CHAPTER TWO
From Moscow to Bond Street Fabergé’s London branch was established and initially run by Henry “Allan” Talbot Bowe, in tandem with his brother Arthur. The collaboration between the Bowe family and Fabergé had begun in Russia. Born in South Africa, Allan was the son of an English doctor who had settled in Springbok, Namaqualand. Allan’s father died when he was young and he returned to England to be schooled. On completing his education, he moved to Moscow to work for his second cousin, James Shanks, a partner in the Magasin Anglais, an outfitters that also sold jewellery and silver. Allan worked there until 1886 when, by chance, he met Carl Fabergé travelling on a train from Russia to Paris. Allan was a capable young man and as they journeyed westwards, he won Fabergé’s confidence. Fabergé, who was considering opening a business in Moscow, recognised Bowe’s potential and asked him to run the new enterprise. Fabergé’s Moscow branch opened in 1887 as an equal partnership between Bowe and Carl Fabergé. It traded from premises on the corner of Kusnetsky Most and Neglinnaya Street in the centre of Moscow’s luxury goods district. Allan Bowe was in control of the business and under his guidance it grew and prospered. Allan was assimilated into the closely-knit British merchant colony in Moscow and married Emma Billet, a member of the expatriate community in the city.They moved into a large house where they entertained lavishly; their daughter Essie recalled frequent parties at their home and playing with the elaborate Fabergé silver centrepieces that adorned the dinner table.1 Allan’s ambitions were not limited to Russia and the demand for Fabergé in his homeland led him and his brother Arthur to open the London branch in 1903. Its first location was the Berners’ Hotel at 6 & 7 Berners Street, north of Oxford Street. Whether Arthur merely stayed at the hotel on arriving in London or if he opened an office there is not recorded. Shortly afterwards, he relocated to premises incorporating ‘a private reception room’ in Portman House, 415 Oxford Street, on the corner of Duke Street.2 Though Arthur
Henry “Allan” Talbot Bowe.
Opposite page: Fabergé’s Moscow premises. Photograph courtesy Wartski, London
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