Heritage Auctions – Imperial Faberge & Russian Works of Art
Signature Auction | May 17
HA.com/8150

DALLAS — Throughout its history, Heritage Auctions has sold Russian objects of fine and decorative art, coins and currency, silver, enamel and objets de vertu; it has realized exceptional prices for paintings by Russian artists such as Ivan Aivazovsky, Léon Bakst, Nicolai Fechin, Natalia Goncharova and more. It has set six-figure prices for works by the imperial jeweler Carl Fabergé and has offered masterpieces by his competitors and colleagues. Now Heritage announces its upcoming May 17 event Imperial Fabergé & Russian Works of Art — its first auction dedicated to the country’s stunning cultural history and output. From private collections, highlights include works by Fabergé made for the imperial House of Romanoff, as well as Russian paintings, icons, porcelain, furniture and Romanoff archival materials from the estate of Princess Maria Romanoff. There is also, from the sweeping Nelkin collection, a selection of Fabergé, Moscow enamels and Russian imperial porcelain.

Outstanding works from the studios of the Russian goldsmith and jeweler Carl Fabergé that were once owned by the storied Romanoff family provide a foundation for this auction. Some of the most significant Fabergé and other Russian works the family owned come to Heritage from a private collection in California. In the 1940s, two women gave birth on the same day in the same California maternity ward; one of them was Princess Vasili Romanoff, the wife of a nephew of Russia’s last tsar, Nicholas II. The women and their families became fast friends, and within a few years Prince Vasili revealed a treasure of Russian objects inherited from his grandmother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, which were brought out of Russia with the family during their escape from the Bolsheviks. The young prince Vasili, his mother Grand Duchess Ksenia, the Dowager Empress, and many Fabergé treasures had traveled from Crimea to safety abroad. These objects, last seen publicly in 1996 as part of the bi-coastal museum exhibition “Fabergé In America,” are offered at auction by Heritage for the first time on behalf of a family that has preserved them for more than 75 years.

Highlights from this private California collection include an imperial Fabergé diamond-set and enameled Bowenite frame containing a photo of Empress Maria Feodorovna — the egg-shaped, gold-mounted frame belongs to an extremely small group of egg-form frames produced by Fabergé in the workshop of Mikhail Perkhin before 1899. The frame’s imperial provenance and the presence of its original presentation case set it apart from the few other extant models that are in institutions and private collections. This piece was likely a commission, and in a photograph featuring Queen Alexandra and her sister the Dowager Empress, it can be spotted on a desk. Another highlight is an imperial Fabergé gold and opalescent pink guilloché enameled diamond-shaped clock that belonged to the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna; the clock epitomizes Fabergé’s Louis XVI revival style at the turn of the century. This clock entered Fabergé’s stock in 1894 and may have been purchased by or given to the Grand Duchess on the event of her marriage in August of that year. The clock and other Romanoff family treasures that traveled from Russia were given to Prince Vasili for safekeeping before 1947.

Fabergé’s animals have been collector favorites for more than a century. A particularly charming treasure in this collection is an imperial Fabergé hardstone cockerel that belonged to the Dowager Empress. This beauty is one of a surviving number of composite carved hardstone Fabergé objets de fantaisie animal forms that took off with the arrival of the stone carvers Kremlev and Derbyshev from the Urals. Ones such as these, mounted with detailed gold feet, came from the workshops of Henrik Wigström.

The auction also offers Russian paintings, icons, porcelain, furniture and Romanoff family archival materials from the estate of Princess Maria Romanoff. Born Princess Maria Immacolata Valguarnera di Niscemi, Princess Maria, or “Mimi” as she was known, launched a successful jewelry design business in the United States and in 1971 married Prince Alexander Nikitich Romanoff, the son of HH Prince Nikita Alexandrovich of Russia and his wife, the former Countess Maria Illarionovna Woronzoff-Dashkoff.

Highlights from the Princess Romanoff estate include an imperial baptismal presentation icon of Saints Nikita, Xenia and Alexander that was given to their son by Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna and her husband Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. Commemorating the births of each of their children, these skladen, or icons of the patron saints of each of their children, were ordered in advance of their births, and the side panels prepared ahead, with the central panel left blank in anticipation of the birth and the announcement. After 1917, Prince Nikita traveled with this icon and kept it throughout his life; the icon was inherited by his son Prince Alexander. Also from the estate: an oil on canvas portrait of Empress Catherine II “The Great” attributed to Carl Ludwig Christinek after Feodor Rokotov. According to Prince and Princess Romanoff, the painting was a wedding gift from their friend Margaretta “Happy” Rockefeller, wife of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. Though attributed to Christinek, this portrait of Catherine the Great is taken from Russian artist Feodor Rokotov’s three-quarter-length portrait of the empress painted in 1763, which is in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Fascinating and intimate family objects come from the estate as well, including 13 Romanoff family photo albums containing photos dating from 1908 to 1936 that include unpublished and candid images of the extended Romanoff, Yusupov, Woronzoff-Dashkoff and Sheremetev families; two of Prince Nikita’s 1917 diaries inscribed in his own hand; and an imperial Fabergé champlevé enameled silver paper knife that belonged to the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, a gift from the last Tsar, Nicholas II.

Heritage is at 2801 West Airport Fwy Northwest corner of West Airport Freeway and Valley View Lane. For information, 214-528-3500 or www.ha.com.

View All Lots and Bid at HA.com/8150 Inquiries: 877-HERITAGE (437-4824) Nick Nicholson | ext. 3014 | NickN@HA.com
Paul R. Minshull #16591. BP 15-25%; see HA.com. 76333