolshaya Morskaya Street at No. 12. The company prospered, but in 1860 Gustav Faberge retired, transferring the management of the company to his employees H. Pendin and V. Zayanchovsky.

The son of Gustav Faberge, Carl, studied in Dresden, traveled around Europe, and then began to learn jewelry from the Frankfurt master Joseph Friedman. Talent young man was so bright and outstanding that at the age of 24 in 1870 he was able to take over his father's firm. Faberge Jr. transferred her to a larger room on the same Bolshaya Morskaya Street at 16/17. In 1882, at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, the products of the company attracted the attention of Emperor Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna. Peter Karl received patronage royal family and the title of "jeweler of His Imperial Majesty and jeweler of the Imperial Hermitage".

A few years later, in 1885, the company received international recognition at the Nuremberg "Exhibition of Fine Arts". Gold medals were awarded to copies of Scythian treasures. There was also exhibited a golden egg, covered with white enamel with a golden yolk, in which a chicken made of colored gold was hidden. The chicken had a "surprise" inside - a miniature imperial crown and a pendant in the form of a ruby egg. This product was made for Easter for the wife of Alexander III - Maria Feodorovna. It was with this thing that the tradition of annual gifts of the royal family, which were ordered from the Faberge firm, began.

Carl Faberge himself, inspired by the attention of the emperor, opened a new direction in jewelry art. The company began to use semiprecious stones and minerals - rock crystal, jade, topaz, jasper, lapis lazuli and others. At first, stone products were ordered from the Ural craftsmen and at the Peterhof Lapidary Factory, and the semi-finished products themselves were finalized. Later, they opened their own stone-cutting workshops in St. Petersburg. From precious stones and gems created miniature figurines of animals, people and flowers. They were distinguished by liveliness and surprisingly pleasant forms. Signets were another type of stone-cutting work - products of a purely practical purpose, but each of them is a real jewelry masterpiece.

The firm has revived many techniques of stone processing, the use of transparent colored enamels and multi-colored gold. Until now, the famous guilloché enamel remains unreproducible. The technique of overlaying transparent enamel on a carved background has been known for a long time. However, the masters of the Faberge firm have reached a special perfection. Using color palette, numbering more than 124 colors and shades, each time they created a new decorative effect and a special play of light due to the patterns of the guilloche background, consisting of vertical and horizontal stripes, herringbone, scales, zigzags.

The Faberge firm was also famous in Europe. Numerous royal and princely relatives of the Russian Imperial Family in Great Britain, Denmark, Greece, Bulgaria received jewelry as a gift, they valued them very much and passed them on by inheritance. International exhibitions also contributed to the firm's fame. In 1900 in Paris, Faberge received the title of "Master of the Paris Jewelers' Guild", and the French government awarded him the Order of the Legion of Honor. Even in remote places like Thailand or Baltimore, Faberge was "in vogue".

Unfortunately, the dramatic events of the 1917 revolution forced the Faberge firm to close in 1918. Peter Carl Faberge himself emigrated to Switzerland, where he died on September 24, 1920.

The famous Russian master, famous for making jewelry eggs of amazingly fine and filigree work, is known to everyone. It is worth pronouncing “Faberge eggs”, as amazing works of art from precious metals and stones, which the august family was proud of, arise in the memory.

German and French-Danish blood with an admixture of Estonian flowed in the veins of a skilled craftsman, but it was Carl Faberge, who was at the head of the German community in St. Petersburg, who laid the foundation for the Russian jewelry school, the main principle of which was impeccable quality.

From time to time, products of the Faberge jewelry house appear at world auctions and go to buyers for millions of dollars.

Childhood and youth

The future jeweler was born in the spring of 1846 in the northern capital. The mother of the famous master is Danish Charlotte Jungstedt, the daughter of the artist. Father Gustav Faberge was born in Livonia (a Baltic German) from Germanized French Huguenots who moved to Prussia after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes. In the early 1840s, Gustav Faberge founded a jewelry workshop in the city on the Neva, but 20 years later he moved to Dresden.

