Faberge history. Famous Russian jeweler Carl Faberge: biography, creativity, memory

CARL FABERGE: “WHAT IS THE USE OF DIAMONDS?”

Little is known about Faberge's most famous jeweler. His personal archive disappeared during the revolution, and in the memoirs of his contemporaries, Karl Gustavovich remained a closed, modest person, almost a recluse. But the history of jewelry masterpieces with the stigma of Faberge is worthy of becoming the plot of a real adventure novel!

Carriages with monograms suddenly disappeared from the streets, and instead of the grand dukes, daring sailors with factory girls under the arm were now striving to the windows - with a mixture of cowardice and arrogance in their voices, they demanded to show “yachon beads”, pointing with dirty fingers at the thirty thousandth necklace.

On Bolshaya Morskaya, which had long been a favorite of the capital's jewelers, shop after shop was closing. And old Faberge lived for a whole year as if nothing serious had happened in Petrograd. And he even went to the buyers, if there were any. At the same time, formally, Karl Gustavovich was no longer the owner - back in November 1917, by order of the new authorities, the company passed into the hands of a committee of workers. It's just that Faberge has long had a downright kindred relationship with his own employees.

Faberge ordered to curtail production only in July 1918, when the news of the murder of Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich and his entire family reached Petrograd. And in November of the same year, Mr. Derick, the secretary of the British embassy, ​​conveyed to him the generous offer of the Queen of Great Britain (an old client of the company): under the guise of a diplomatic courier, go abroad with his wife.

The famous jeweler did not hesitate for a long time: “I will just go home. Give my wife and I 10 minutes to put on coats and hats!”. The Englishman smiled knowingly: there were rumors that, in addition to jewelry worth 60 million dollars, confiscated by the Bolsheviks from the safes of the St. Petersburg and Moscow branches of the Faberge firm, Karl also had something else in the stash, well hidden, that way for 45 million.

It took Faberge even less than ten minutes to get ready. Leaving his wife ahead, he froze for a second at the threshold, looked around, sighed, hesitated a little more, and finally stepped out into the street. He was seventy-two years old, and he forever left his pride, evidence of unprecedented success - this magnificent house: in the basements, four-story (one floor higher than that of the only serious competitor - the Swede Bolin), combining living quarters, workshops, and storage , and shop.

In a new life, Karl Gustavovich took with him only a small bag. “Let's hope nothing happens to your luggage,” said the Englishman, nodding at the bag. “Even the Bolsheviks have not yet thought of searching diplomatic couriers.” “Let them search if they want. There is nothing here but a change of linen, ”Karl Gustavovich answered absently, thinking some sad thought of his own.

“Is that what he said? There is nothing but a change of clothes?! - Faberge's son, Agafon Karlovich, was alarmed when Mr. Derik described the whole scene to him a little later. - Well, that's the way it was. I wouldn't be surprised if the old man just forgot about the diamonds. And what? It will become of him…”

NOT A JEWELER FOR YOURSELF

For a good three decades, Carl Faberge remained on the crest of popularity. Among his regular clients were the Bulgarian Tsar, the Austro-Hungarian heir, the kings and queens of England, Italy, Spain, Greece, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, as well as the king of Siam named Chulalonghorn.

The Winter Palace had a special pantry where a stock of ready-made gifts from Faberge was stored - the imperial family traveled a lot and along the way gave away tons of various items with the stigma of the company. For example, the Emperor of Japan was presented with a punch bowl, two candelabra, an agate vase, a silver service (a decanter with 12 cups on a tray) and a Louis XV style brushed gold hand mirror. Chinese Bogdykhan - two diadems, a crystal bowl with a chased silver rooster, three silver vases with crystal inserts, two crystal decanters and a hat pin with a ruby ​​and diamonds.

Every God's day between 16 and 17 o'clock to the house number 24 on Bolshaya Morskaya the grand dukes came to see what new Faberge put up for sale. In Zimny, gathering in a special smoking nook near the Church stairs, the male half of the Romanov family sported cigarette cases from the court jeweler - it was considered the highest chic to have different ones every day.

One day in the seventies, a scandal erupted in the royal family because of Faberge's masterpieces: Emperor Alexander II exiled his second cousin, Nikolai Konstantinovich, to Turkestan for ... kleptomania. His own mother complained about the Grand Duke - Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, a passionate collector of Faberge works: they say that her son now and then drags exhibits from her.

Nikolai Konstantinovich is a very eccentric person and, alas! having dishonored the Romanov family honor more than once, he justified himself by saying that he wanted to study jewelry and needed role models. He even asked Faberge to compile a list of necessary tools for him. “Why do you need a thin leather belt without a buckle when working with gold?” the Grand Duke asked. “You can’t teach skill without beating hands!” Faberge calmly explained ...

Karl Gustavovich had every reason to say so. In the sense that they didn’t beat him on the hands, so he really didn’t learn the skill. After all, the jeweler, with the light hand of the Romanovs, proclaimed "the greatest genius of our time" - by nature was more of a historian, connoisseur and connoisseur of art than a true artist. And there was a time when Faberge treated his own jewelry company with unheard of indifference!

Jewelry business in St. Petersburg was founded by his father, Gustav Petrovich. Having lived in Russia for 18 years, Faberge Sr. suddenly decided to permanently settle in Dresden. It was assumed that Karl would become the head of the company. But he easily delegated the affairs to the managers, and he himself preferred to spend time in the restoration workshops of the Imperial Hermitage. Some dilapidated gold set from the era of Pericles interested Karl much more than the goods of his own store - brooches, rings, necklaces thickly studded with diamonds - very ordinary little things, but always in demand among merchant mistresses. It is noteworthy that Karl worked in the Hermitage for free. They simply forgot to register him in the state, and for 15 years he himself did not bother to remind him. Later, smart people suspected a cunning move in this - they say, Faberge thus rubbed himself into the inner circle of the royal family.

With the inner circle, everything turned out quite by accident - in 1884, the Nizhny Novgorod merchants presented the Empress Maria Feodorovna with a little thing bought in a Faberge store, and they liked the gift. It was a bouquet of lilies of the valley made of pearls and diamonds in a miniature gold basket - a copy from an ancient Chinese original, God knows how wormed its way among the company's ordinary products.

So “subject fantasies” from Faberge became fashionable at court. And Karl Gustavovich himself believed in a new genre!

He now spent days at the firm. He gave ideas to the masters. He looked closely at apprentices and, suspecting a spark of talent, translated them into masters. He selected the best graduates of the Central School of Technical Drawing and Drafting and generously paid them for sketches. Faberge allowed leading jewelers to put personal stamps on their creations. He did not drive the aged employees, he even paid a salary to an 82-year-old, completely blind engraver, who had been working in the company from the age of 25. And - about a miracle! - no one has ever left Faberge to open their own business, but they could - the masters have picked up an extra class!

So what, besides leadership (today they would say “management”), did Faberge do it himself, with his own hands? Only two things. Firstly, he broke with a special hammer, which he constantly carried with him, any product, if he did not like it - the price did not matter here! And, secondly - in the event that he liked the product - he solemnly put it on the palm of his hand and walked around all the employees of the workshop - draftsmen, jewelers, goldsmiths, stone cutters and enamellers - with the words: “Look at this wonderful thing, it is finished!”.

It could be anything - a ruby-encrusted cigarette case for 30 thousand, a jasper umbrella handle for 3 rubles, or “object fantasy”: a bouquet of flowers with enamel petals, diamond stamens and jade leaves in a vase with “water” made of rock crystal, an obsidian seal, a rhinoceros made of gray jasper, human figurines “Cossack Chamber Kudinov”, “Singer Varya Panina”, “Janitor”…

When photography became widespread in St. Petersburg, Faberge began to produce photo frames. There was electricity - doorbells. Karl Gustavovich explained to one journalist: “There are people who have long been tired of diamonds and pearls. Sometimes it is not convenient to give a jewel, but such a little thing is suitable.

