{"id":14287,"date":"2013-10-10T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T07:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zatista.com\/blog\/?p=14287"},"modified":"2016-07-19T20:44:45","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T20:44:45","slug":"forgotten-faberge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zatista.ie\/blog\/2013\/10\/forgotten-faberge\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten Faberg\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Faberg\u00e9 statuette of Empress Alexandra\u2019s Cossack bodyguard that has just been rediscovered and is up for auction. Photo: Walter Hill\/lStair Galleries<\/p><\/div>\n

According to The New York Times Arts Beat blog<\/a>: Russian royals loved to collect figurines of their subjects. The Faberg\u00e9<\/a> workshops produced about 50 sculptures in semiprecious stones and gold representing peasants, servants and the occasional Gypsy singer and street sweeper.<\/p>\n

Two of the works, with glittering eyes and thick gray beards, realistically portrayed Imperial Cossack bodyguards. A depiction of Dowager Empress Marie\u2019s servant Alexei A. Kudinov remains at Pavlovsk Palace<\/a> near St. Petersburg. A statuette of Empress Alexandra\u2019s bodyguard, Nikolai N. Pustynnikov, was long thought lost.<\/p>\n

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A depiction of Dowager Empress Marie\u2019s servant Alexei A. Kudinov at Pavlovsk Palace near St. Petersburg<\/p><\/div>\n

It was actually sitting in an attic in Rhinebeck, N.Y. In the 1930s, a Faberg\u00e9 collector had acquired it in Manhattan from the dealer and industrialist Armand Hammer<\/a>. It re-emerged this summer, with original receipts, when a descendant\u2019s estate was cleaned out. Stair Galleries<\/a> in Hudson, N.Y., will auction it on Oct. 26. (It is estimated at $500,000 to $800,000.)<\/p>\n

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Lillies of the Valley Egg, 1898 Image courtesy of The Forbes Collection<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis is really a major addition to the literature \u2014 it\u2019s a historical discovery,\u201d said Gerard Hill, a Faberg\u00e9 specialist who researched it for Stair. Faberg\u00e9 fakes have been proliferating lately, Mr. Hill added, but he is convinced that the forgotten Cossack is real. \u201cThe expression in the face \u2014 nobody can do that these days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Faberg\u00e9 artisans carved sardonyx, nephrite and cacholong to capture Pustynnikov\u2019s careworn forehead, creased boots and chest medals.<\/p>\n

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The Coronation Egg, 1897 Image courtesy of The Forbes Collection<\/p><\/div>\n

The figurine was part of mounds of Soviet booty that Hammer helped sell off to shore up the Communist regime with hard currency. According to \u201cSelling Russia\u2019s Treasures: The Soviet Trade in Nationalized Art, 1917-1938\u201d (M. T. Abraham Center\/Abbeville), a forthcoming book by nine Russian scholars, \u201cHammer effectively acted as the main intermediary in the efforts made by the Soviet government to \u2018export the world revolution,\u2019 a role which proved quite profitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Objects that he imported, with czar provenance, have reappeared in the last few months. A two-inch metal cross brought $5,100 at a Skinner auction in Boston. An enameled icon painting of the Resurrection sold for $50,000 at Humler & Nolan in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

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Hen Egg, 1885 Image courtesy of The Forbes Collection<\/p><\/div>\n

More Imperial possessions are going on view in the next year. The Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg is renovating a palace in St. Petersburg for his Faberg\u00e9 collection. Another Russian billionaire, Alexander Ivanov, keeps adding to his Faberg\u00e9 museum<\/a> in Baden-Baden, Germany. In November, an exhibition at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis<\/a>, \u201cThe Romanovs: Legacy of an Empire Lost,\u201d will contain some of Hammer\u2019s wares.<\/p>\n

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