Beyond Fabergé: Imperial Russian Jewelry

thank you for joining us for this month's second saturday lecture beyond faberge imperial russian jewelry presented by marie fettely my name is hannah phillips and i am the public engagement coordinator at the russian history museum we're going to get started with the lecture in just a few moments after some introductory remarks and a little bit of housekeeping so we are pleased to welcome back those who have previously attended the lecture i'm going through the attendee list and my goodness the amount of people joining is a little bit staggering and intimidating but i recognize some of your names so if you have attended a lecture before thank you immensely and welcome back i'm also seeing a few new names here to our list so welcome to the lecture series for perhaps the first time for those unfamiliar with the russian history museum our mission is to promote the understanding and appreciation of the rich history and culture of russia and the russian diaspora so this lecture series is one digital means of doing so before introducing marie betterly i am going to mention that all of your cameras and mics have been disabled for the duration of the webinar the chat box located at the bottom of your screen has been disabled during the lecture but you will receive the occasional links sent from one of us into that little chat repository we will also be using the q and a section of your screen all the way at the bottom at the very end of the lecture which i will denote for a q a component following marie's presentation and now i have news for you all which is that there will be a quiz at the end of today's presentation if you were here last month karen kettering joked about a quiz but marie has actually given us a quiz um so i'll give you a little bit more information for that quiz following marie's presentation and her lecture here today but i figured it would be good to give you all just a little bit of a heads up to ensure that you are paying attention so we are going to take a moment now to introduce marie as our lecturer for today's second saturday series uh born in paris marie betterly grew up in a world of russian treasures having spent her teenage years on the grounds of hillwood museum in washington dc as the director's daughter marie majored in art history at university and went on to earn a graduate gemologist diploma from the gemological institute in america her professional career began at christie's auction house in new york where she worked as a gemologist and eventually rose to the head of the russian department after 10 years at christie's she launched her own business trading in antique jewels today she is the leading authority of imperial russian decorative arts and jewelry and consults for auction houses museums and private collectors worldwide so marie we are very pleased to have you join us today i speak for myself and others when i note how very much we are looking forward to your dazzling presentation so i will hand things over to marie thank you again for all of the attendees joining us today thank you so much hannah for that wonderful introduction i'm really honored to be here i saw this wonderful collection in jordanville about 10 years ago when it was smaller and i was delighted to learn that it has a fabulous new redesign as of 2014 it's a russian history museum and it's open to the public once more and it has a fantastic new website i feel like already i'm surrounded with russian treasures even though i'm in canada so i'm i'm happy i'm right in my element it's a terrific collection i'll be talking about a couple of the items in my talk and to help you with that quiz i'll take a slightly longer pause before saying something that's on it so if i stop speaking make sure you pay attention before i begin i'd like to thank nicholas nicholson director of development for inviting me to speak michael perikrestov executive director of the russian history museum and hannah phillips public engagement coordinator i started writing faberge in my head many years ago because being in the field for a while i knew deep down that there is so much more to russian jewelry than faberge i knew that along with coral faberge over 30 other goldsmiths in russia held that coveted title a purveyor to the russian court and that was only in the rush in the late imperial period i also knew that the imperial era marked the high point of the russian jeweler's art and that in some cases the quality of saint petersburg jewelry equaled if not surpassed the best that european capitals could offer then i wondered well who made these jewels why is nothing in english written about them and why do we only hear about faberge because really the firm's 30-year tenure as court purveyor only covered one-tenth of the span of the romanov dynasty one-tenth and the romanovs were known around the world for their lavish jewels and treasures so that's when i started to investigate so let's begin my talk will be in three sections because i like things in threes first will be the early history leading up to the imperial era about 10 minutes second part will be on the best 18th century russian jeweler in my opinion and the third section will be on the best jeweler of the 19th century along with a few of his compatriots i will give you a few prices because well i'm a dealer after all so i can't resist that bit about me i have no russian blood whatsoever at least not that i know of i was born in paris my mother was french and my father was english and when i was 15 we moved from to america from europe and my father surprised us all upon retiring from the u.s government after 30 years by becoming a museum director it's hillwood museum as the director's family we were required to required in quotes to live on the 