CHAPTER

CHAPTER ONE

Fabergé in Edwardian London

Carl Fabergé’s vision and focus on meticulous craftsmanship won him the patronage of the Imperial Russian family and brought great success in Russia. Fabergé forged a close relationship with the Imperial family and supplied its members with pieces for both themselves and official state purposes. By the time Fabergé opened in London, the famous commission of Easter Eggs ordered by Emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II was in its eighteenth year. The firm’s popularity in Russia attracted attention from overseas and it tentatively took steps to show its work abroad. In 1885 it made its international debut at the Nuremberg exhibition, where it won a gold medal. Then in 1900 it exhibited to great acclaim at the Paris Exposition Universelle. The reception its work received there encouraged the firm to establish itself permanently in Western Europe.

Despite the success in France, Fabergé chose London over Paris for the location of its new branch. London was at the heart of a prosperous Empire that stretched around the globe. It was, as it is now, a wealthy, law-abiding and cosmopolitan city where the sophisticated patrons who sought Fabergé’s work congregated. Importantly, the British Royal family, who were closely related to the Russian Imperial family, were also existing customers of the firm. During the reign of King Edward VII, life in London was characterised by a joie de vivre expressed through luxury and conspicuous consumption. Members of an increasingly mobile international elite flocked to the city to share in the pleasures it afforded. In 1901, the firm began to make sales trips to London. Prince George (later King George V) noted one such trip in his diary in May 1903, writing that Fabergé had ‘just come over from Russia’ and ‘we bought about 43 of his lovely things’.1 The success of these trips and the evident demand for its exquisite objets d’art in Britain made London the ideal location for Fabergé.

Most pieces purchased from Fabergé in London were bought as gifts and the firm’s wares became the default choice for presents among members of the Edwardian elite. Weekend country house parties, weddings, birthdays and holidays were marked by the exchange of pieces by Fabergé. Sonia Keppel

Opposite page: The Honourable Mrs. John Ward, daughter of the American ambassador to London, Whitelaw Reid. On 23 June 1908 she married the Honourable John Hubert Ward. Ward was equerry to King Edward VII. He was six foot tall, dashing and a popular member of the Court. The wedding at the Chapel Royal St. James’s was attended by HM The King, HM The Queen, Princess Victoria and The Prince and Princess of Wales. Among the extensive gifts the newly married couple received were many from Fabergé: Countess Beckendorff gave them an orange enamel bellpush and Lady Wernher presented the bride with a jewelled clasp. The new Honourable Mrs. John Ward returned some of the gifts to the branch in November 1908 in exchange for a Fabergé study of a vase of

violets. National Portrait Gallery