Customer Reviews

Faberge: Fantasies & Treasures

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This is a companion book to the catalog of the traveling Faberge exhibit, written by the exhibit's curator who is also a Faberge expert. It shows Faberge art in American collections, acquired over the past 100 years.

Part of the focus is on Faberge's famous Easter eggs, the majority of which belong to American collectors, but the book also presents gold, enamel, and hardstone pieces by the artist-jeweler.

Carl Faberge joined his father's jewelry business in St. Petersburg, Russia. During the last quarter of the 19th century, an archaeological revival in jewelry was in fashion. Carl copied antique Greek jewelry and exhibited it, under the patronage of Czar Alexander III. This was a great success, and afterwards he branched out from making conventional French-style jewelry to making art pieces (such as enameled gold snuffboxes and the first of his Easter eggs). He gained international fame and more honors were bestowed on him. His workshops produced an endless stream of objects of incredible beauty and workmanship.

A total of 56 of Faberge's eggs were made: 44 survive and two are known only from photos. Most were made for the royal family of Russia. The preparation alone to make an egg could last as long as two years.

Despite the fame of his Easter eggs, they were just a minute part of what Faberge produced. His 500 craftsmen designed and made over 150,000 pieces of jewelry and other art objects. Most of the jewelry was destroyed after the Revolution - only smaller objects survived this purge. The silver objects that survived were mostly functional ones - others were melted down.

Fantasy objects, many made of gold and "hardstones", brought Faberge his greatest fame. His most zealously guarded secret was the process used to make his enamels.

Faberge fled Russia in 1918 and died in Switzerland two years later.

I learned so much from this little book...well worth reading!

This is a delightful little book to brouse and enjoy. The chapters give a brief overview of many Faberge subjects. I love the stories about the pieces - especially about who owned them.

This book made a nice companion to a faux Faberge egg I gave as a gift. Besides a listing of all the Faberge eggs created, you'll see close-up photographs of the eggs in known existence and other exquisite Faberge treasures. For a collector or someone interested in antiquities, the book includes the story of Faberge himself and more background about his work and the beautiful work he produced.

This book clearly dangles the proverbial carrot (or "Karat", in the Tzar's case) in front of you. All those gorgeous baubles of sentiment from the Tzar to his Tzarina amassed ("Looky what we've got and you don't... and you will never have"). Or, in terms that you and I would relate more closely, "that box of dime store Whitman's sampler" you get from your main squeeze when you know he's done something wrong and he's trying to soften the blow. It's a great little coffee table book and reference to things you can hope for (that's one little wish list that will just go on collecting the dust). I guess Marie Antoinette's infamous words, "let them eat cake!", looks more like a moon pie compared to Nicolas's icing made of every precious and semi-precious stone known to man, oh yeah, then toss another handful of diamonds and pearls for good measure. Ok, it IS a book well put together and informative. By the way, "What do the common folk do?!"