25-acre estate that was a real hardship just kidding my mother was delighted so as a teenager i found myself surrounded by russian treasures many of you are familiar with hillwood museum this is a view of the grand staircase from the second floor if those of you who are not familiar has a very large collection of russian decorative arts before the revolution and in front of you you see the romanov rulers catherine the great of course in the middle and below her empress alexandra fiorovna wearing a pearl tiara which we'll see later after graduating from university i hightailed it up to new york and got a job at christie's i wanted the big city life early on i was hired to catalog jewels for upcoming sales because they knew i was studying for my gemology diploma and i remember the day after months of seeing the most fabulous gemstones d flawless diamonds galore hunched over my microscope i remember the day when i saw a suite of jewels that stopped me dead in my tracks they were russian from saint petersburg mid 19th century set with gorgeous rubies and sapphires there was a patina of gold that i loved and these were owned by thomas evans who was dentist to the imperial family these jewels just drew me in i have a picture of these jewels in my book and i call it gems that changed my life because they did that's where it all began well enough about me turns out that the story of russian jewels predates the romanovs not just by centuries but by millennia when scythian nomadic tribes first roam the steps of southern siberia from the crimean coast to parts of ukraine and crafted jewels in pure gold the comb on the left shows greek influences which were beginning to appear in jewels found in the burial mounds around 400 bc it is in the gold treasury room in the amitash which is a must see if you haven't been there then came grand prince vladimir of kiev seen on the right it was in 986 that he decided to bring faith to his pagan subjects as recounted in russia's primary chronicles he briefly considered islam but nixed it for its prohibition to alcohol for other reasons he ruled out catholicism in judaism but when orthodox clerics visited the court from byzantium he was intrigued so he sent his envoys to explore constantinople and they returned and raptured by their visit i hope you'll forgive me if you if you've heard this quote before but i just love it we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth they gushed for on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty as we are at a loss how to describe it we only know that god dwells there among men and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations within two years russia became orthodox christian this turn to the east is what makes russian jewelry and art so special yes there's that european element that flourished in st petersburg but there's also a taste for luxury for pageantry for grand displays of wealth and color that's evident not only in the colorful enamels but as you'll see in opulent jeweled treasures of the court as early as the 16th century rulers collected colored gemstones in russia and like the europeans medieval russians believed in their healing powers here we have the ailing sovereign even the terrible the tsar of russia showing his treasury of gems rubies sapphires emeralds to a visiting ambassador fond of describing their properties of a ruby yvonne explains explained quote this is the most comfortable to the heart brain vigor and memory of man meanwhile in ukraine the jewelry arts had already begun to flourish on the top right are the earliest town marks that were used in stamping of precious metals to indicate origin so each town had a different hallmark a town mark the first goldsmith's guild was established in kiev in 1503 the archangel michael with the sword became the kiev and town mark which you see on the left to the right of that already by the late 16th century lavoff had 30 goldsmiths supplying their trade there and hallmarking began in 1600. the levoftown mark of a standing line in a field was adopted in 1678. back in moscow the kremlin workshops were busy making the imperial regalia for the coronation of the first romanoff tsar mikhail fedorovich who ruled from 1613-1645 you see that on the lower right the regalia as with much of russian culture jewelry began to be strongly influenced in western styles and techniques during the reign of peter the great founder of st petersburg while peter himself had simple tastes and preferred to sub from wooden bowls he realized that extravagance was a spectacle that announced russia's might to the world he also knew that diamonds would play a major role in broadcasting that power peter established the diamond chamber in 1719 now known as the diamond fund in the moscow kremlin to create ornate secular riches for the imperial family's new court the crown jewels of russia were the property of the treasury to be passed down to each succeeding ruler he also organized the jewelry trade by setting up guilds for foreign and russian craftsmen based on the german model here we see a portrait medallion of peter the great that was sold at sotheby's our last speaker karen kettering i hope you don't mind me saying this karen but karen managed the sale of that and she gave a talk about selling this wonderful piece when she was at sotheby's lucky you and on the left is his wife catherine in a portrait dated 1717. when catherine became empress in 1725 her reign would mark the beginning of the glorious era of jewelry production in russia this was largely because from this time on until the death of catherine ii or the great in 1796 so we're talking about 70 plus years russia would primarily be ruled by women five empresses in one century and yes you guessed it all with a passion for gems and jewels