Nathalie Bondil

Once in a while, a truly fantastic museum guidebook can literally make me a bit giddy. This is one of those.

I gained an appreciation for Faberge during a visit to Moscow back in 2009. During a visit to Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, it was a very pleasant surprise to find the special exhibit of FEs from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. This book had everything I’d expect:
- An introduction about the collection assembled by the determined Lillian T. Pratt with a “modest” budget
- A Q&A about Faberge and its legendary Imperial Easter Eggs
- A brilliant background on the Faberge House. Sadly, no creation by Carl Faberge himself seems to have survived.
- A Faberge timeline
- And of course, large, close-up photos of the many pieces – bejeweled craftsmanship at every level

A tidbit from the book, a passage found in a 1919 memoir by Franz Birbaum, Faberge’s chief designer between 1893 and 1917:
“…Initially, he was obliged to rely exclusively on orders from the imperial family and the court in Saint Petersburg, channeled through His Majesty’s Cabinet. Only later did the moneyed Moscow financiers and merchants, whose patronage he preferred, become the backbone of Faberge’s business. The cabinet, which was run by military or civil generals who generally had little or no knowledge of art, often aimed to place its orders with the lowest bidder. The empress, who in fact considered herself an artist, would impose her wishes as to the design and cost of certain objects. Birbaum writes caustically (perhaps the 1917 revolution had quickly removed any sign of due respect): ‘Her grasp of artistic concepts was meager, her meanness was not in keeping with her royal status.’ Faberge must have disliked having to ingratiate himself with His Majesty’s Cabinet, as he ‘stopped visiting in person’…”… (meer)