Fabergé-Style Hardstone Cherry Branch in Rock Crystal Vase

18196: Fabergé-Style Hardstone Cherry Branch in Rock Crystal Vase
Style of Fabergé (Russian, founded 1842)
Height: 13cm, width: 6cm, depth: 6cm
This hardstone study, made in the manner of Fabergé, models a flowering and fruiting cherry branch rising from a rock crystal vase. It follows the type of objet de fantaisie for which Fabergé's workshops became known: naturalistically carved flowers in semi-precious stones set in a vase of rock crystal, the stone hollowed and polished to simulate water.
The branch bears five open blossoms carved from white chalcedony, each with notched petals gathered around a chased gold centre set with a small rose-cut diamond. Three carnelian cherries hang from the lower branch on slender stems, their reddish-orange bodies polished to a bright translucency and carved with a central groove. The foliage is carved from nephrite in tones of deep and pale green, the leaves veined and gently curled to naturalistic effect.
The flowers and fruit are carried on gilt stems, gathered into a rock crystal vase of compressed globular form, the clear stone worked to give the impression of stems standing in water.
The study belongs to the twentieth-century revival of Fabergé's flower studies, in which Continental workshops reproduced the firm's practice of carving blossoms, fruit and foliage from coloured hardstones and setting them in rock crystal. The carving of the petals, the gold-mounted centres and the carnelian fruit follow that established model.
$27,000