Everyone can buy from me, because there are very inexpensive items!” With the ease of a true artist, Faberge equalized precious stones with semi-precious ones, diamonds with glass, porcelain, bone, and enamel. “Compared to my business, firms such as Tiffany, Boucheron, Cartier, they probably have more jewelry than I do. - Said in the same interview. - They can find a ready-made necklace worth one and a half million rubles. But these are merchants, not jewelers-artists!”

EXPENSIVE EGG FOR CHRISTMAS DAY

As for the pride and pinnacle of Faberge's creativity - a series of jewelry Easter eggs for the imperial family, then, according to legend, the creation of the first copy is associated with the assassination of Alexander II. They say that Empress Maria Feodorovna, the wife of Alexander III, was too shocked by the sight of her father-in-law bleeding, when he was brought to die in the Winter Palace. So the new emperor thought about how an entertaining gift would distract his wife from heavy thoughts at least for a while. And just then Holy Easter was approaching, and the jeweler Faberge volunteered to make an Easter surprise worthy of the Empress ...

But, as you know, the Narodnaya Volya killed Alexander II in 1881, and the first egg for the Empress was ordered for Easter 1885. However, Orthodox Easter, with its custom of christening for titled persons, is in itself a difficult test.

Once the emperor wrote in his diary that he exchanged Easter kisses with 280 persons during the night church service, and on Easter morning with 730 military men.

The share of the queen hardly accounted for less. And, given that Maria Fedorovna in the recent past was called the Danish Princess Dogmara and from childhood she was not accustomed to Russian customs, then she could only sympathize. Well, or to support the mood befitting the Bright Holiday with some cute and entertaining surprise.

Having ordered an Easter souvenir from Faberge for the Empress, the Sovereign Emperor did not express any specific wishes. Any other jeweler would have taken on a necklace, tiara or set. It is even possible that the case would have been made in the shape of an egg, say, from live lilies of the valley, or even simply from skillfully woven straw - this is how Easter gifts were decorated long before Faberge. The gift was both symbolic and practical.

The souvenir, delivered to the Winter Palace by Karl Gustavovich, had no practical use: a ten-centimeter testicle, white (enamel) on the outside, yellow (gold) on the inside, as it should be, a golden hen sits on the eggs with ruby ​​eyes and a diamond comb . In turn, the hen also opens, and in it is a ruby ​​egg and a miniature imperial crown.

A trifle, a toy, moreover, relatively inexpensive. But since then, Maria Fedorovna could not imagine that Easter could do without a Faberge egg. When her husband died, her son, Nicholas II, began to order an Easter surprise for her. However, he asked to make two eggs each - also for his wife, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna.

In total, Faberge made either fifty or fifty-four eggs for the porphyry-bearing family. The most expensive cost the emperor twenty-five thousand rubles.

The cheapest - almost a thousand (for comparison: the same Faberge for a pearl necklace - an engagement gift from the heir-tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich to his bride, Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt (future Alexandra Fedorovna) - received 166,500 rubles, and another 250,000 for another necklace - a gift from Emperor Alexander III to his future daughter-in-law). Sometimes Faberge made an egg out of gold, then out of rock crystal, and once, by Easter 1916, out of steel.

It was called “Military”, it was very simple in design, and had four stylized cartridges as a stand (by the way, Faberge also made real cartridges - by order of the Military Department of 1914).

The last egg, prepared for Easter 1918, was from Karelian birch - for obvious reasons, it was not possible to hand it over to the customer, although Faberge bothered Kerensky with requests to allow the parcel to be sent to Tsarskoye Selo (it was there that the royal family was kept under house arrest until the Bolsheviks came to power) .

As for the "stuffing", Karl Gustavovich tried to adhere to the principle of relevance.

In 1891, when the Tsarevich traveled by sea to Greece, Egypt, India, Singapore, China and Japan, Faberge hid in an egg an exact model of a cruiser made of gold and platinum - with a tiny captain's bridge, a steering wheel, the thinnest sails and all the equipment.

By Easter 1897, a copy of the carriage is placed in the “Coronation” egg, in which Nikolai and Alexandra went to get married in the kingdom a year and a half earlier: curtains are engraved on the rock crystal windows, the steps rise, tiny handles, smaller than a grain of rice, turn, opening and closing the doors, Chassis dampens travel.

Finally, in the spring of 1900, on the occasion of the completion of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, an egg was made with the royal train folded in three inside (a platinum steam locomotive and five golden wagons, the last of which is a camp church on wheels). The locomotive is started with a golden key and drags the train for several meters, sparkling with diamond headlights and a ruby ​​lantern. The inscriptions on the cars can only be read through a microscope - why not the creation of Leskovsky Lefty?

The project of the Easter souvenir was kept in the strictest confidence each time. It happened that someone from the highest family was impatient and asked Faberge what the next egg would be. Karl Gustavovich always answered: “Don't worry.

Your Imperial Majesties will be pleased!” Everything was allowed to him, there was only one unspoken condition: no eggs with surprises on the side! That is, orders for simple jewelry eggs can be accepted, but for eggs “with filling” - no!

It is said that once the ambitious American billionaire Miss Vanderbilt promised Carl Faberge a million dollars for violating this rule: “I need an egg comparable in originality to those that you do for your emperor.” In due time, she received from a Russian jeweler ... a box in the shape of a cube with a note: "Please accept a square egg."

And yet, after many years, it turned out that Faberge was deceiving his highest customers. Seven eggs as a gift to a certain Varvara Kelkh almost exactly repeated the royal ones - with the exception of the monogram. Of course, Varvara and her husband owned the Lena gold mines, railways and shipping companies and, of course, had the opportunity to generously pay for the order.

But somehow I can't believe that it's just about money. After all, the risk of losing the trust of the Imperial House is not worth any money! We can assume that there is something more personal. No wonder Varvara Kelkh was known as a woman who loves life, free-thinking and very flirtatious. In the end, she ran away from her husband with another lover, taking with her seven Faberge masterpieces.

As for Karl Gustavovich himself, he respected his wife Augusta and protected him from grief. He married long before his rise, and at first this marriage could be considered profitable: the daughter of the master of court furniture workshops, Bogdan Jacobs, had both a dowry and connections. The main merit of Augusta is that she gave birth to her husband four sensible sons.

... Karl Gustavovich did not have to puzzle for a long time over who to entrust the management of the branches of the company, which was constantly growing. The London branch was headed by the youngest son Nikolai.

The eldest, Eugene, having learned the art of jewelry, from the age of twenty led the main department - St. Petersburg. Alexander ran the Moscow branch. Only the second son, Agathon, did not have a share in the family business, and there are no documents left that shed light on the reason for such disfavor.

Perhaps the point here is aesthetic differences: Agafon Karlovich was a connoisseur of stones and a passionate collector, from the age of twenty-two he held the positions of an expert in the Diamond Room of the Winter Palace and an appraiser of the Loan Treasury and, according to some contemporaries, had a much more refined taste than Faberge Sr. his fondness for intricate and pompous toys.

Agathon Faberge did not leave the profession even after the revolution, and evaluated for the Bolsheviks the treasures confiscated from the Romanovs. He lived in Soviet Russia right up to 1927, and then secretly crossed the Finnish border.

Other sons of Karl Gustavovich also stayed in the Land of Soviets longer than most people in their circle. It's just that the Faberge brothers still had a business in Russia: the jewels of the company, so frivolously abandoned by their father.

GOLDEN FEVER

The house on Bolshaya Morskaya had a very intricate elevator-safe. During the day, it was possible to drive around on it from floor to floor, and at night it was often kept under current - if there was something to hide from thieves with special care. It is clear that the Bolsheviks cannot be stopped by this, but the Faberge brothers came up with a tricky move: after the departure of Karl Gustavovich, rent the house to the Swiss Embassy.