Carl's artistic abilities were discovered in childhood. The son was keenly interested in jewelry, and his father gave his offspring an excellent education: in St. Petersburg, the boy was sent to a private gymnasium. Then the young man studied business in Dresden.

After a long journey through the cities of Europe, Karl studied jewelry in Frankfurt with master Joseph Friedman.

Enriched with technical knowledge, Faberge studied the management of the enterprise and in 1864 returned to Northern Palmyra. In his father's workshop and in the Hermitage, the young jeweler restored antique jewelry.

In 1872, Gustav Faberge, who lived in Dresden, transferred powers to his 25-year-old son and made him head of the St. Petersburg firm. At first, it had 100 workers on its staff: Karl looked after many skilled craftsmen when he traveled around Europe.

Jewelery and business

After 10 years, the products of the Faberge house got to the Moscow art and industrial exhibition, where they were noticed and appreciated by the tsar. From that moment on, the biography of the jeweler is inextricably linked with the imperial family, which patronizes Carl Faberge and popularizes his products in Europe. The Romanovs order jewelry from a jeweler, which they give to their relatives in Denmark, Britain, and Greece.

In 1900, the Russian craftsman was awarded the title of "Master of the Paris Guild of Jewelers" and presented with the established Order of the Legion of Honor. The main building of the company appeared on Bolshaya Morskaya Street in the city on the Neva: the house was designed by a relative of the family, Karl Schmidt. Workshops and a shop were located on the first floor, the family occupied the other three floors.

The first jewelry egg by Faberge appeared in 1885. The emperor ordered the product for his wife as a gift for Easter. The egg is called "Chicken" or "Chicken". In comparison with the rest, the product looks simple: white enamel on top, inside - in a golden "yolk" - a chicken made of colored gold, in which a ruby crown was hidden.

The idea of an egg in which a surprise was hidden does not belong to Carl Faberge: the first instances of eggs appeared in the 18th century. Similar products were kept in the treasury of the King of Denmark, the father of the wife of Alexander III, nee Maria Sophia Frederica Dagmar. The Russian tsar wished to give his wife a gift that would remind him of his homeland.

Empress easter surprise I liked it so much that Carl Faberge became the court jeweler and received an order: every year to please the august family with a new precious egg with a secret. inherited the tradition and doubled the order: Carl Faberge annually made 2 eggs for Easter - the mother of the king and his wife.

The sketch of the egg was approved by the head of the trading house, after which the work was taken the best masters. History has preserved the names of Mikhail Perkhin (Karelian nugget), August Holstrom, Eric Collin. Under the Romanovs, the Faberge trading house grew to 500 employees.

The "fashion" for giving Faberge Easter eggs, which was introduced by the Romanovs, spread throughout Europe: the Russian jewelry house received orders from abroad. It is known about 15 products, 7 of which Carl Faberge created by order of the gold miner Alexander Kelch. The remaining 8 eggs were made by the master and his students for the Duchess of Marlborough, the Rothschilds.

The products of the Russian jeweler amazed with unexpected solutions. Carl Faberge boldly experimented: the basis of the brooch could be made of Karelian birch, setting a piece of wood in diamonds. He often worked with semi-precious stones and materials considered "non-jewelry". But the work was so filigree that it impressed the most demanding customers.

The Faberge workshop was famous for its unique enamel: hundreds of color shades and guilloche technique (patterned notches on the main background, covered with layers of varnish) turned the product into a masterpiece. Enamelled cigarette cases, watches, caskets, snuff boxes and sets seemed to glow from within and seemed to be multilayered.

The trading house produced both fabulously priced jewelry and mass-produced products. In 1914, a series of cups made of copper and cigarette cases went on sale. But the greatest fame for the house of Faberge was brought by jewelry Easter eggs: 54 copies were created for the royal family in the workshop.