imagine the demand that this must have created in on the trade in the empire so who created all these masterworks well many came from europe it was a huge influx swept in from sweden switzerland germany france and finland some no older than 12 made the journey to tap into this lucrative market few would make that leap from poverty to power in the winter palace but one did and rose to become russia's finest 18th century jeweler his name was jeremy posie porzier was just 13 in 1729 when he set out on foot with his father etienne from switzerland to saint petersburg where etienne's brother pierre was surgeon to the imperial court after seven grueling months of overland travel the duo arrived in saint petersburg only to learn that pierre had relocated to moscow and then when they got to moscow the pl's house had burned to the ground in one of the many fires that raised the wooden city tragically too etienne died unable to survive the hardships of his new homeland leaving his grief-stricken son in a strange land luckily though his uncle pierre had arranged for jeremy an apprenticeship with a brilliant french court jeweller named benoit gravero famed for his superb gem cutting skills the parisian lapidarist had settled in st petersburg 25 years earlier as jeweler to peter the great so by now he had built up an impressive clientele i thank posier from the bottom of my heart that we he has left us his memoirs they were translated in russian years ago but never in english and we've translated them from the french and would love to publish them here's the here's the proud jeweler on the right in a portrait in the geneva library holding his signature jewel a flower spray in his right hand and a diamond ring in his left on the left is one of his gorgeous gemstone creations at the amitage diamond treasury room another must visit if you haven't been there if you look at the top there is a tulip-shaped amethyst which would become a bit of a signature cut for poisier and we'll see that again in a box shortly of course he is um pusia's master was a jealous and temperamental but hugely talented he had no rival in his field so learned very early on how to polish cut and set stones and how to value them and at night he started creating uh on his own in addition by delivering their precious boxes and jewels pusia met the highest echelon of saint petersburg society including the powerful chuvalo family and count mikhail varansov who would later help empress elizabeth petrovna overthrow empress anna leopoldovna it turns out that posier would witness not one not just one but five pallas coups including the most momentous one orchestrated by the future catherine the great so the memoirs read like a cliffhanger he was right there when it all happened yet with each successor he managed to hold on to that position as court jeweller until her patronage came to a grinding halt carvero's best client was empress anayanovna peter the great's niece who you see on the right like all romanov zarina she craved luxury and more than anything else though she loved the allure of the east intrigued by exotic precious stones including unpolished rubies from the orient she sent caravans along the silk road to india and china to fetch these in vast quantities then impatient to have the sumptuous gems mounted as wearable jewelry she actually ordered her jeweler javier to transfer his entire workshop into her palace probably the first and last time that ever happened this allowed her to inspect the jeweler's progress several times a day to the parisian's annoyance to appease her gaviro often brought along his personable apprentice posier good looking and charming off hours gabriel enjoyed drinking and crowsing which did not sit well with anna one day when he failed to appear for her early morning meeting with the empress she banished him from the court forever struck him off the register and he lost all prospect of imperial patronage this left young alone in the palace ana soon recognized his extraordinary talent and although she would die a few weeks later the connection had been made poisier opened his first workshop in 1740 in the ancient artillery district of saint petersburg he also made diamond set gold presentation snuff boxes like this one in the amitage sometimes instead of diamond decorations a worthy recipient would receive a snuff box from the empress with the monarch's initials unfortunately he would learn that rich and powerful clients can be a problem they don't always pay their bills or take ages to do so which is surprising wouldn't you say as possia's business grew so did his expertise an eye for beauty knowing that as faberge would 145 years later to please his imperial and aristocratic patrons was key some of them especially valronsoff did pay their bills so he set about creating sumptuous jewels that would bedazzle these russian empresses and grandees alike he also pioneered new techniques of stone setting and combined both european and traditional russian styles in lavish gem encrusted masterpieces in the rocaco style in this other bouquet you can see a butterfly formed of translucent translucent sheets of banded agate in the close-up on the left these bouquets were worn in the hair or on the bodice and some have small hooks on the back for this reason others were placed in vases like this and they were they became very fashionable in the 18th century and i'm sure that faberge was inspired by these flowers when he started to make his own series later on because he actually worked in the amitages appraiser these bouquets contain not just gems from the east but native russian stones as well first discovered by cossacks in the 1700s the euro mountains yielded rich deposits of amethysts topaz jasper aquamarine and other stones i'd love to know