Word: faberge
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Dates: during 1949-1949
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...white enamel was of gold. Inside it was a golden yolk, and inside that a golden chick. In the chick's stomach was a model of the imperial crown, and inside the crown was a tiny ruby egg. It went over big. "Next Easter," the Czar informed Fabergé, "we'll be wanting another surprise...
Vodka & Coffee. Last week seven such surprise eggs went on display in a Manhattan gallery. They highlighted a glittering show, drawn from museums and private collectors in the U.S., which had been arranged to coincide with publication of a handsome, expensive and definitive study of Fabergé and all his works: Peter Carl Fabergé (Batsford; $35). The exhibition included everything from coffee pots to vodka cups, from imperial seals to paper knives, and from jeweled flowers in crystal vases to a green jade Buddha that nodded its head and wagged its ruby tongue...
...craftsmanship and imagination, some of Fabergé's works rivaled those of Benvenuto Cellini, but unlike Cellini, Fabergé had been a 100% eclectic with a vast history of luxury arts to borrow from and exploit. While his best works were magnificently unique, his worst looked like refugees from a dime store bric-a-brac counter...
Pigs & Cigarettes. Born in Russia of a Huguenot family, Fabergé had probably studied goldsmithing in Paris, but there was no evidence that he had done a lick of manual work on any of the works on exhibition. His genius was in his head and active enough to keep 700 artisans, mostly Finns, busy in his St. Petersburg workrooms. The imperial court was not Fabergé's only customer: every millionaire in Russia clamored for his wondrous candlesticks and parasol handles. In time he produced enameled pigs for the court of King Chulalongkorn of Siam, Buddhas and bowls...
...last week's show was carved out of rock crystal. Inside it was a golden tree, and perched in the tree was a peacock which, when removed and placed on a table, strutted, turned its head, and folded and unfolded its fanlike emerald tail. The last Fabergé egg to be presented to the Czarina (in 1916) was prophetically grim: made of blackened steel and poised on four bits of shrapnel, it contained only a miniature painting of the Czar and Czarevitch Alexis with staff generals on the Eastern front. Two years later the imperial family...