After the October Revolution, the factories and shops of the imperial jeweler were nationalized. In Petrograd, the Bolsheviks expropriated finished goods and stocks of precious stones and metals without paying a penny of compensation. Few products were taken to Finland by the sons of Carl Faberge.

The government sold the confiscated masterpieces, filling the treasury of the young state. Emmanuel Snowman, a representative of the British trading house Wartski, bought six Easter eggs in the Faberge store in Petrograd.

In the autumn of 1918, Carl Faberge secretly fled to Riga: the royal jeweler was afraid of arrest and execution. After the Bolsheviks invaded Latvia, the master left for Germany. When the November Revolution swept Berlin, Faberge moved to Frankfurt am Main, where he also did not stay.

Last years Faberge spent his life in Wiesbaden. After the revolutionary upheavals and the confiscation of property, the famous master lost heart and repeated that "life is no more."

In 2004, a Russian businessman and billionaire bought 9 eggs from Malcolm Forbes for $ 100 million (including the first one - “Kurochka”) and returned them to Russia. Thanks to the businessman, the Faberge Museum appeared in St. Petersburg.

Personal life

Carl Faberge married only once: in 1872, a girl named Augusta Julia Jacobs became his wife. In 1874, Auguste gave birth to her husband's first child, who was named Eugene. He followed in his father's footsteps, learned jewelry, worked in his parents' workshop, and immigrated to France in the early 1920s.

In 1876, the second son, Agathon Faberge, was born. In the spring of 1895, he entered the family business, and in the late 1890s he became an appraiser to the imperial court. Relations between Agafon Karlovich and his father went wrong after being accused of theft (later a family friend confessed to the theft). In the 1920s, the son of a famous jeweler worked as a representative of the Gokhran. In 1927 he fled to Finland, where he lived in poverty.

The third son of the royal jeweler, Alexander, was born in 1877. He immigrated to Paris and, together with his brother Eugene, founded the firm Faberge and Co. The fourth, youngest, son of Karl - Nikolai - was born in 1884. Became a jewelry designer. Since 1906, he worked in a branch of the Faberge firm in the capital of Britain.

At the age of 56, the head of the jewelry house fell in love with the 21-year-old café singer Amalia Kriebel, a Czech. The respected jeweler of the Romanov family was not going to divorce his wife, but he could not overcome his passion for the young Amalia. Every year, Carl Faberge went to Europe for 3 months, taking the singer.

In 1912, Kriebel married a prince of an old Georgian family and took the surname Tsitsianova. She left her husband immediately, but did not break the connection with Karl. Amalia is called the second. Tsitsianova was recruited by the Germans and Austrians. Faberge helped to get to Russia during the war. In the spring of 1916, Amalia was arrested and exiled to Siberia. The last beloved did not meet with Carl Faberge again, and the jeweler had difficulties due to his connection with the Austrian spy.

Death

Doctors prescribed a calm and measured life for the 74-year-old jeweler, strictly forbidding smoking: Faberge had a heart condition.

Relatives moved the head of the family to the shores of Lake Geneva, which was famous for its climate. The businessman robbed by the Bolsheviks, who lost his life's work and - according to various estimates - $ 500 million, not counting real estate, never recovered from the blow.

In September 1920, Carl Faberge, despite the prohibitions of doctors, lit a strong cigar. I didn’t have time to enjoy it to the end: I died, having smoked up to half. Faberge was buried at the Grand Jas cemetery in Cannes.

Memory

There is Carl Faberge Square in St. Petersburg
On November 19, 2013, the Faberge Museum was opened in St. Petersburg in the Naryshkin-Shuvalov Palace
In Kyiv there is a memorial plaque in honor of the famous jeweler
In Odessa, on the building of the Passage Hotel, where the jewelry salon of Carl Faberge was located in the fashionable shopping malls before the Bolshevik revolution, a memorial plaque was installed
Baden-Baden has the Faberge Museum - the first in the world entirely dedicated to the work of the jeweler's firm
In Moscow there is a college of arts and crafts named after Carl Faberge

Well, how not to remember this great master today?