if anyone listening has ever seen these in person in the diamond treasury room i i know a couple of you have jim and gail because i lead these uh small jewelry focused tours to saint petersburg and you were on my trip and of course i stopped doing that now but hope to resume in the pentagon and after the pandemic uh i mentioned this because i saw them again in 2014 after 20 years of not having seen them and i just was they took my breath away because first of all they're so large they're about seven inches high and uh so gorgeous and so exotic to me that's a quintessential russian jewel and it also shows that was a bit of a renaissance man of the trade of jewelry because unlike faberge who had scores of work masters at this early stage when he made these bouquets probably did everything on his own he might have had two helpers so he had to source the gems design the jewels make the gold mounts cut the gemstones into their asymmetrical settings and then sell them in this case empress elizabeth was a ready buyer and there she is by the mid-18th century diamonds became the rage elizabeth would change gowns up to 10 times a day and each new gown required a different set of jewels so close was posier to the empress elizabeth that he became her confidante delivering not only jewels but important documents for her to sign to her chambers when her court officials were too timid to do so so he grew quite attached to her but in a very platonic way he was a very good protestant she returned the favor by granting the jeweler free access to the palace which was an extraordinary court privilege unheard of for any jeweler or artisan or anyone outside the court before or since he sometimes felt frustrated though elizabeth was fickle plus she was an insomniac in one case a messenger wakes him up in the middle of the night elizabeth one wanted to see his latest creations now so he trudges along on his horse from artillery artillery street to the palace which is a good 20-minute walk i know because i walked it myself but during the day our hotel happened to be on artillery street which was where posse had his workshop he went to the palace only to find her fast asleep when he arrived so he had to go back to his home only to be summoned yet again to go back to the palace he made imperial decorations like the one sorry you see on the right which is the order say andrew first called it's the highest order of chivalry in russia and it had been established by peter the great in 1698 here's another one of his presentation boxes most of his works were diplomatic gifts and here you see that characteristic tulip shape that you saw earlier in the bouquet this one in a sapphire it's it could be a pear shape as well but to me it looks like a tulip pusia made at least two crowns one is world famous which you'll see in a moment the other is less so when elizabeth died her successor peter iii ordered poisier to re to create a funerary crown to be placed on her head according to orthodox custom the deceased monarch would lay on her gold parade bed so that her former subjects could pay their last respects poisier described this wake in eerie detail the new czar's consort catherine soon to be the russia's ruler herself was having difficulty placing the crown on elizabeth's head so she turned to for help court protocol dictated that up to six weeks after death all must kiss the sovereign's hand so he did so six weeks aware that after one's death the head tends to swell he had designed the crown to expand pincers in hand he adjusted it by altering miniature screws to long its circumference then lit by six thousand candles surrounded by weeping ladies and waiting maids of honor the highest court officials archbishops and priests poisier gingerly placed the enlarged crown on her head it was all he could do not to break down you also created this diamond mantle clasp it's huge which was used to join the imperial mantle in front during all the coronations this is in the diamond fund in moscow as is poisier's most famous masterpiece catherine the great's coronation crown he and another court jeweller george eckhart created this masterpiece for the new empress of all russians in 1762. after her reign every russian sovereign would wear this crown at his coronation because they were all male including the last star nicholas ii i have very precise statistics on this are you ready it's set with 4936 diamonds with a total weight of 2 858 carats 75 natural pearls and the spinel which is the redstone on top weighs 398.72 carats it's the largest spinel ever reported and it's from badakshan in today's tajikistan but be careful if you google catherine the great's crown today you'll most likely see the reproduction that was made in 2012 which is quite beautiful in its own way it's set with even more diamonds but the carat weight is less and to me it's just it doesn't have the same look at all and the tourmaline's tourmaline's been replaced with a spinel this is the real thing but by 1764 only two years later was mired in debt from his deadbeat aristocratic clients even empress catherine herself either ignored his peace his pleas excuse me for payment or took far too long to do so i think he was paid for the crown but it was her other commissions it was time to go back to geneva the richest court in europe had defied the jeweler and he was crushed on his way back to switzerland he etched with a diamond on the window pane of a roadside inn after 30 years of tears pain and work i will seek a pleasure where i can rest i will seek a place where i can rest pray to the supreme being to lessen my sorrows the upside though is now he had time to write his memoirs by this time the golden age of russian jewelry was at its peak excuse me the english the english clergyman william cox