Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna: An Imperial Fabergé Diamond-Set and Gold-Mounted Silver Carved Nephrite Tomato-Form Gum Pot Fabergé, Workmaster Mikhail Perkhin, St. Petersburg, before 1899, with indistinct scratched inventory number 37...[55] 2-3/4 x 2-7/8 inches (7.0 x 7.3 cm) 408 grams (gross) In an Imperial gold velvet-covered case with white silk lining, likely original. PROVENANCE: Purchased by Empress Maria Feodorovna, February 7, 1901, for 275 rubles; At Hvidore, likely until 1924; Private Collection, Ridgefield, Connecticut; Fairfield Auction, Newtown, Connecticut, September 26, 2018, lot no. 148. This exceptional jeweled nephrite gum pot belongs as much to the genre of Fabergé flower and plant studies as it does to the firm's objets de luxe. It was purchased on 7 February, 1901 by the Dowager Empress for her own collection. The bill from the archives reads in Russian "Gum [glue] pot nephrite pomme d'amour [tomato] 190 rose [cut diamonds] to stalk" and notes the cost at 275 rubles. Gum pots were an Edwardian desk necessity, used for both stamps and envelopes, and this one appears to have remained with the Dowager Empress at Hvidore, her Danish estate. As a result, it was still in her possession after the Russian Revolution. The objects belonging to the Dowager Empress were divided between her daughters, Grand Duchess Xenia and Olga Alexandrovna, and the offered lot was likely sold by one of them to someone in the trade after 1924. The spectacular gum pot ended up in a private collection and was sold at auction in 2018 as "possibly attributed" to Fabergé. The offered lot is visible in a photograph from Hvidore, which shows the Dowager Empress's desk. It appears to rest next to a frame with the Saint Andrew's flag (similar to that now in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Inv. No. 47.20.357). The photographic and archival evidence strongly underscore the Imperial provenance of this work. Heritage Auctions thanks Valentin Skurlov for his assistance with the research of this lot. Property from an Important Private Collection HID03101062020 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

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