Perhaps there is not a single person who would not have heard this name.
Carl Faberge is a Russian jeweler, the founder of a family jewelry firm, and he was born on May 30, 1846, exactly 167 years ago!

Once I watched a documentary film about him on the Kultura channel, then I was very impressed by the history of his family, and it is a pity to tears that such a triumphal procession around the world of this company was interrupted by a revolution.
How unfair!

Faberge was born in 1846 in St. Petersburg. His father Gustav Faberge was the owner of a small but prosperous jewelry workshop. This is probably why Peter chose the profession of a jeweler. Faberge was 24 years old when he became the head of the family business. By that time he had an excellent education and some experience in jewelry and commerce.

We associate the name of Peter Carl Faberge with brilliantly executed jewelry Easter eggs. The famous jeweler was born in Russia in St. Petersburg. Father - Gustav Faberge was from Pärnu (Estonia) and came from a German family, mother - Charlotte Jungstedt, was the daughter of a Danish artist. In 1841, Faberge Sr. received the title of "Jewellery Master" and in 1842 founded a jewelry company in St. Petersburg on Bolshaya Morskaya Street at No. 12. The company prospered, but in 1860 Gustav Faberge retired, transferring the management of the company to his employees H. Pendin and V. Zayanchovsky.

The son of Gustav Faberge, Carl, studied in Dresden, traveled around Europe, and then began to learn jewelry from the Frankfurt master Joseph Friedman. The young man's talent was so bright and outstanding that at the age of 24 in 1870 he was able to take over his father's firm. Faberge Jr. transferred her to a larger room on the same Bolshaya Morskaya Street at 16/17. In 1882, at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, the products of the company attracted the attention of Emperor Alexander III and his wife Maria Fedorovna. Peter Karl received the patronage of the royal family and the title of "jeweler of His Imperial Majesty and jeweler of the Imperial Hermitage".

Carl Faberge himself, inspired by the attention of the emperor, opened a new direction in jewelry art. The company began to use semi-precious stones and minerals - rock crystal, jade, topaz, jasper, lapis lazuli and others. At first, stone products were ordered from the Ural craftsmen and at the Peterhof Lapidary Factory, and the semi-finished products themselves were finalized. Later, they opened their own stone-cutting workshops in St. Petersburg. Miniature figurines of animals, people and flowers were created from precious stones and gems. They were distinguished by liveliness and surprisingly pleasant forms. Signets were another type of stone-cutting work - products of a purely practical purpose, but each of them is a real jewelry masterpiece.

The firm has revived many techniques of stone processing, the use of transparent colored enamels and multi-colored gold. Until now, the famous guilloché enamel remains unreproducible. The technique of overlaying transparent enamel on a carved background has been known for a long time. However, the masters of the Faberge firm have reached a special perfection. Using a color palette of more than 124 colors and shades, each time they created a new decorative effect and a special play of light through guilloche background patterns consisting of vertical and horizontal stripes, herringbone, scales, zigzags.

Making exquisitely decorated Easter eggs was a tradition and an old craft in Russia. But only the masters of the Faberge firm managed to bring the art of making jewelry Easter eggs to unsurpassed skill and elegance. Souvenir eggs were a surprise not only for those to whom they were intended as a gift, but also for the customer himself. "Your Majesty will be pleased," Faberge answered the question about the plot of the next product. They were amazing in their uniqueness. Faberge himself was sensitive to the variability of taste and fashion and could even predict them. The firm employed many outstanding craftsmen, among whom the most famous is Mikhail Perkhin.

The favorite subjects were miniature portraits of the imperial family or images of places and events associated with their lives. The most famous product in this genre is an egg dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Nicholas II. It is decorated with miniatures by the artist Vasily Zuev, which depict portraits of the emperor, empress, children and famous historical events that occurred during the reign of Nicholas II. This original family album was presented by Nicholas II to his wife on Easter 1911. The egg is made of gold, transparent and opaque white and green enamel, diamonds, rock crystal and decorated with ivory painting.