who traveled to russia in 1778 recalled amid the excuse me sorry amid the several articles of sumptuousness which distinguish the russian nobility there is none perhaps more calculated to strike a foreigner than the profusion of diamonds and other precious stones which sparkle in every part of their dress according to the late dr marina lapato curator of the amitaj during those decades late 18th to mid 19th century the capital boasted a quote glorious plead of master craftsman i love that quote over 300 jewelers plied their trades in saint petersburg alone many of them on this famous street the bolshaya morskaya street seen here in a late 19th century postcard it was a hit parade of famous artisans here are just five brilliant masters on this street so let's take a walk at number 16 seftigan a legendary swiss court jeweler already by 1859 a purveyor to the tsar leopold zeftigan had made in 1855 the coronation crown of marie alexandrovna consort of emperor alexander ii seen on the right in the painting on the left by lawrence tucson the spotlight here is on dowager empress maria fyodorovna it's not on the imperial couple even though it was their coronation why is the spotlight on at the dowager empress well she was much loved by the russian people having converted from lutheran to russian orthodox faith plus the artist was danish himself i think that had something to do with it and so was the dowager empress i show you this painting because she's wearing the same septic and crown which she also dawned on her coronation her own coronation in 1883. next door at number 14 the renowned court jewelers nichols and plinky applied their where's the russian aristocracy and was the foremost luxury store up until about 1870 for so for decades they were very well known founded by two englishmen they produced all this for example all the silver wedding services for the children of zarn nicholas the first seen on the right samuel arndt a long-time work master of nichols and plinky was princess dagmar's favorite jeweler and he made the bracelet for her wedding with to the future alexander iii which is in the danish royal collection on the left also by nichols and plinky on view at the russian history museum is on the left part of the russian orthodox liturgical silver set a patent and star which were used for communion this was made for the wedding in 1874 of grand duchess maria alexandrovna daughter of alexander ii which we see on the right and prince alfred duke of edinburgh son of queen victoria you can tell the high quality of the silver just in the image it was designed in the o in the neo byzantine style by court architect david grimm and it came from the grand duchess private chapel and clarence house british royal residence in london this is on view in the museum i invite you to have a look at maria's necklace which we will see very shortly in color back on the bolshaya murskaya renounce of a firm such as of chinikov from moscow famous for its enamels and massive silver settings in the old russian style occupied number 35 while another moscow supplier to the imperial court the famous firm of sazikov occupied number 39. this excuse me i've never seen this piece but i just love it it's a monumental yacht racing trophy by sazikov that was sold at sotheby's in 1980 it was dated 1859 and it has not won not two but three imperial eagle heads facing east west north and below a single romanoff crown and this was to signify the russian empire's vast domain under czar nicholas the first while the scrolls below are engraved with maps of russia america and the south pacific i don't know why south pacific is mentioned here but it was a yacht competition but in 1851 i know america russia still owned alaska and wasn't part of america wouldn't this be nice on your mantelpiece even the last shop of the great carl faberge which would open in 1900 at number 24 had previously housed the workshop of jean-paul ada in the 18th century who whose box you see here with a portrait of grand duke paul when he was 20. i wish i could tell you about all the jewelers on the street but they are in the book and many of them have their own chapters and for dealers and collectors out there for every jeweler that we cover in a separate chapter we also cover in the market chapter so i will take the same jewelers and talk about you know values and auction records what their creations have fetched on the market and this is to give you an idea of value in case you come across pieces by these makers the most prominent address on the street in the 19th century was number 10 appropriately just steps from the palace square this is empress alexandra at the opening of the dumas or the russian parliament in 1906. she's wearing a diadem by bolin which we saw at the beginning in hillwood in that portrait in the first one catalog dated 1925 of the russian crown jewels which is you know the most complete inventory of the russian crown jewels this tiara was deemed the best of its kind of the entire lot by the expert first man until 1895 berlin's revenue was three times that of fabichi so he was still the leading jeweler mostly due to the much higher prices of his inventory after that of course faberge's star would skyrocket and we do know by his own admission that carl faberge was less interested in gems than art and design compared to faberge though who served only the last two tsars of russia the house of berlin would serve seven consecutive sovereigns beginning with catherine the great seven and unlike all the other russian jewelers that closed down after the revolution the firm is still active today in stockholm as w.a berlin and is still family owned this is a very rare panagia in the russian history museum panagia means the all-holy in greek and is a medallion worn by bishops