All over the world, the territory of foreign embassies is considered inviolable. Could the younger Faberge assume that this law was not written to the new Russian government? In a word, six suitcases with family jewels hung at the level of the second floor on Bolshaya Morskaya only until May of the nineteenth year. Then the Chekists broke into the diplomatic mission and broke into the safe. One of them - the head of a special department of the Gatchina Central Committee - immediately ran away, taking with him valuables worth 100 thousand in old money.

And yet, the sons of Carl Faberge still had some “crumbs”. Eugene personally buried a suitcase with the company's products worth $2 million at his father's dacha in Levashov. He never figured out how to smuggle them abroad, and when the air smelled of fried food, he left light, planning to return to Levashovo someday. Now Faberge's dacha has been destroyed, and it is impossible to find the place of the treasure, although there are still those who want to try.

They are just as unsuccessfully digging the ground near the Finnish border - the wife of Agafon Karlovich hid gold and diamonds there “under a noticeable tree”. The third place of pilgrimage for treasure hunters is the Muduli estate near Riga. There, somewhere under the dovecote, which is now gone, Faberge products were buried by a certain Bauer, a shareholder of the company and an accountant of the Moscow branch. His wife brought the valuables to Latvia, hiding them in her clothes and in the heels of her shoes.

But they still failed to use them - rumors reached Eugene Faberge, and he rushed from Paris to Riga to declare Bauer to the Latvian Minister of Justice. For several weeks, the former accountant was imprisoned in prison, and then released for lack of evidence. In 1936, he died, pointing out to his sister at the same dovecote.

Only now the sister could not keep her mouth shut, and the agents of the Faberge brothers were on the alert. This time, Alexander Karlovich rushed to Riga, dug up the estate up and down, but did not find anything and generally barely took his feet from the Soviet soldiers who suddenly occupied Latvia ...

... Sixteen years earlier, in 1920, Carl Faberge lived out his last days in Lausanne, almost in poverty. He was always sick, depressed, and did not feel like talking. The only words that people heard from him quite often were: “No, this is not life!” ... When one of the sons asked why Karl did not take advantage of the unique opportunity to take at least something out of Russia, the old man was surprised: “What what would be the use now in a few handfuls of diamonds?

Maybe he meant: having lost your head, you don’t cry about your hair, and miserable fragments of former wealth will in no way console the one who has lost his life’s work and the love of kings. Or maybe it's just that by 1920 the jewels had obscenely depreciated.

FROM FABERGE WHOLESALE AND RETAIL

In St. Petersburg, I went to the Civic Faberge for a few potatoes. And in Europe, things were not much better: the jewelry market was oversaturated with jewelry brought by hordes of Russian emigrants. When, by 1922, the market price for pebbles and precious metals began to rise again, the Bolsheviks remembered that in Moscow, in the Armory, since the time of Kerensky, hundreds of boxes with confiscated property of the imperial family had been gathering dust.

Easter eggs, along with other masterpieces of jewelry art, were taken one by one from the Armory by the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade: The country of the Soviets needed money for industrialization. A high price for eggs was not set on principle: it was generally accepted that royal Easter toys had no artistic value. Wealthy foreigners, of course, did not yawn.

The director of the Armory, Dmitry Ivanov, fought for every museum exhibit, wrote explanatory notes that no one needed, and on the eve of the seizure of the last ten Faberge eggs, he committed suicide. This, oddly enough, saved the remains of the collection - they are still kept in the Kremlin museums.

Despite the fact that the artistic value of Faberge's creations is still being questioned by many (they say, too magnificent, too entertaining, on the verge of kitsch, and the famous Easter eggs are just kinder surprises of a hundred years ago), at auctions such lots invariably make a sensation. For example, a desktop figurine of an elephant with the brand of Faberge went for 145 thousand dollars.

As for the eggs, the ones that are mostly sold are those that were made for Varvara Kelkh. They cost less than the imperial ones, but still the price reaches three and a half million dollars. The most expensive at the moment is the "Winter Egg", sold three years ago at Christie's auction for $ 9,579,500.

And just recently, nine Faberge eggs from the imperial collection were bought by the Russian oilman Vekselberg, who paid either 90 or 120 million dollars for them at the Sotheby's auction.

Alas! The current owners of Faberge & Co., founded in Paris in 1923 by Eugene and Alexandre Faberge, have to make do with a much smaller turnover. The store with a loud sign still exists to this day, but they do not sell imperial toys there, but, for example, shampoo. Well! In a sense, this was the will of Carl Gustavovich Faberge.

It is difficult to find a jeweler more famous than Carl Faberge. The Easter eggs he created for the imperial family are today valued at millions of dollars and are considered unsurpassed examples of jewelry craftsmanship. The jeweler himself lived a difficult life: he had both carefree years at the zenith of fame, and difficult days of emigration, oblivion and poverty. We publish the most interesting facts from the biography of Carl Faberge.
Caucasian, Faberge egg, 1893
Coronation, Faberge egg, 1893 1. The idea of ​​creating Easter eggs came from Emperor Alexander III. 1885. It was then that the emperor ordered the jeweler an outlandish little thing for a bright holiday. Carl Faberge made the Hen Egg, covered with white enamel. Inside it, as you might guess, there was a “yolk” made of gold, in which, in turn, a chicken with ruby ​​eyes was hidden. 2. The first craft made a splash at the court, and since then Faberge has been producing more and more new curiosities every year. A total of 71 eggs were created (of which 52 were for the emperor's family). The Faberge jewelry company began to work exclusively at the court, in addition to Easter souvenirs, Carl the master created caskets, jewelry and all kinds of accessories. Lilies of the valley, Faberge egg, 1898 Moscow Kremlin, Faberge egg, 1906 Gatchina Palace, Faberge egg, 1901 3. Faberge products were sold in the largest cities of Russia, it seemed that a carefree future awaited the outstanding jeweler. These illusions were dispelled in 1917 when the Bolsheviks came to power. At first, the revolution did not concern Karl, although treasures worth 7.5 million gold rubles were kept in his house. For safety, the jewels were kept in an armored elevator-safe, which was connected to electrical voltage.
Renaissance, Faberge egg, 1894
Fifteenth anniversary of the reign, Faberge egg, 1911 4. In addition to his own jewelry, Carl Faberge's house kept jewelry of foreigners that could not be taken out of Russia. When it became obvious that the Bolsheviks would get to Faberge, the jeweler rented out his house to the Swiss mission (at that time the law on the protection of foreigners' property was in force). He packed all the jewelry in 7 suitcases, and their full inventory took 20 pages! The hiding place existed until May 1919, when the Bolsheviks, contrary to the law, searched the house.
Order of St. George, Faberge egg, 1916
Memory of Azov, Faberge egg, 1891
Egg with a rosebud, Faberge, 1895 5. There are several versions about the future fate of the treasures. According to one of them, all the jewelry was confiscated by the Bolsheviks and later sold abroad, according to another, several suitcases were taken to the Norwegian embassy in advance, but from there they were stolen along with archival data, according to the third version, Carl Faberge and his sons were able to hide part precious items in hiding places. Egg with a lattice and roses, Faberge, 1907 6. After the incident, Carl Faberge had to leave Russia, everything was taken away from him - his favorite business, and the millionth fortune, and his native land. After moving to Switzerland, he eked out a miserable existence, longing for his former life. Karl died in 1920, in the same year the jewelry he created depreciated incredibly.
Hen, Faberge egg, 1885
Peacock, Faberge egg, 1908 7. After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks, trying to replenish the treasury of the "world's first communist state", sold Russian artistic treasures. They plundered churches, sold paintings by old masters from the Hermitage Museum and took up crowns, tiaras, necklaces and Faberge eggs that belonged to the Emperor's family. In 1925, a catalog of valuables of the imperial court (crowns, wedding crowns, a scepter, orb, tiaras, necklaces and other valuables, including the famous Faberge eggs) was sent to all foreign representatives in the USSR. Part of the Diamond Fund was sold to the English antiquary Norman Weiss. In 1928, seven “low-value” Faberge eggs and 45 other items were seized from the Diamond Fund. However, it was thanks to this that Faberge eggs were saved from being melted down. Thus, one of the most incredible creations, the Peacock Egg, was preserved. Inside the masterpiece of crystal and gold was an enamelled peacock. Moreover, this bird was mechanical - when it was removed from the golden branch, the peacock raised its tail like a real bird and could even walk.