For Easter eggs, insert models made of precious metals were popular. The egg dedicated to the coronation of 1896 contains a miniature carriage in which Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna rode. The color scheme of the egg resembles a coronation dress, the carriage doors open, the steps fold, the windows are made of crystal. Inside the carriage hung a tiny egg with diamonds.

Another golden miniature inside the Easter egg is a model of the cruiser "Memory of Azov". The egg is made of dark green heliotrope with red patches and is decorated with a gold pattern and diamonds. The cruiser model in gold and platinum faithfully reproduces appearance the ship itself. The aquamarine plate imitating water is enclosed in a gold frame. The cruiser of the Baltic Fleet "Memory of Azov" was built in 1890, it got its name in honor of the feat of the sailing ship "Azov" in the Navarino naval battle of 1827.

At the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. The Faberge firm began producing clockwork eggs. In 1900, at the World Exhibition in Paris, visitors looked with curiosity at a new Faberge precious toy - a response to the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. An engraved map of Russia with the designation of the Siberian railway was placed on the silver egg. Of particular interest was the trifold model of the first Siberian train, which consisted of a platinum steam locomotive with a ruby lantern and headlights made of diamond roses and five gold carriages. The train mechanism was wound up with a golden key.

Where did Carl Faberge draw his inspiration from when he created objects of such exceptional craftsmanship and technique? While studying in Dresden, he undoubtedly became acquainted with the collections of museums, including the famous Green Treasury, where magnificent art objects were collected by the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, Augustus the Strong. Among them were small enamel figurines created by the remarkable German jeweler of the 18th century. Johann. Perhaps these works gave Faberge the idea of an Easter egg with figurines inside it.

The Faberge firm was also famous in Europe. Numerous royal and princely relatives of the Russian imperial family in Great Britain, Denmark, Greece, Bulgaria received jewelry as a gift, they valued it very much and passed it on by inheritance. International exhibitions also contributed to the firm's fame. In 1900 in Paris, Faberge received the title of "Master of the Paris Jewelers' Guild", and the French government awarded him the Order of the Legion of Honor. Even in remote places like Thailand or Baltimore, Faberge was "in vogue".

Russia's rapidly developing economy has created new class entrepreneurs. Faberge products enjoyed great success with financiers and industrialists, large landowners and aristocracy. Three branches of the firm were opened in Moscow, Odessa and Kyiv.

Unfortunately, the dramatic events of the 1917 revolution forced the Faberge firm to close in 1918. Peter Carl Faberge himself emigrated to Switzerland, where he died on September 24, 1920.

The highest technique, inexhaustible imagination and grace of forms made the Faberge firm a recognized leader in the world of jewelry art, an unsurpassed standard. As Empress Maria Feodorovna wrote to her sister Queen Anne of England: "Faberge is the incomparable genius of our time."
http://www.liveinternet.ru

Carl Faberge is one of the most famous Russian jewelers second half of the 19th - early 20th century. He was the founder of an entire dynasty producing precious items. The most famous were Faberge eggs, made for members of the Russian imperial family, as well as for ordinary customers. His works have become a symbol of old pre-revolutionary Russia, luxury, grace and refined taste. The works of the famous jeweler are highly valued not only in our country, but also abroad.

early years

Carl Faberge was born in St. Petersburg in May 1846 to a German family. His father founded his own jewelry factory in the capital of the empire. The future famous jeweler received a very good education: he traveled around Europe, where he studied his father's business: first, the young man studied in Dresden, then with the Frankfurt master Friedman. Later, the young man goes to replenish his education in the southern countries: in France and Italy. While still quite young, at the age of 24, he became the manager of his parent's firm.

