The more than 200 objects in the London exhibition illustrate the versatility and variety of his production, from cigarette cases to statues, from clocks to tiaras, from letter openers to enameled miniatures.Everyone knows Carl Fabergé, but the exhibition has the great merit of shining the spotlight on his laboratory, which employed over 500 people, and its most important collaborators. The crucial role of the goldsmith master Henrik Wigstrom and of the designer Alma Pihl is discovered, a rare case of a woman at the top in a sector dominated by men.
Pihl was so highly regarded that she was entrusted with the most important tasks for the Russian imperial family. One of his creations, for example, is the exquisite “Winter Egg” from 1913, an Easter gift from Emperor Nicholas II to his mother, in transparent rock crystal engraved with delicate ice crystals in platinum and diamonds, with inside the surprise of a basket of anemones, symbol of the promise of thaw and spring. The final room of the exhibition is the long-awaited coup de théâtre: the display cases contain as many as 15 of the famous imperial Fabergé eggs, some of which had never left Russia. Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A, thanked the Russian authorities for their “incredible generosity”.
Impossible to describe the intricate beauty and incredible creativity of these eggs, real coded messages with hidden treasures inside. The 1908 egg has portraits of the Tsar’s five sons and as a surprise a model of the imperial palace. The tricentennial egg, featuring miniature portraits of 18 Romanovs, was created to celebrate the dynasty’s 300th anniversary in 1913, just a few years before it was wiped out of history.
The enchanted world of Fabergé and its patrons collapsed with the outbreak of the First World War. The jeweler set aside gold, platinum, diamonds and sapphires and began using steel, copper and brass for hand grenades. Also on display is a hand grenade “created” by him and one of the last eggs created for the imperial family in 1915, showing the Tsarina and her daughters dressed as Red Cross nuns. In 1917 the London shop closed and the following year the Bolsheviks closed the Russian office, confiscating the jewels to finance the revolution. On July 17, 1918, the Tsar, the Tsarina and their children were executed. Fabergé fled to Switzerland, where he died in exile in 1920, with a broken heart. “Life is not life if I cannot work,” he wrote. His creations, precious, delicate and fragile, have defied time and history.
Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution. From 20 November 2021 to 8 May 2022. Victoria & Albert Museum, London. www.vam.ac.uk