it's like a pendant icon this is by jan in bolin and it's extremely rare because very few items from this brief period surface when the firm was called jan in bolin we know it was made between the death of andreas rumpler who is the founder of the firm and the death of his senior partner yan after which yon's widow became partner but the name changed from yanim bolin to bolin and yan confused i know so because of this we can date this to precisely between 1834 and 1839 what did it jam you can see in the up in the close-up on the central stone is a carving of our lady of the sign it belonged to bishop theophan grav gavrilov who preserved the 13th century coerced root icon of the sign from destruction at the hands of the bolsheviks and brought it with him into immigration emigration it has the original box which is a treasure in itself as we dealers know and the panagia is on display in the current exhibition on the right is an emerald and diamond cross pendant which is not by berlin but it has a very special and tragic pavanos it's an amazing treasure at the russian history museum this pendant is platinum so we know that it's no earlier than nineteen hundred in my imp in my opinion the calibrated emeralds dates it closer to 1910 1915 as that's when the innovative cut began you know calibre cut stones this pendant was found near the four brothers mine in yekaterinburg where the bolsheviks attempted to burn possessions of the last imperial family and their attendance after their murder in 1918. it was included in nikolai sokolov's evidence list as quote cross of high quality artistic craftsmanship the platinum is tarnished in places and the last remaining seed pearl which you can see on the lower left has is blackened there would have been three other pearls which are missing it was possibly sewn into the clothing that was then burned a single pearl earring also in the museum was found there as well two witnesses attested to the fact that the cross belonged to empress alexandra fiorovna a gift to her from dowager empress maria theodorovna it just gives you pause back to berlin the great exhibition in london of 1851 catapulted the firm into world fame in the beginning st petersburg rivaled and surpassed you in the beginning when i mentioned that some of the saint petersburg jewelers rivaled and surpassed some of the best that europe offers this is what i mean when i say when i said that berlin displayed a diadem which was unlike anything seen in europe set with masses of diamonds of foliage design it appeared light and feathery the public marveled at the richness of its gems and the settings themselves one reviewer considered the russian jewels at this exhibitions the best in the whole show another quote another said a quote of greater interest that volin's jewels excuse me were of greater in interest than the spanish queen's tiara by lemony of paris now the french and the british each sent about 60 of their finest jewelers and silversmiths and russia sent only two and each one of them won the highest metal considered newcomers in the field of jewelry the russians were seen as innovative and masterful a breath of fresh air compared to the long established french jewelers the great exhibition secured bolin's reputation as one of the world's finest jewelers here's the wedding patriot of diamonds and rubies that was made for alexander maria alexandrovna's wedding which you saw you saw her portrait i don't know if i pointed this out but i i should have said please have a look at her necklace because in her photograph she was wearing this necklace this was sold at christie's in 1978 and the sale included a tiara a necklace three brooches a bracelet a pendant and a pair of earrings and a ring and it's just incredible that um this mario was sold at auction almost in its entirety i think it's the first time that ever happened so brace yourself i'm going to give you some prices keep in mind this is 1978. the necklace sold for 731 000 the tiara for 274 and the 9.19 carat cushion-shaped ruby fetched 286 000 i'm rounding them off the necklace reappeared at auction and perhaps the tiara as well but their current whereabouts are unknown if in fact they are still intact the tiara was apparently disassembled so you can see that even in 1978 people appreciated the quality of russian gems for their amazing uh well for their amazing quality the rubies the rubies here are burmese of the finest quality so can you imagine these untreated rubies uh coming up today in the auction world and what they would fetch when just a single stone maybe three to four carats can bring tens of thousands of dollars even more famous for jewels is another grand duchess maria pavlovna there are countless images of this grand duchess bedecten jewels from head to toe she loved gems and jewels and only the best would do this diamond and pearl diadem was made by bolin for her wedding to grand duke vladimir alexandrovich in 1874. rumor has it that that that when she left the tiara at cartiers for cleaning the firm made three copies of it i'd love to know if that's true if there are any county experts out there that can set the record straight please let me know and here's the grand duchess maria pavlov now on the left wearing the tiara and on the right i'm sure you recognize queen elizabeth ii of england wearing the same tiara which she also appears with quite often with emerald drops this forms part of the british royal jewels and it's apparently one of queen's the queen's favorite like faberge bolin had work masters loyal talented artisans who worked all their lives for the company some of the best were women typically widows carrying on their husband's work but establishing their own hallmark this lovely star sapphire was made by sophia schwann in saint petersburg