Work for the imperial house

Carl Faberge took part in the All-Russian Exhibition in 1882, where his work was noticed by Emperor Alexander III, who asked him to make an Easter gift for his wife Maria Feodorovna. The master created an enamel egg, inside there was a colored hen, in which, in turn, a small copy of the imperial crown and a precious chain were placed. Such an idea was not completely original: the fact is that back in the 18th century there were three similar eggs (located in Vienna, Dresden and Copenhagen), inside of which there were also crowns. The empress liked the gift so much that since then, Carl Faberge received the title of court jeweler and began to receive regular orders, not only from representatives of the Russian imperial family, but also from members of foreign royal houses.

Jewelry work

The famous master owned a whole concern, which included several companies. Each of them was independent. The craftsmen who worked under the supervision of a well-known jeweler were independent in making decisions and designing jewelry.

It took about a year to develop a sketch and direct production. At the same time, one should take into account the fact that Carl Faberge himself, whose biography is the subject of this review, was not always a direct performing artist. His team was international: it employed craftsmen from the most different countries. Due to the fact that a creative atmosphere reigned among the employees, each product of the company was unique and original, which was the main condition for orders.

Still life and other works

In addition to the famous Easter eggs, the company also produced many other precious items that were distinguished by elegance and richness of jewelry. One of the most famous surviving works is a still life created in 1905. It is an image of scrambled eggs, a glass of vodka and a half-smoked cigar. Despite the simplicity of the chosen plot, the authors approached the execution of this product very carefully, using precious stones (jasper, amber, white stone), minerals (crystal, quartz), precious metals (silver). In addition, the company was famous for the production of simple household items, such as copper cups and thimbles. But he gained the greatest fame, of course, thanks to the manufacture of jewelry. In addition to production, he was also engaged in the storage of expensive items of representatives of the aristocracy.

Technique

The jeweler received European recognition: in Paris he was awarded an order and the honorary title of master of the guild. In 1900, a jewelry factory building was erected in the capital, which was designed by the relative of the master, architect K. Schmidt.

In this room were workshops and shops. This spoke of how important the firm had become in Russia. The products of Carl Faberge were unique in their technical specifications. The master became the founder of a new trend in jewelry, starting to use precious and semi-precious stones in his work. He also began to use minerals, for which, after some time, stone-cutting workshops were even founded in the capital. A variety of works were made at the factory: in addition to Easter eggs, which received the greatest fame, artisans made figurines of people, animals and flowers. The art of Carl Faberge consisted in the fact that he was able to make even out of the most practical and everyday things real masterpiece. The craftsmen who worked for his company used a wide variety of techniques: they mastered the art of processing colored and transparent gemstones, decorated items with thin and very expensive enamel, and also made figurines from multi-colored gold, which, perhaps, was the main highlight in manufacturing process. So, until now, no one can reproduce the technique of galoché enamel - the art of applying fibrous lines to the surface in the form of an interweaving of various shapes and contours. Although this technique has been known for a very long time, it was the jeweler Faberge and his workers who managed to bring this process to perfection.

Features of creativity

Perhaps the secret of the uniqueness of each item lies in the fact that the factory's jewelers used a rich color palette, which consisted of 124 shades. Thanks to such a variety of colors, craftsmen could make the most different patterns in the form of Christmas trees, scales, fancy zigzags. Peter Karl Gustavovich Faberge achieved European fame also because he never repeated himself: each of his customers each time received a unique little thing as a gift.

Life after the revolution

When the Bolshevik Party came to power, all the workshops and shops of the famous jeweler were nationalized. The entire supply of precious stones and finished products fell into the hands of the new government. Some part, however, his eldest son managed to bring to Finland. For several years, the products of the famous company were sold for next to nothing, primarily Faberge eggs. At the end of 1918, the undercover master himself left the country and went to Riga, as he feared arrest. After the Soviet troops occupied the territory of Latvia, he moved to Germany. When a revolution also took place in that country, he finally settled in Wiesbaden. According to the jeweler's own recollections, the shocks he experienced had a strong impact on his physical and mental state. In 1920 he died in Lausanne, where he had moved shortly before to treat a diseased heart.

