A TWO-COLOUR GOLD AND SILVER-MOUNTED GUILLOCHÉ ENAMEL DESK CLOCK

Fabergé's use of personalised colours originated with a commission from King Edward VII for a photograph frame enamelled in his racing colours, red and blue. The photograph frame dates to the same period as this clock and currently forms part of the Royal Collection (C. de Guitaut, Fabergé in the Royal Collection, London, 2003, p. 179, no. 224). Similarly Leopold de Rothschild commissioned Fabergé items enamelled in his racing blue and yellow stripes. The relationship between the enamelling of these examples and the present clock suggests that orange-pink and white stripes may have been the racing colours of this clock's original owner.
Similar designs with boldly coloured yet simple, geometric decoration became particularly appealing at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the growing popularity of modernist style. The present clock made between 1908 and 1917 dates to Fabergé's later production and is an excellent example of the firm's increasingly modern design, where all ornament is pared down to simple stripes echoing the rectangular form of the clock.