Live Auction 1161Important Russian Art
A JEWELLED GOLD-MOUNTED MOSS AGATE BOX
Lot 205 PROPERTY OF AN ENGLISH LADY OF TITLE

A JEWELLED GOLD-MOUNTED MOSS AGATE BOX

MARKED FABERGÉ, WITH THE WORKMASTER'S MARK OF HENRIK WIGSTRÖM, ST PETERSBURG, 1903-1904, SCRATCHED INVENTORY NUMBER 10844

Closed25 November 2013

Price Realised

GBP 50,000

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A JEWELLED GOLD-MOUNTED MOSS AGATE BOX
MARKED FABERGÉ, WITH THE WORKMASTER'S MARK OF HENRIK WIGSTRÖM, ST PETERSBURG, 1903-1904, SCRATCHED INVENTORY NUMBER 10844
Rectangular, the cover inset with a moss agate panel, within a rose-cut diamond border, the sides and base enamelled in translucent salmon pink over a wavy guilloché ground, the cover mounted with a gold guilloche rim, the base and sides mounted with dot and dash borders, marked inside cover and base
2 in. (5.1 cm.) wide

Specialist note

A similarly designed box by Henrik Wigström, with a moss agate set cover and salmon guilloché enamelled sides, originally acquired by Queen Alexandra is held in the Royal Collection (RCIN 40155). Fabergé's use of moss agate in snuff-box design is an extension of the eighteenth-century fashion for incorporating moss agate in objects of vertu and jewellery of German origin. Fabergé mined the stone in Siberia and also produced enamel patterns to simulate its effect, often in combination with pink enamel (C. de Guitaut, Fabergé in the Royal Collection, London, 2003, p. 131, no. 146).