Easter eggs from the 1880s

Unfortunately, not all the works of the famous jeweler have been preserved. One of them is an image of a hen taking out a sapphire egg from a small basket. The peculiarity of this product is that the figures were trimmed with diamonds cut in the form of roses. However, according to some descriptions, the egg was made of gold.

Also, nothing is known about the surprise, which was an obligatory component of the egg. At present, it remains a mystery where this work, commissioned by Alexander III, is located: most likely, it was lost or is in a private collection. Another egg, created for the emperor, was made in the form of a diamond watch. was inside original surprise It's clockwork. The egg itself is located on an elegant stand. After the revolution, the work of the famous jeweler was lost, and was found already at the beginning of our century in the American collection.

Works from the early 1890s

The Easter egg, commissioned by Alexander III in 1890, is covered with light pink enamel and divided into several sections. The peculiarity of this product is that it contains an internal mechanism for opening a special panel. In addition, it was for this gift that miniatures depicting castles and palaces were made.

Separately, mention should be made of the egg, which did not leave the borders of our country. It is called "Memory of Azov". The peculiarity of this product is that it is made in the style of the times of Louis XV. The egg is covered with a rococo ornament, and the inside is covered with beautiful green velvet. The surprise was a small model of the Russian imperial cruiser.

Another product was called "Caucasian egg". It is also made in the style popular during the time of Louis XV. There are four windows on its surface.

The work got its name because it contained miniatures depicting the palace of the Grand Duke in the Caucasus, where he lived for a long time.

Products from the mid-1890s

Faberge eggs could be of various shapes. So, one of them looked like an oval casket. It is known that the model for this work of art was a jewelry box, made back in the 19th century by the famous master Le Roy. However, the Faberge product is more elegant, as the master gave it an ovoid shape. Nothing is known about the surprise, although there is an assumption that there was a pearl jewelry inside.

Works from the reign of Nicholas II

The new emperor continued the tradition of his father and gave Easter eggs to his widowed mother and wife every year. One of the first pieces was made with a bouquet of roses. The work is done in the style of neoclassicism. The surprise was a rosebud, which is covered with light yellow enamel. Inside the flower was a small golden crown and a pendant. Unfortunately, both surprises were lost. This egg was presented by the emperor to his wife Alexandra Feodorovna: the crown meant her new title as empress.

In memory of her late wife, he gave his mother an egg, which is considered one of the most beautiful works of Faberge. It is covered with dark blue enamel and divided into six panels, on which the monograms of Maria Feodorovna and her husband Alexander III are engraved. It was one of four eggs dedicated to the memory of this emperor.

Exhibitions

The Carl Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg is located in the Shuvalov Palace on the Fontanka embankment. The basis of the collection is the products of the most famous jeweler; in addition, the building houses works by Russian masters of decorative and applied arts. The museum stores 4,000 items, among which, in addition to the famous Easter eggs, are interior items, silverware, as well as works by contemporaries of the famous master - other jewelers, such as I. Sazikov, P. Ovchinnikov, I. Khlebnikov and others. The museum has an expert council, which includes experts on the work of Faberge. Its purpose is cultural and educational activities.

Exhibits

The exhibition of Carl Faberge is interesting because it includes Easter eggs, which are popular and famous all over the world. The collection includes the first and last eggs. One of the most famous is the "Coronation", which was created on the occasion of the coronation of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna.

The surprise of the product was a carriage model, which was made during the reign of Catherine II. The work is decorated with two diamonds, the monogram of the Empress, it also has the inscription of the year - "1897". So, the works of the famous master have become a real standard in jewelry art. His works are of great importance not only for domestic, but also for world culture. Currently, the Faberge Museum is engaged in active educational work, as well as the preservation of the heritage of the famous jeweler. Virtual tours in 3D format have been created on the Internet, which allow anyone to get acquainted with both all the exhibits and the interiors of the palace itself, where they are located.