The famous Russian entrepreneur, jeweler, designer and restorer, who turned his father's small workshop into the largest jewelry enterprise in the Russian Empire and one of the largest in the world. (born in 1846 - died in 1920)

In 1902, the first exhibition of the famous Russian jeweler Carl Faberge took place in the halls of the palace of Baron von Derviz on the English Embankment in St. Petersburg. It was held under the patronage of Her Majesty Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and with the participation of many members of the imperial family and representatives of the highest nobility of the capital. The Imperial Hermitage provided beautiful pyramidal showcases on bases in the form of gilded griffins to place precious jewelry pieces. These showcases can still be seen in the halls of the Hermitage. They exhibit Easter eggs that belonged to the royal family, stone flowers, figurines and other elegant trinkets from the grand ducal collections, from the collections of princesses Yusupova, Dolgorukova, Kurakina, countesses Vorontsova-Dashkova, Sheremeteva, Orlova-Davydova.

More than a hundred years have passed. Over the years, there have been dozens of exhibitions of Carl Faberge in different countries of the world, but none of them was as representative in terms of the composition of the owners and those who commissioned priceless exhibits. None of those present at the exhibition then thought that in some two decades these precious trinkets would be distributed all over the world and end up in the wrong hands. They did not even think that in the citadel of Russia's might - in the Winter Palace - there will be almost no amazing examples of Faberge art, made and stored with genuine and deep love.

The reverence that the name of Faberge still evokes around the world is associated with the revolution in jewelry that Carl made immediately after he took over the jewelry workshop from his father. The young jeweler proclaimed the principle that the value of an item was determined not by the richness of the materials used, but by the artistic sophistication of the model and the craftsmanship of execution. Time has proven the truth of the motto that Faberge guided throughout his life: "If the whole value of expensive things lies only in a lot of diamonds or pearls, then they are of little interest to me."

The artistic gift of Faberge was compared by contemporaries with the genius of Benvenuto Cellini. But the organizational talent of this man is no less amazing. For design findings and technical virtuosity, he was called the "Lefty of St. Petersburg", and for his inimitable style - "the singer of graceful dreams." The master himself called himself quite modestly and with dignity - "Supplier of the Highest Court."

The ancestors of Carl Faberge came from the northern province of France - Picardy. Due to the persecution that the Huguenots were subjected to starting from the 16th century, they left their homeland and gradually, through Germany and the Baltic states, reached St. Petersburg. Karl's father, Gustav Faberge, was born in 1814 in the Estonian city of Pernau. After studying in St. Petersburg with the famous jewelers Andreas Ferdinand Spiegel and Johann Wilhelm Keibel, he received the title of "Jewellery Master". In 1842, Gustav opened a small jewelry workshop under his own name on Bolshaya Morskaya Street and married Charlotte Jungstedt, the daughter of a Danish artist.

On May 30, 1846, a boy was born into a young family, who was baptized with the name Peter Karl, but in Russia he became famous under the name of Karl Gustavovich. When the child grew up, he was sent to the German private school of St. Anna. Then he studied at the Dresden Handelpool, and then at the commercial college in Paris. Carl worked in Dresden, Frankfurt am Main, traveled to England and Italy, studying the jewelry art of the Venetians, Saxon stone cutters and French enamellers. Karl's last teacher was the Frankfurt jeweler Joseph Friedmann.

Although the firm of Gustav Faberge prospered, in 1860 he retired and transferred the management of the enterprise to his employees X. Pendin and V. Zayanchovsky. Therefore, having returned to St. Petersburg, the young man worked for quite a long time on the side - as a restorer in the Imperial Hermitage. Thanks to this, he studied the techniques of jewelers of the past and the stylistic features of products made in different eras. As a result, Karl, by the age of 26, acquired a brilliant knowledge of jewelry in all its depth and historical breadth and was able to take his father's business into his own hands with good reason. And the outstanding talent of the young man, supported by solid knowledge, became the basis for future success.

To begin with, Karl moved the company to a larger building on the same Bolshaya Morskaya Street. Receptive to everything new, he accurately caught fashion trends in the art of the late 19th century. While the leading jewelers of Europe paid tribute to the tastes and styles of past eras - the Renaissance, Rococo and Empire, Faberge Jr. began boldly experimenting in a new artistic direction - Art Nouveau. The craving for technical innovations forced the master to tirelessly study all the techniques known in the jewelry business, constantly visit museums and libraries, never miss a single art exhibition, and get acquainted with young gifted jewelers everywhere. He was distinguished by a rare ability not only to find great specialists and convince them to move to St. Petersburg, but also to create conditions for fruitful work.

Faberge united numerous workshops of his father, where about 500 workers worked by that time. Each workshop was headed by a talented leader: M. E. Perkhin, Yu. A. Rappoport, E. A. Kollin, A. F. Hollming, and others. and train staff. Karl believed that it was necessary to trust high-class masters, honoring them with the right to sign their own works. The basic principle of work in the Faberge workshops was simple - each product must be made in one workshop by one master. When it was necessary to perform auxiliary operations (for example, to cover with enamel), the product left its manufacturer for a while, but always returned to him for completion. The craftsmen independently made all decisions, from the development of design to the final processing of their jewelry. Thus, the Faberge product was not a nameless product of the House, but the work of the author, whose name it was signed. This was the secret of the phenomenal success of Faberge.

In 1882, at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, the products of the company attracted the attention of Emperor Alexander III and his wife Maria Fedorovna. Karl received the patronage of the royal family and the title of "Jeweler of His Imperial Majesty and Jeweler of the Imperial Hermitage". In the same year, Carl's brother Agathon began working for the firm, and soon became the chief artist. The visual flair of Agathon Faberge contributed greatly to the success of the firm.

At the Nuremberg "Exhibition of Fine Arts" in 1885, the company received international recognition, and copies of the Scythian treasures were awarded a gold medal. After the exhibition, Carl Faberge became the Supplier of the Imperial Court with the right to include the double-headed eagle in his trademark, and since then he has constantly fulfilled orders from the imperial family: for example, Emperor Nicholas II ordered a necklace for a wedding gift for the future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna from Faberge.

After 1885, at all international exhibitions, the master received only gold medals. The company's products penetrated into America and the Middle East. Personal deliveries were intended for the Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Spanish and English courts. By order of the Russian cabinet, the firm's craftsmen made items for diplomatic gifts and various offerings. At different times, masterpieces of jewelry and stone-cutting came out of the hands of the artists of the House of Faberge: a decorative vase for, a brother for the Abyssinian Negus Menelik, a jade wreath on the tomb of the Swedish king Oscar II, a jade figure of Buddha and a lamp for the court temple in Siam. The company had branches in Moscow, Odessa, Kleve and London and sold its products far beyond Europe.

Over the years, the family of Carl Faberge has grown. Married to Augusta Julia Jacobs - the daughter of the master of the Court furniture workshops - he had four sons: Eugene (1876-1960), Agathon (1876-1951), Alexander (1877-1952) and Nikolai (1884-1939).

In 1890, the master received another high title - "Appraiser of the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty", and also became a "Hereditary Honorary Citizen". The international fame of the firm also grew. High craftsmanship, inexhaustible imagination and elegance of forms made the Faberge firm a recognized leader in the world of jewelry art, an unsurpassed standard. Empress Maria Feodorovna wrote to her sister, Queen Anne of England: "Faberge is the incomparable genius of our time."

