Parasol

The parasol was a invented to shield a lady’s delicate skin from the sun but at the same time drew attention to her. The display of taste, fashion and wealth was similar to the handbag today.

This handle’s bowenite pommel is tactile and practical: cool hard stone in hot weather, designed with an eastern flavour. The collar with trelliswork borders and yellow enamel, the Chinese Imperial colour, and, resembles the Imperial Coronation Egg (now in the private Vekselberg Collection) and a Fabergé box displaying some similar characteristics can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Rooms 91-93, The William and Judith Bollinger Gallery (museum no: M.1-1974) . The Coronation egg has black Russian Imperial eagles on the mounts whilst the parasol handle's collar has instead, unusually large rose-cut diamonds set lightly in the centre of each diamond shaped panel. The Coronation egg was presented by Nicholas II to His wife Empress Alexandra in 1897, the same year as Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

Mikhail Evlampievich Perkhin (1860-1903), having worked his way from a humble provincial background, was head workmaster to the House of Fabergé from 1886 to 1903, in St. Petersburg. A goldsmith and silversmith of exceptional abilities, he specialised in spectacular objects, many in the 18th century French style and produced about half of the Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs.

One facet of Peter Carl Fabergé’s gentle genius was matching the piece to the person, or occasion. Carl Fabergé (1846-1920), was the eldest of two sons of Gustav, founder of the Fabergé jewellery firm in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1860, Gustav retired to Dresden, where from the age of 14 Carl studied and his later work shows influences from the Green Vaults. He was apprenticed to goldsmiths in Frankfurt, Paris and London, and took a course in commerce in Paris, before returning to his father’s business in St. Petersburg in the early 1870’s. The influence of Parisian 18th century goldsmiths is also apparent in Fabergé designs. Carl Fabergé combined his work for the business with voluntary restoration and cataloguing and appraisal of works in the Hermitage for over 20 years. The east also held a fascination for this enquiring mind. Carl Fabergé took over the leadership of his father’s jewellery business in 1882. In the same year, the firm of Fabergé came to the attention of Emperor Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna at the Pan Russian Industrial Exhibition, in Moscow, with a display of revivalist gold jewellery inspired by the Scythian treasures which had recently been discovered at the Crimean port of Kertch. Building a reputation on the excellence of design and technical achievement in every detail, with exceptional enamel work, Fabergé eschewed the intrinsic value of materials, utilising them for their aesthetic and natural qualities in the famous fantasy and naturalistic works for display and in numerous practical items for use in the daily lives of his wealthy patrons.