😉 Greetings to new and regular readers! In the article "Carl Faberge: biography of the great jeweler" - short biography and facts from the life of a famous master.

Friends, in my youth I first heard about Carl Faberge. Thought he was French. In Soviet times, his name was not mentioned very often. Much later, to my surprise, I found out that the world famous jeweler is ours! He was born, lived and worked in St. Petersburg. Dossier:

full name - Peter Carl Faberge;
date of birth - May 30, 1846;
Zodiac sign -
place of birth: St. Petersburg, Russian Empire;
date of death - September 24, 1920 (aged 74);
place of death - Lausanne, Switzerland;
occupation: jeweler;
father - Gustav Faberge. Mother - Charlotte Jungstedt;
sons: Eugene, Agathon, Alexander, Nikolai.

His father Gustav came from a German family of French roots. He was a modest jeweler who had been in business since 1841. His mother, Charlotte Jungstedt, was the daughter of a Danish artist.

History of success

When Karl was 14 years old, the family moved to Dresden. From there, the father sends his son on a trip to Europe. He stops for a long time in Frankfurt am Main. There he begins to master the jewelry business. The journey then continues to and in Paris.

After returning to Russia, at the age of 24, he took over his father's jewelry firm. From a small jewelry workshop, it quickly becomes the largest enterprise in St. Petersburg with several branches. In Moscow since 1887, Odessa (1890), London (1903) and Kyiv (1905).

Faberge Jr. tirelessly studies all the techniques known in the jewelry business, visits museums and libraries. He does not miss a single art exhibition and gets acquainted with young talents everywhere.

He was distinguished by a rare ability to find talents, convince them to move to distant and mysterious Petersburg, and then create conditions under which they could fully reveal themselves.

In 1870, the company's staff already has a hundred people (later it grows to 500). The unsurpassed Faberge always and under any conditions remained the main source of ideas and judge of the embodied plans.

The personal merit of a successful company was wide use in the practice of domestic ornamental gemstones, which were previously considered "non-jewelry". Altai, Ural, Transbaikal gems are boldly combined with precious metals and stones.

Supplier of the Supreme Court

The first stunning success came in 1882. At the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, the company's products received a gold medal. A year later, the master receives orders from the court. Faberge soon begins to be called the "Supplier of the Imperial Court" with the right to have the image of the State Emblem on the sign.

Carl Faberge and the talented craftsmen of his firm created the first jewelry egg in 1885. It was commissioned by Tsar Alexander III as an Easter surprise for his wife Maria Feodorovna.

The empress was so delighted with the gift that the ingenious master, who turned into a court jeweler, received an order to make an egg every year. Each product had to be unique and contain some kind of surprise. This was the only condition.

The next emperor, kept this tradition. Each egg was a unique world masterpiece.

At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, Karl won the "Grand Prix". The French government awards him the Legion of Honor.

The glory of the company grew like a snowball. His customers are the courts of Europe, in the first place - England, Eastern monarchs, large industrialists, financiers and other celebrities.

The range of manufactured products was wide to the extreme. In addition to jewelry, they made watches, snuff boxes, cigarette cases, souvenirs, sets, silverware, caskets and miniature sculptural toys.

Far from home

But then the October Revolution of 1917 made its own adjustments. The House of Faberge was closed in November 1918. Miraculously, and only with the help of the British government, the owner manages to emigrate abroad. First to Germany and then to Switzerland.

But there was no longer enough strength to raise everything anew, and there were not enough funds. In 1920, Peter Carl Faberge dies in poverty far from his homeland and his creations. Together with his death, the brilliant era of Faberge also ends.

In this video Additional Information"Carl Faberge: biography"

Friends, if you find the article “Carl Faberge: biography of a great jeweler” interesting, share it on social media. networks. 🙂 Thank you! Check out the site for new stories!