Supervising a large, carefully selected staff of first-class jewelers, Carl was involved in all the smallest details of the work. A greenhouse was set up in his Moscow shop, in which a wide variety of plants were grown, which served as models for color miniatures made of stone. With the expansion of production and the growth of orders, independent workshops for gold, enamel, silver products, a stone-cutting workshop and a workshop for the manufacture of signs, tokens and orders were allocated. The huge number and variety of manufactured products speaks of the popularity and accessibility of these products to the population. In the manufacture, the tastes and wealth of various strata of society were always taken into account, so both members of the imperial house and people with an average income could purchase the products of the company.

Souvenir Easter eggs were the real discovery of the company. The tradition of giving specially made and decorated eggs for Easter appeared in the 16th century, when the French king Francis I was presented with a wooden carved egg depicting the Passion of the Lord. Gilded and painted eggs have become traditional gifts at royal courts. In Russia, the first such egg made of precious materials was commissioned by Faberge in 1885 by Alexander III for a gift to his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna. In the future, the masters of the company made these gift souvenirs every year. The manufacturing conditions were as follows: egg-shaped, a surprise inside that no one should know about, not even the Emperor, and the impossibility of repetition.

Only for the royal family of the Romanovs, Faberge created 50 royal Easter eggs - true masterpieces of jewelry art. Inside each egg, an episode from the life of the royal family was reproduced. When the egg was opened, beautiful music was played by a miniature mechanism. The most famous product in this genre is an egg dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. It is decorated with eighteen miniature portraits of representatives of the reigning dynasty in diamond frames. Flat diamonds are fixed at the top and bottom of the egg, through which the dates "1613" and "1913" are visible. Inside the egg, a rotating globe is fixed, on which a gold overlay image of the northern hemisphere is placed twice: on one, the territory of Russia within the borders of 1613 is marked with colored gold, on the other - within the borders of 1913. The surface of the egg in the space between the miniatures is decorated with chased heraldic royal crowns and crowns. The stand is a cast silver gilded figure of a heraldic eagle, mounted on a round base made of purpurine, imitating a national shield.

The egg dedicated to the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II in 1896 contains a miniature carriage in which the emperor and the empress rode. The color scheme of the egg resembles the coronation dress of Alexandra Feodorovna, the carriage doors open, the steps fold, the windows are made of crystal. Hanging inside the carriage is another tiny egg with diamonds.

In addition, the masters of the House of Faberge quite often made miniature copies of famous works of art from precious materials, for example, royal regalia. The Faberge firm managed to revive the medieval technique of transparent guilloche enamel. Masters used it together with machine engraving, widely using the color palette of enamels: blue, bright red, soft pink, fawn, silver. After coating, the enamel was carefully polished, so that the pattern stood out only at a certain angle. And the “quatra color” technique, forgotten since the Renaissance, i.e. the use of red, yellow, green and white colors in the product, the masters of the company not only revived, but also began to use new shades of this metal - orange, gray, blue and others. . Such a technique made it possible to achieve the most complex color scheme without involving any other finishing materials.

The company produced many utilitarian things: photo frames, watches, pencil cases, cigarette cases, bonbonnieres, perfume bottles, cane knobs and much more. Silver, precious and semi-precious stones were widely used. Moreover, precious materials were boldly combined with wood, steel and glass. The personal merit of the Faberge firm was the widespread use in the work of domestic ornamental stones, which had not been used in jewelry before. For the first time, Ural, Altai and Transbaikal gems were boldly combined with precious metals and stones in one product. Contrary to established traditions and canons, the craftsmen included pewter and blued steel in some jewelry, and rectangular brooches made of Karelian birch, set in diamonds, immediately became fashionable with the light hand of Faberge.

Completely new in jewelry were small sculptural figures made of precious and semi-precious stones, made by skilled carvers of the company, who were able to subtly bring out the natural beauty of the stone. Moreover, stones of different colors and textures were often glued together. Faberge started making these figurines under the influence of Japanese netsuke, which he collected. The Queen of England showed particular interest in such miniatures, for whom Charles made 170 figurines.

Fulfilling the orders of the Russian Imperial and European royal courts, Faberge and his craftsmen managed to create more than 150,000 pieces of jewelry, simple and complex, witty and wonderfully thought out, executed with unsurpassed ingenuity and with the greatest care. Karl in each new product tried to surpass the previous one in originality, ingenuity of design, quality of execution. In the Faberge workshops, all things were made only in one copy, and if the customer insisted on repetition, then changes were made so that each product remained original. Items that did not meet the firm's high criteria were ruthlessly destroyed or sold without branding.

The peak of fame of the House of Faberge was the World Exhibition of 1900 in Paris. Carl Faberge was one of the jury members, and his products were exhibited in a separate room. After this exhibition, he received the title of "Master of the Paris Guild of Jewelers" and the Order of the Legion of Honor. The Paris Guild of Goldsmiths honored him with the title of master. Karl's eldest son, Eugene, also received a palm branch there - the badge of an officer of the Academy of Fine Arts, and many masters of the company were awarded gold and silver medals. In the same year, the Faberge family and his firm moved to a new house. Before that, during the complete reconstruction of the building, the facade was refinished, for which, for the first time in the history of the city, red granite from Karelia was used.

In 1902, a charitable exhibition of Faberge products was held in St. Petersburg with great success. For the first time, items made by order of titled persons were presented to the general public there. One hall was completely reserved for the products of the company,

belonged to the Imperial Court.

On the eve of 1914, about 600 people worked in the Faberge workshops. The outbreak of the First World War reduced production, but the company adapted its workshops to the needs of wartime. At first, they made vessels, plates, mugs, tobacco boxes, and after receiving a military order, they began to produce percussion and remote tubes, grenades, and parts of devices. Brooches made of gold and diamonds with the sign of the Red Cross were also produced there. The military department has repeatedly set Faberge products as an example for the accuracy and thoroughness of manufacturing. At the same time, Faberge did not stop fulfilling orders for the royal family.

By 1914, the Faberge firm had created about 100 thousand items. At that time, along with the old masters, four sons of Karl were already working in it. All of them studied in St. Petersburg and were capable artists. The sons headed the firm's branches: Eugene and Agathon in St. Petersburg, Alexander in Moscow, and Nikolai in London. The First World War dealt a severe blow to the well-being of the company, and the revolution of 1917 destroyed it completely. Branches of the company closed in 1918, the store in Moscow worked until February 1919.

In 1918, with the help of the British Embassy, ​​Carl Faberge left Petrograd for Switzerland with his family (only Agafon Karlovich remained in Russia). Abroad, deprived of the opportunity to do what he loved, he suffered painfully from inactivity. During this period, those around him often heard from him: “...such a life is no longer life when I cannot work and be useful. There is no point in living like this." In Lausanne on September 24, 1920, the great master died. Somewhat later, his ashes were transported to France and buried in Cannes.

In Parisian emigration, Eugene and Alexandre Faberge opened a small company, Faberge & Co., which traded in the old products of the company, and was also engaged in the manufacture and design of new ones. It closed in 1960 when the last member of the family who worked there, Eugene Faberge, died. And although the company's store still exists, now it has other owners. Agafon Karlovich, a major connoisseur of stone, after the revolution, together with Academician Fersman, was a member of the commission that described the Diamond Fund of the USSR. In December 1927, he and his family went to Finland on the ice of the Gulf of Finland. His son Oleg lived and recently died in Helsinki, he was not engaged in jewelry business.

The youngest of the Faberge brothers, Nikolai, in 1906 opened a branch of the firm in London. And although in 1917 he had to close the store, he did not leave the English capital. Here was born his son Theo, who later continued the work of his grandfather and father. Theo, the only living descendant of the Fabergé dynasty, who works not only with precious stones, but also carves wood and ivory, and paints on porcelain.

