An Imperial Period, silver-gilt, bowenite inkwell by Faberge featuring chased laurel leaves, acanthus swags, and a hinged cover with a ribbon-tied acanthus wreath finial. The inkwell sits atop four silver 'winged paw' feet and comes complete with its original glass liner to protect the bowenite from the pigments in the ink. The piece's manufacture dates to between 1908 and 1917, right at the tail end of the Romanov's reign in Russia. Well known to be the court jeweller to the Russian Imperial family, Faberge started operation in 1842 under the direction of Gustav Faberge and by the end of the 19th Century were creating one-of-a-kind masterpieces for the Tsar and his family. World-renowned for creating the 'Faberge Eggs', the firm crafted jewellery, hard-stone carved animals, desk seals, inkwells amongst many other types of objet d'art. This inkwell is likely to be the only example of its kind and has tremendously good provenance having passed through Christie's in New York and Bonhams in London in the past 30 years. An exceptional piece of Imperial Period Faberge that would be at home on the most elegant of desks.
Marked - to top of inkwell - Moscow 84 'Kokoshnik' mark, 'К.ФАБЕРЖЕ' in Cyrillic for Carl Faberge directly under the 'imperial warrant' mark, two other identical marks slightly rubbed and illegible
Measures - 8.5cm H x 6.25cm D
Condition - The inkwell presents extremely well for a piece of Faberge that is over 100 years of age. To the bowenite are some natural fissures to one area which are stable and likely have been present since manufacture. The original glass liner remains in good condition with no chips or cracks. To the underside, it appears there have been some restorations at some stage to the four-winged paw feet, as whilst all are still in place, a couple appear to be re-soldered at some point in the object's life. We have only lightly polished the piece in order for it to retain its natural surface patina.
Provenance -
Christie's, New York, April 14th 1994, lot 126.
Bonhams, London, 'The Russian Sale', December 2nd 2015, lot 92.