between 1908 and 17. on the left is a shop in saint petersburg the bolin shop as it appeared circa 1900 there's a doorman in the front and there's discrete lettering on the facade which you can still see today if you walk down this street the salon was located on the second floor moscow branch opened in 1870 1850s excuse me excelled in the production of fine silver and women's accessories the shop catered more to rich merchant classes in moscow and produced items more in the old russian style here's a scene from their workshop and on the right over on the far right is maria linke who is another woman work master who made some wonderful enameled items there are a lot of archival images in the book and we have new information that are based on russian archives thanks to the diligent work of marie stock and my husband david who's a russian historian and who's the co-author glad i remember that olyn shop becomes renowned for its distinctive arnold style like this enamel picture frame accented with half pearls on the right i have yet to see anyone fake this kind of enamels now you know maybe some of you have seen this but i haven't yet because it's so distinctive and i hope not to be proven wrong on this so i traced the market price on this particular frame for example it first sold in 1983 for 4620 then in 1992 for 6082 then 20 years later had a huge jump to 75 000. the large silver tanker on the left was made by constantine linki and had a work master of berlin in 1893 probably as a special order as it depicts the horse tamers of saint petersburg on h goth bridge linki was in charge of all silver production in berlin's moscow branch this tanker sold for 18 000 in 2015 which is still reasonable compared to what won by fabelli would bring many of the grand jewels by berlin and other russian jewelers have disappeared been broken down or sold off gemstone by gemstone after the revolution this beaulin tiara still exists if not in completely original form it's a very typical russian design a diamond an emerald kokoshnik that was commissioned by grand duchess elizabeth fedorovna sister of the empress for the wedding of one of her nieces it ended up at van cleef and arpels in paris in 1949 it's still in their private collection i think it might be exhibited in paris or might already be there in their exhibition the emeralds were removed and sold and replaced by paste so what you see here are green pastes not emeralds i hope you've enjoyed this bird's eye view of russian jewels and silver that lies beyond faberge over to you hannah thank you very much marine excellent presentation i must admit i was dazzled and i'm not just saying that as someone who has worked closely with you up until today's fantastic lecture wonderful job i'm going to hand things over to nick nicholson uh and i'll be back in just a moment for the q a component of today's lecture hi everyone my name is nick nicholson and i'm the director of development for the russian history museum i want to thank marie for her amazing lecture and to thank all of you for coming programs like this one are very important to the museum not just during the time of kovit 19 but beyond and we promise that gathering to hear lectures and recent scholarships from some of the finest scholars and thinkers in the fields of russian studies russian history and russian art will continue long after this pandemic is over my colleague hannah is going to place a link in the chat section right now which will take you directly to the donation page of our website when you're ready we'd be grateful for any support that you can give us but we hope you will specifically consider a gift of five or ten dollars today to assist us in bringing you this unique programming in the future thank you so much we'll see you at the second saturday next month and now back to hannah thank you hannah my name is michael perecrestov executive director of the russian history museum i'm thrilled that so many of you tuned in for today's fantastic lecture by marie we have a rapidly growing and truly international audience and i'm so happy to welcome both those of you who have attended past second saturday lectures as well as new guests from across the world and i'm excited about welcoming people from poland thailand france south africa italy portugal latvia israel india and that's not even the complete list i invite all of you to visit our museum if you're ever in central new york and in the meantime i hope you will continue to attend our virtual lectures presented by the very top specialists in russian history culture and art a huge thank you to marie for her fascinating presentation and i'm very much looking forward to seeing her book you have an unfair advantage attendees because i can't be answering these questions right now as i'm giving these remarks but for those of you who are not not able to win the um the promised book the signed book marie's book will be available on october 28th you can order it on amazon and i also encourage you to visit marie's website mariebetley.com now on october 10th we will continue our second saturday's lecture with a lecture by wilfried zeissler who is the chief curator of hillwood museum in washington dc the lecture is titled entertaining shopping and collecting in paris the fate of the collection of princess olga paley and grand duke paul of russia we'll be sending out registration information soon and i hope you will join us for wilfred zeissler's presentation so thank you very much for your interest for your support and i wish you a wonderful weekend

Channel: Russian History Museum

Views: 11,961

Rating: 4.8415842 out of 5

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Id: qeLAqGZw2jo

Length: 53min 15sec (3195 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 15 2020