Over the entire history of the House of Faberge, more than 150,000 pieces of jewelry were made. After the revolution, the Soviet government sold a significant part of the unique collection to the UK and the USA. Of the 56 Easter eggs, eight were destroyed, and only ten are stored today in the Armory in Moscow. The rest are scattered in private collections in different countries.

In the spring of 2003, the exhibition "Faberge - Return to Russia" was opened in Moscow, at which for the first time the most famous Easter eggs brought from abroad were shown to a wide audience. Interest in the products of the famous Russian jewelry company increased unusually at the turn of the century. Thus, 1992 was declared by UNESCO as the “Year of Faberge”. Successfully held exhibitions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, London, Paris. They contributed to the accumulation of knowledge about the company's products, their scientific study, and the identification of fakes. And in St. Petersburg, on Bolshaya Morskaya Street, the Yakhont jewelry store was reopened, in which the old oak counters were preserved until 1962. On the facade and now you can read the inscription "Faberge". Now on the ground floor of the house there is JSC "Jewellery Trade of the North-West", which united the jewelry stores of the Northern capital and nearby cities of Russia.

Elena Vasilyeva, Yuri Pernatiev

From the book "50 famous businessmen of the XIX - early XX century."

In 2003, in the year of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, Russian jewelers declared May 30 as their professional holiday, “Russian Jeweler's Day”. It was on May 30 (NS) 1846 that the famous Russian jeweler Peter Carl Faberge was born.

His ancestors, who once lived in France and were staunch Huguenots, did not voluntarily leave their homeland under the Catholic king Louis XIV.
Four years before Karl's birth, in 1842, his father Gustav Faberge, a jeweler, founded a company under his own name, located in one of the houses on Bolshaya Morskaya. In 1860, when Karl, the eldest of his sons, turned 14 years old, Gustav moved with his family to Dresden. After graduating from college in Paris, he studied at the Louvre and Versailles, learning the intricacies of the jewelry art of the Venetians, Saxon stone cutters and French enamellers. Then he began to learn jewelry from the Frankfurt master Joseph Friedman.

In 1865, Carl Faberge returned to Russia, and in 1872 he took over his father's jewelry firm. In the same year, he married the daughter of the manager of the imperial furniture workshops. From this marriage he had four sons - Eugene, Agathon, Alexander and Nikolai - each of whom subsequently joined the firm.
Alexander III considered it wasteful to spend a lot of money on jewelry, but his wife, the Dane Maria Fedorovna, did not support her husband's aspirations for asceticism. She loved jewelry, especially sapphires with diamonds.

It was for her that Carl Faberge performed the first of the later famous imperial Easter eggs in 1885. It was the so-called "Chicken" egg. Outside, it is covered with white enamel imitating a shell, and inside, in a “yolk” made of matte gold, there is a chicken made of colored gold. Inside the hen, in turn, is hidden a small ruby ​​​​crown. This Easter egg contributed to Faberge being awarded the title of Supplier of the Supreme Court in the same year. This title gave the right to include the imperial double-headed eagle in his trademark.
In total, including the "Chicken" egg, Faberge created 71 Easter eggs, of which 54 are imperial.

Alexander III, according to the memoirs of the chief master of the Faberge firm Franz Birbaum, in art "out of principle preferred everything Russian." His son Nicholas II tried to imitate his father in everything. The Faberge Silver Factory in Moscow (after 1890) worked in Old Russian, Old Russian, Modern Russian and New Russian styles and did not experience a shortage of orders.

In 1885, Carl Faberge's products were a great success at the exhibition of fine arts and jewelry in Nuremberg in 1885, where he showed copies of ancient Greek gold jewelry, the originals of which are kept in St. Petersburg in the Hermitage.
Carl Faberge attached great importance to the quality of the material and the technology of its processing. For Faberge, gold was never just gold - it could be red, white or even green, and contrasting combinations of colors could give the most unexpected effects. When Faberge used sparkling gems in his creations, they were important to him not so much for their value as for their decorative merit.
The technology for making enamels, developed in the Faberge workshops and being his main achievement, made it possible to create products that are distinguished by unsurpassed quality of jewelry work. Enamel coating is a complex process, fraught with all sorts of complications. Faberge enamels are characterized by uniform quality and smooth surface. Faberge's skate was the so-called "en plein" enamel - a smooth coating of sufficiently large surfaces or fields. This technique does not forgive the slightest mistake. Just as Faberge combined matte and polished gold surfaces, he used the contrasts of dull and transparent enamel, the latter embellished with a design engraved on the metal and showing through the enamel. Another property of some Faberge enamels is the effect of changing color when the product is slightly rotated. The art of guilloche is the creation of a fine, carefully engraved pattern consisting of straight and curved lines. Faberge brought to perfection.

The modest golden "Chicken" marked the beginning of a whole series of Easter eggs, which Faberge made by order of Emperor Alexander III. Every year, on Holy Week, the eminent jeweler brought another Easter masterpiece to the palace chambers. After the death of Alexander III in 1894 during the reign of his son, Emperor Nicholas II, the work of the company's masters increased, they began to make two Easter eggs a year - one was intended for the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, the other for the emperor's wife Alexandra Feodorovna.

And every time these Easter gifts struck the imagination of the highest customers with inexhaustible imagination, novelty of the plot, virtuosity of jewelry work, a combination of various techniques and unexpected at first glance the proximity of precious materials to inexpensive ones - Carl Faberge's favorite trick.
From a technical point of view, Faberge's Easter products are recognized as the standard of skill for many workers: jewelers, stone cutters, goldsmiths, enamel specialists, and miniaturists. The masters of the company became famous for the highest achievements in the technique of the so-called guilloche - a pattern of lines resembling rays or waves was applied to the golden or silver surface of the egg, and then covered with enamel. As a result, the polished surface seemed to glow from within - a magical effect was created by light-scattering engraved lines hidden under a layer of enamel. Iridescent enamels of different shades - from soft pastel to saturated ones, of which the company has developed more than 120 types, gave a unique solemnity to the products.

In 1882, the 20-year-old Agathon Fabergé joined his brother Karl in St. Petersburg and worked with him for more than ten years until his death in 1895. This was the firm's richest and most creative period. The quality of things made during these years has remained unsurpassed. It is generally accepted that the interaction of the brothers - Karl, with his commitment to the classical style, and the more lively and creatively energetic Agathon, strengthened by the arrival of its second chief master, the brilliant Mikhail Perkhin, who worked from 1885 to 1903, contributed to the separation around 1885 Faberge art as an original style in applied art and jewelry. It was during this decade that most of Faberge’s “themes and plots” appeared for the first time: Easter eggs created for the royal family and the imperial court, animal figurines, flowers, objets de virtu - “useful objects” - and other crafts made from gems or precious metals. Birbaum writes in his memoirs that it was with Agathon Faberge that changes began in the firm: “... by nature more lively and impressionable, he sought and found inspiration everywhere in antiquity, in the art of the East, which had not yet been studied, or in nature. The surviving drawings of him are evidence of a constant and ongoing search. It is not uncommon to find up to a dozen developments on the same topic.”

Bracelet (transformation into a pendant) produced by the Moscow workshop of Carl Faberge in the second half of the 19th century. Acquired by a Vyatka merchant in 1886 for his wife. The middle stone is a large diamond with a rare unique cut. Six diamonds decreasing in proportion. Next is crystal. Three natural rubies. Matte gold.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the already mentioned Mikhail Perkhin. He was born in the village of Okulovskaya, Shuya volost, Petrozavodsk district, Olonets province, on May 22 (old style), 1860. On January 24, 1884, he was recorded as an apprentice in goldsmithing craft of the St. Petersburg Craft Council. Since 1885, Perkhin began to work in the Faberge firm. In 1886 until his death in 1903 he was the chief master of the Faberge firm. He owned a workshop at Bolshaya Morskaya Street, 11, and since 1900 - at Bolshaya Morskaya, 24. One of the best masters of the Faberge firm, worked exclusively for him. He was a merchant of the 2nd guild. Perkhin created 28 imperial Easter eggs. His personal brand is "M.P."

