Fabergé Style Amethyst, Nephrite, Gold and Diamond Study of a Violet

18193: Fabergé Style Amethyst, Nephrite, Gold and Diamond Study of a Violet
Continental, circa 1900
Height 12 cm, Width 7 cm, Depth 6 cm
$22,500
This finely executed miniature floral study is created in the renowned Fabergé style, comprising five delicately carved amethyst violet blossoms. Each flower is set at its centre with a brilliant-cut diamond mounted in a gold collet, all supported by slender stems formed in 18ct gold, bearing French import marks together with the “750” standard.
The composition is enhanced by intricately carved nephrite jade leaves, shaped with remarkable sensitivity to natural form and botanical structure. The arrangement is set within a small vase carved from a single piece of rock crystal, using the characteristic trompe-l’oeil effect associated with Fabergé’s workshops, in which the stone is worked to imitate the appearance of a glass vessel filled with water.
Floral hardstone studies of this type are among the most iconic creations of the House of Fabergé during the period of Peter Carl Fabergé (1846–1920), particularly around 1900, when such objects were produced for the firm’s most distinguished patrons. The violet held a special symbolic meaning in Imperial Russia, representing modesty and refinement, and was therefore a favoured subject in Fabergé’s naturalistic repertoire.
The combination of precious and semi-precious materials—amethyst, nephrite, gold, and diamond—reflects the technical brilliance of the St Petersburg workshops at their height, where master craftsmen combined lapidary skill and goldsmithing to achieve an extraordinary level of lifelike botanical precision unmatched in European decorative arts of the period.