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Parrot on a Perch
Michael Perkhin1896-1903
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
In creating luxurious accessories for a desk or tabletop, Fabergé often used native hardstones such as multicolored agate and jasper, green nephrite, pink rhodonite, and rock crystal found in the Ural Mountains of western Russia. By paying careful attention to the unique colors and textures of the stones, Fabergé and his craftsmen brought them to life, turning milky agate into a begging poodle or green and black jasper into this parrot sitting on a perch. The use of native materials also promoted Russian nationalism, which appealed greatly to the tsar and his family.
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Details
- Title: Parrot on a Perch
- Creator: Mikhail Evlampievich Perkhin (Russian, 1860-1903), House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918)
- Date Created: 1896-1903
- Physical Dimensions: Overall: 15.3 x 7.4 cm (6 x 2 15/16 in.)
- Provenance: (Christie's, London, November 25, 1958, lot 152), India Early Minshall [1885–1965], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Miscellaneous
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1966.447
- Medium: silver, enamel, jasper, agate, emeralds
- Inscriptions: 88, Kokoshnik, tester's initials (in Cyrillic) [assay mark for St. Petersburg, 1896-1908]; initials of workmaster Mikhail Perkhin (in Cyrillic); Fabergé (in Cyrillic); 6817 scratched.
- Fun Fact: Tsar Nicholas and his cousins in the British royal family kept parrots and parakeets throughout their many palaces.
- Department: Decorative Art and Design
- Culture: Russia, St. Petersburg, late 19th-early 20th Century
- Credit Line: The India Early Minshall Collection
- Collection: Decorative Arts
- Accession Number: 1966.447
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