In 1903, Perkhin's successor as leading craftsman was his chief assistant Henrik Emmanuel Wigström (1862-1923), who held this post until the closing of the firm in 1917. He directed the workshops in those years when the fame of the Faberge firm reached its peak. In his products, Wigström liked to reproduce elements of the Louis XVI style, as well as the Empire style. Especially widely he used laurel ornaments. Almost all products made of hard stones (figurines, animals, flowers) were made under his supervision. Wigstrom's mark is "H.W."
In addition to custom-made expensive products, the company produced in abundance miniature pendants in the form of Easter eggs, all kinds of boxes, cigarette cases, jewelry, watches, photo frames and other items. For the decoration of such products, the metal surface was engraved with a thin pattern of wavy, parallel, concentric and ray lines, which was then covered with a layer of transparent colored enamel, which gave the surface a brilliant sheen. Many of these products were sold after the revolution by their owners, including abroad.

Faberge products boldly combine precious and semi-precious stones. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds coexisted in products with moonstone, chrysolite, chalcedony, agate. In addition, precious stones were combined with enamels, in the manufacture of which the company was especially successful. Also, the masters of the company paid special attention to the selection of stone and the identification of its natural beauty. For these purposes, the Ural semi-precious stones of different colors, as well as rock crystal, were widely used.

Under the influence of Japanese designs, and especially netsuke, the Faberge firm's craftsmen created figurines from hard semi-precious stones, which were trimmed with precious stones and metals. A special stone processing workshop was even opened, headed by P.M. Kremlin.

The figurines depicted people and animals, and some of them even had a functional purpose - seals, umbrella handles. The collection of Queen Elizabeth II of England contains more than 170 animal figurines made of precious stones made by Faberge. Many figures are unique, duplicates were made only in rare cases and by special order. Many figurines have the signature of Faberge, some have the “K” sign, sometimes there is a date and an inventory number.

The specificity of Russian business has always been a strong dependence on the state. Carl Faberge actively worked with government agencies, in particular with the Cabinet of His Majesty (for which he performed more than 6,000 things), the army and navy, and various ministries.
Another feature is the lack of rhythm. The market developed in fits and starts, from order to order, from one event in the royal family to another. Huge orders were in 1896 - for the coronation. A surge in overseas orders followed the success at the Paris Exposition of 1900 ("there is no one to work, who will fulfill orders"). Orders in 1904, in connection with the birth of an heir, "impossible" in terms of volume orders for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, which the trade unions of jewelers hastened to take advantage of and demand higher wages. It was necessary to fulfill urgent orders in a short time. Working day and night, and then incomprehensible inactivity for months. In Russia, there were only two peaks of work and sales during the year: at Christmas and Easter. Hence the lack of regularity and system, as noted by Franz Birbaum.
The absence of a system was felt in everything. On the one hand, there is faith in the merchant's word of honor, on the other, the absence of paper documentation. “Carl Faberge did not like papers, he did not leave notes,” states his collaborator and biographer G. Ch. Bainbridge. He, being the head of the London branch of Faberge, writes that only after a few years of work in the company did he find out that Faberge annually performs complex, expensive Easter eggs for the tsar.

Like any business, the Faberge case was subject to world economic laws, which are as inevitable as the onset of day and night. But as a special kind of business associated with the production of art objects, the jewelry business was also subject to the laws of art, which often conflicted with the laws of production. Finally, as a business associated with the circulation of precious metals and stones, the Faberge business experienced extreme trials during periods of wars and revolutions, obeying the laws of gold circulation. Suffice it to say that with the outbreak of the First World War, the exchange of paper money for gold was prohibited, and obtaining diamonds from Antwerp and London was a kind of feat. By 1916, platinum had quadrupled in price compared to the 1913 level.
In 1910, Carl Faberge became a manufactory adviser and received the title of Court Jeweler. In 1916, he transformed his personal enterprise into a Partnership with an authorized capital of 3 million rubles.
In 1918 he emigrated from Russia and died on September 24, 1920 in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

Today, there are two jewelry brands that are well-known in the West and at the same time, in one way or another connected with Russia. The first is the term "Russian Cut" in relation to the quality of the cut of a diamond. It can be called a full-fledged world brand with a certain stretch, because it is not "hyped" so much that almost any consumer, if funds allow, would like to have a stone cut precisely in Russia. Similar goods from other countries with a highly developed cutting industry, for example, from Holland and Israel, successfully compete with Russian-cut diamonds.

The second well-known brand with Russian roots is the word "Faberge". Without a doubt, every little educated person on the planet knows him. First of all, thanks to the noisy sales of historical Easter eggs at auctions. But the paradox lies in the fact that even after such a hype in the media, not every consumer unequivocally associates the word "Faberge" in his head with the jewelry theme. This is especially true of America, due to the fact that there in the 30s of the XX century the Faberge trademark was registered, which produces perfume. The second circumstance that must be taken into account when considering the Faberge name as a hallmark of jewelry Russia is that today this trademark belongs to NOT Russian jewelers and ownership of it is decided in the courts. The third circumstance is the fact that Carl Faberge was both by birth and upbringing a European of Franco-Danish-Estonian-German blood. He even led the German community in St. Petersburg, which speaks volumes without further comment. However, it was this man who, having worked in Russia all his life, laid the foundation for the Russian jewelry school, which is based on an extremely important principle: any, even the most inexpensive piece, must be made perfectly with great taste and artistic imagination. After all, the Faberge firm produced a huge range of products intended not for the elite, but for ordinary people. And the attitude to the quality of manufacturing a soldier's cigarette case was the same as in the manufacture of gifts for royal relatives.

Jewelry in the Tradition of Carl Faberge in the USA and Canada

This approach is preserved today when jewelry is produced at modern jewelry factories. Russia, whose products are sold by our company in the USA and Canada. You can be sure that the classic $30 silver earrings and the ultra-modern $3000 necklace are made in Kostroma, Moscow or St. Petersburg with the same love and care. This order, which has not changed for a hundred years, connects the masters of the firm of Carl Gustavovich Faberge and modern Russian jewelers, turning his name into a national jewelry symbol already in the 21st century. It is no coincidence that we decided to start our digest of little-known facts related to the life of the Great Jeweler with his words on this topic.

What is the Real Value of Jewelry?

Faberge in 1914, with justified superiority, said to newspaper reporters: - "If we compare such firms as Tiffany, Boucheron, Cartier with my business, then they probably have more jewelry than I do. They have you can find a ready-made necklace for 1.5 million rubles (about 65 million dollars in today's prices).But these are merchants, not jewelers-artists.I am little interested in an expensive thing if its price is only that a lot of diamonds or pearls are planted ".

Faberge International Business

Faberge's London shop served not only an English clientele, but also served as a center for trade with France, America and the Far East. Representatives of the London branch of the company made trips there, carrying goods to these countries and taking orders from there, which were transferred to St. Petersburg. For example, the Siamese (Thai) royal family was the most significant client in the Far East. Perhaps because Prince Chakrabon lived in St. Petersburg for a long time, graduated from the page corps and married a Russian.

Why did the Faberge shop in London close?

The British government, under pressure from local jewelers who were concerned about the presence of Faberge on the British market, introduced an amendment to the assay charter. The amendment required the Russians to first bring the semi-finished product from precious metals to London for branding, then take it back to St. Petersburg for finishing, and then again take the fully finished product to London. This circumstance, as well as the outbreak of the First World War, which reduced consumer activity and made it very difficult to deliver goods from Russia to England, forced the Faberge trading house to close its store in London in 1915.

