COLLECTING GUIDES Fabergé animals creatures and collected some of the finest examples to appear on the market. This month, as part of Christie’s autumn Russian art sales and coinciding with Fabergé: Romance to Revolution opening at the V&A on November 20, 20 animals, ranging from a gold-footed duckling to a playful cat, will go under the hammer in London with low estimates starting at £10,000. As well as the hardstone animals, the broader Woolf collection comprises four main groups in total: functional works of art; Japonisme-inspired pieces and Russianstyled pieces.
FABERGÉ ANIMALS
Animal MAGIC
Alongside this month’s landmark Fabergé exhibition at the V&A, a significant single owner collection by the Russian maker goes under the hammer, including a number of charming miniature animals
T
his month sees a collection of 86 pieces of Fabergé offered for sale, the scope of which is described as second only to that included in the Royal Collection Trust. It was amassed by the pharmacist Henry Woolf, a successful businessman and owner of the London-based pharmaceutical company Underwoods the Chemists who died in 2019 and began collecting Fabergé in the early ‘70s. According to Christel Ludewig McCanless from the Fabergé Research website, Woolf's collection was: “Created of utter instinct coupled with an intuitive capacity to recognise perfection.” Woolf had a particular interest in Fabergé’s carved
46 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
Above A number of tiny hardstone animals by Fabergé goes under the hammer in London this month Right A jewelled
and gold-mounted chalcedony model of a duckling by Fabergé, St Petersburg, c. 1900, with rose-cut diamondset eyes and gold feet; in the original fitted case, 4cm high, has an estimate of £20,000-£30,000
The House of Fabergé reinvigorated the Russian market in many ways, aside from its famous eggs. One such was its small carvings created to flaunt the rich varieties of Russian stones to great effect. Entire menageries of stone animals were created with Japanese netsuke carvings in mind but amber eyes were more often superseded by tiny diamonds or rubies in the Fabergé iterations. As his business grew, Carl Fabergé carefully tailored his works to his growing British clientele after the establishment of the first shop outside Russia in London in 1903. Inside, the store manager Henry Bainbridge invited European monarchs, Indian maharajas, English aristocrats and American heiresses to acquire the ultimate status symbols — exquisite ornaments, objects and jewels shipped straight from the Fabergé workshops in St Petersburg and marked with a London stamp. Soon, after a royal intervention, one of the favourite ranges become Fabergé’s animals. The upturn was sparked in part after Fabergé made a model of Edward VII's fox terrier, Caesar, in 1907. After its success the monarch went on to commission an entire diminutive carved menagerie of all the animals on his country estate at Sandringham in Norfolk. The result was the largest group of Fabergé's hardstone creature carvings in existence, including turkeys, pigeons and sheep — even the king's pet bear.
