Details

LOT 2467

Post Medieval Gilt Enamelled Box by Armfeldt, Fabergé Workmaster

LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH CENTURY AD

2" (255 grams total, box: 53mm, case: 85mm.).

A silver-gilt circular box with transluscent mauve enamel over turned 'fabric' background to the lid and sidewall; silver winged front catch to the lid with inset cabochon garnet and thirteen cut diamonds; egg-and-dart border to the base, ropework to the lid; silver Romanov Imperial eagle to the centre of the lid with inset cabochon amethyst and twenty cut diamonds; stamped to the underside 'ЯA' (for Karl Gustaf Hjalmar Armfeldt) and alpha with a profile bust and '88'; stamped to the underside of the lid with alpha with a profile bust, '88' and a separate profile bust marks; contained in the original purple silk and velvet lined, hinged box, slightly worn.

Provenance

Property of a European collector; acquired before 2000.

Footnotes

Karl Gustaf Hjalmar Armfeldt (1873-1959) was a silversmith born in Finland; in 1886 he was apprenticed to the Finnish silversmith Paul Sohlman in St. Petersburg and, becoming a journeyman in 1891, he was a Fabergé workmaster from 1895; he used the personal hallmark 'ЯА' and produced objects for Fabergé until 1916. The Fabergé workshop, under Carl Fabergé, became famous for Imperial jewels and objects of vertu, much patronised by the Tsar and Russian nobility.

CONDITION