How Faberge Created Easter Eggs

Carl Faberge and his brother Agathon Faberge discussed the project of another Easter egg in the year of birth of the heir to the throne. Agathon proposed to beat in the composition the fact that the heir had already been appointed chief of the rifle units. “Yes,” Karl agreed, “just have to portray dirty diapers, since these are the only results of his shooting so far.”

"Our Father and So On"

The haste of Karl Gustavovich sometimes had curious consequences. Behind one icon it was required to engrave the prayer "Our Father". Drawing the font of the first words, he wrote: "and so on." And the engraver, instead of the full text of the prayer, engraved it according to the drawing: "Our Father and so on." "After all," Faberge remarked, "our priests did not think of this before, before such a simple reduction in the time of service."

Feeling of Accomplishment at the Faberge Firm

When Faberge himself accepted some order, he was often distracted and it happened that he soon forgot his details. Then he turned to all the employees, looking for the one who was closer to him at the time when he spoke with the customer, and was surprised how he (his employee) was standing nearby and did not remember anything. Therefore, among the employees of the Faberge firm, it has become customary to say that it is not the one who takes the order that answers, but the one who stands nearby.

Faberge's exactingness: "You don't scold yourself, nobody scolds you"

If the original drawing was not at hand, then in a huge amount of manufactured products, it was difficult to know by the type of object which of the fashion designers had conceived the project. When Faberge came across an unsuccessful thing, he relish mocked an unknown author. However, there were cases when the author turned out to be none other than himself. Then, looking at his own sketch, which his assistants brought him as evidence, he smiled guiltily and said: - "That's what it means there is no one to scold, so he scolded himself."

Paradoxes of Big Business

Once, a Ukrainian sugar producer with a fortune of 21 million gold rubles (about $1.1 billion in today's prices) named Koenig complained to Faberge, bargaining when buying a necklace: - "Every year, then losses." "Yes, yes," replied Faberge, "every year, we also have losses, but it's strange how we get rich from these losses."

Jewelry School Carl Faberge

One of the members of the imperial house was very interested in the jewelry craft and wanted to learn it personally. To this end, he turned to Faberge to make him a register of all the necessary tools and equipment for the workshop. The old master who was entrusted with this work was a great original. In the list of tools between hammers, chasers, engravers, he included "a flat belt of sufficient thickness." When asked by the customer what the belt could be used for in jewelry work, the old man replied: - "Your Highness, this is the first and most necessary tool, without which not a single student has yet learned the art of jewelry."

Princess - "protector"

Of the members of the imperial family, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna especially patronized foreign jewelers. They enjoyed this all-powerful patronage and, bypassing all sorts of customs and assay fees, traded their goods throughout the state. It would seem, why not today's Russia? However, differences still exist, because tricks with illegal "protection" at the highest level were discovered and proven by Faberge and some other St. Petersburg jewelers. They achieved the suspension of trade in these, in fact, contraband jewelry and the payment of legal fees for them. And I must say that they did not go to jail for this, they were not killed in the alley, and their firms were not ruined by the powerful family. Rather, on the contrary. Is it possible to imagine such an outcome if someone dared to spoil the business of a close relative, for example, some Putin or Nazarbayev?

Continued on the next page: Nothing human was alien to him ... or the adultery of a great jeweler.

Nothing Human Was Alien to Him... or Adultery of the Great Faberge

Carl Gustavovich Faberge, 56 years old, the owner of a well-known Russian jewelry company named after him, while in Paris in 1902, fell head over heels in love with Joanna-Amalia Kriebel, a cafeteria singer who was born 21 years ago in the Czech Republic. He wisely did not want to divorce his wife Augusta Bogdanovna, a beautiful woman who gave him 4 children, but he did not refuse Amalia either. Our hero found the next "jewelry" way out. Every year, for about 3 months, he went on commercial business to Europe, and Mademoiselle Krieber brightened up the loneliness of a traveling salesman on these trips. The remaining 9 months she led a free life. Sometimes, however, she visited St. Petersburg, and, not embarrassed by common acquaintances, she showed everyone Faberge jewelry from the stages of entertainment establishments in the Russian capital. Everything would have been fine, but the established order of relations that suited him did not suit her, who, as it became clear later, needed a marriage with a subject of the Russian Empire, which the family man Karl Gustavovich did not in any way tend to. Therefore, in 1912, she suddenly married an illiterate Georgian 75-year-old prince Karaman Tsitsianov from the village of Satsibeli, whom she left without tears the day after the marriage and never returned to him again. An important result of this fleeting operation was the replacement of a German surname with, let's say, a princely title, more familiar to Russia, and, of course, Russian citizenship.

At this point, it is necessary to suspend the story and note that the Germans and Austrians, even before the start of hostilities, began to recruit female actresses of an adventurous warehouse and good external data, so that, in case of a future war, they could legalize them in various ways in Russia and in other countries - opponents as agents...

The military year of 1914 found Madame Tsitsianova in Germany. She began to ask her famous lover, with whom she did not break contact, to help equip her in Russia. Needless to say, it was a difficult task. Because in connection with the war, persecution of people with German surnames began. Faberge himself was teetering on the brink of expulsion, which is why he even partially re-registered the company's shares to trusted employees with Russian names. In such a situation, asking for a former subject of Austria was risky. But Karl, like a real knight, did not flinch and, using connections at the Court, helped his passion move to Petersburg, where she settled in the "European" hotel, where representatives of the Russian military command, as well as senior officers of the Allied military missions. From the certificate filed by the police with her file, it can be seen that she paid 18 rubles per day for the room (about $800 in today's prices). Here's what else you can read in the report of the security department dated March 24, 1916: - "A certain Princess Joanna-Amalia Tsitsianova (born Kriebel), she is Nina Barkis, 32 years old, Roman- of the Catholic faith, attracting attention with a wide life and trips to Finland. Collected secretly information about Tsitsianova, it was found out that she was a former Austrian citizen ... She is fluent in English, French, German and Russian (with a Polish accent) languages, gives the impression of a very cunning and cautious woman ... At present, she allegedly cohabits with the famous jeweler manufacturer Faberge and, despite this, has constant meetings with other persons, and these meetings are designated by her as a special conspiracy. internal life and relations of Tsitsianova, which gives reason to conclude that the administration of the "European" hotel, which is sympathetic specifically to people of German origin, assists Tsitsianova, apparently engaged in espionage ... "

Here I would like to show what this mysterious woman looked like. However, we could not find photographs of Amalia. It seems to be true, the ladies were prepared by good professionals. But they managed to find her verbal portrait from 1915, compiled by surveillance agents. They had it under the nickname "Georgian".

April 26, 1916 Amalia was arrested. During interrogations, she, as expected, denied everything, and in the meantime, her lover (who was then already 70 years old) began to fuss for her, since he had connections at the very top of the Russian state. (Looking ahead, let's say that they did not help, and Amalia went into exile in Siberia). Here is how the report of the head of the counterintelligence department to his high authorities looked on this subject: “It does not hurt to note that Faberge himself, who during interrogation vouched for the trustworthiness of Tsitsianova, is by no means a person whose statements the military authorities could treat with due confidence .. "The fact of Tsitsianova's cohabitation with Faberge in any case does not speak in favor of her trustworthiness, and any of his statements about Tsitsianova cannot be taken into account." Dot. Even direct access to the king and queen did not help. After the deportation to Siberia Tsitsianova, the couple broke up forever. She returned to Austria a few years later, and he, completely robbed by Chekists and some employees of the Swiss embassy in Petrograd, became a beggar (having lost about $ 500 million overnight in today's prices, not counting the value of all the real estate that he owned), left Russia with great difficulty and through Latvia and Germany, morally broken, he ended up in Switzerland, where he died in September 1920 in the circle of his wife and son Eugene, prudently not abandoned by him.

Last photo of Carl Faberge. July 1920, Lausanne, Switzerland. From left to right: wife Augusta Bogdanovna, son Yevgeny Karlovich and Karl Gustavovich himself.