Faberge in his own time

Magazine Antiques, March, 1996 by Geza von Habsburg

Virtually all aspects of Faberge's life and art have been dissected, including the chronology of the famous imperial Easter eggs and his relationship to the imperial family, his European patrons, and, most recently, his American clients.(2) Yet the role his works played in their time and the way they were presented and judged still need to be assessed. Today, when design is considered of primary importance, we must also analyze the so-called Faberge style to situate the craftsman among his compatriots.

Before World War I the objects Faberge made were rarely acquired with a view to forming a collection. On the contrary, they were generally bought or commissioned to be given away. Franz Petrovich Birbaum (d.1947), Faberge's chief designer from 1896 to 1917, for example, remembered Emanuel Nobel (1859-1932), whom Faberge considered his main client after the imperial family, as "famous for his lavish gifts - indeed, giving them sometimes seemed to be his sole occupation and pleasure."(3) According to Birbaum, Nobel would surprise his dinner guests with little jewels from Faberge hidden in their napkins. In a similar vein Henry Charles Bainbridge, the jeweler's London representative, wrote in 1949:

Except in rare cases I never remember the Edwardian ladies buying anything for themselves; they received their Faberge objects as gifts from men, and these gifts were purely for the psychological moment. When that had passed, i.e., the actual moment of the giving they completed the mission for which they had been made.(4)

The popularity of Faberge's creations can be judged by the role they played at social gatherings. Stanislav Poklevski-Koziell, the counselor at the Russian embassy in England, was described by Bainbridge as "perhaps the most prolific present-giver the world has ever seen." Bainbridge recalled that he would arrive at country house parties

loaded with things from Faberge: two large suitcases filled with them. I have no doubt that the ladies of the party scanned the list of visitors with eagerness to see if his name was included.(5)

According to Birbaum, another extravagant gift giver was the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (1850-1908), who, "on his annual visits to France...always took many of our articles with him as presents, and acted as a sort of promoter of our products in influential foreign circles."(6)

Faberge objects sometimes served as messengers between lovers, as has recently come to light through research into a series of eighteen Faberge cigarette cases dating from 1901 to 1915 [ILLUSTRATION FOR PLATE III OMITTED], which are mysteriously decorated with moon crescents, Arabic inscriptions, maps, secret compartments, and the profile portrait of a woman. Charles Antoine Roger Luzarche d'Azay (1872-1961), who owned the cases, probably played a role in the French secret service, and was undoubtedly the lover of Princess Cecile Murat, a well-known socialite. Their affair was the subject of much gossip in Paris. Their names appear, separately, in Faberge's London sales ledgers. From 1901 until 1915 the princess commissioned one cigarette case a year as a New Years present, with exact instructions regarding the secret message each was to convey. The Arabic inscriptions apparently refer to the recipients patience with his mistress, and the maps presumably allude to their trysting places and travels together.

More conventionally, Faberge objects were exchanged as gifts by members of European royalty. This was particularly true of the Russian imperial family and their close relatives on occasions such as Christmas, Easter, christenings, and birthdays. A room at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg was well stocked with objects from Faberge, mostly snuffboxes and cigarette cases, to be presented to visiting dignitaries and heads of state. Lists exist of the Faberge jewels and snuffboxes taken as presents by Czarevitch Nicholas (later Nicholas II) on his tour of the Far East in 1890, and other members of the imperial family went similarly laden when traveling in Europe. Faberge's creations could be proudly offered as proof of the elegant way of life and excellent taste prevalent in Saint Petersburg, and thus they carried a subtle diplomatic message.

In this vein it is useful to situate Faberge's art in the larger context of imperial taste. While Nicholas II did not aspire to artistic competence, his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, considered herself an accomplished artist. As a princess of Hesse-Darmstadt she was favorably inclined toward the Jugendstil, the German equivalent of the more refined French art nouveau. Birbaum wrote:

With her rudimentary conception of art and with her curiously middle-class stinginess, she often put Faberge in tragi-comic situations. She would accompany her orders with her own sketches and set the cost of the article in advance. Since it was impossible both technically and artistically to manufacture articles according to her sketches, all kinds of tricks had to be invented to explain the inevitable changes - misunderstanding on the part of the master, loss of the sketch, and so on. With regard to the prices, the articles were sold at those she had set, in order not to incur her displeasure; since all these articles were of insignificant value, the losses were offset by her favor when important works were commissioned.(7)