A JEWELLED, ENAMEL AND GOLD-MOUNTED PURPURINE PARASOL HANDLE

Fabergé made extensive and exclusive use of purpurine, a vivid opaque matt red glass. Purpurine is extremely difficult to make and its production was limited. It is created by crystallising lead chromate in a glass matrix, a technique first discovered in Italy during the seventeenth century. In the nineteenth century Sergei Petukhov, a craftsman at the Imperial Glass Factory, rediscovered the method for creating purpurine. It is thought that Petukhov either supplied the formula to Fabergé or that Fabergé's workmasters mounted pieces of purpurine made at the Imperial Glass Factory.

We are grateful to Dmitry Krivoshey for his assistance with the research of the present lot.