Fabergé And Invisible Setting
Fabergé has been incorporating the technique of ‘invisible setting’, or ‘mystery setting’, as it is sometimes known, since the second decade of the 20th century. In 1989, Valentin Skurlov (a jewellery historian) discovered a manuscript by François Birbaum, Fabergé’s Senior Designer from 1895 to the demise of the firm, in the State Archives. It is Birbaum’s personal recollections of Fabergé. Written in 1919 at the request (or order) of the authorities, it added considerably to the knowledge of how Fabergé operated. It included the following:
“A successful innovation was the use of single-faceted rectangular coloured stones, arranged in a ribbon-like narrow row, so that the metal setting remained invisible. If properly calibrated stones are used in these coloured strips, they produce a remarkable effect between diamond pavé surfaces”.
The Fabergé Mosaic Egg (1914), in the Royal Collection, is a technical marvel of invisible setting. This creation is attributed to Workmaster, Albert Holmström (1876-1925). The egg was gifted from Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra.
Image courtesy of The Royal Collection Trust
This Imperial Easter egg features an overall mosaic pattern, made from gold and platinum, pink and white enamel set with rose diamonds, rubies, emeralds, topaz, sapphires and garnets, accompanied by borders of pearls and larger diamonds, and a moonstone finial with the Empress' initials. The egg contains an oval surprise with sepia profiles of the five Imperial children.
Technically one of the most sophisticated and extraordinary of Fabergé’s Imperial Easter eggs, the Mosaic Egg retains its ‘surprise’. It takes the form of a medallion painted on ivory with the portraits of the five children of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra on one side and a basket of flowers and their names on the other, on a stand surmounted by the Russian Imperial crown, held within the egg by gold clips.
The egg was the Emperor’s Easter gift to his wife, Empress Alexandra, in 1914, but the original invoice was destroyed and the cost is therefore unknown. The Empress’s monogram and the date 1914 are set beneath a moonstone at the apex of the egg. It comprises a platinum mesh into which tiny diamonds, rubies, topaz, sapphires, demantoid garnets, pearls and emeralds are fitted – perfectly cut, polished and calibrated to fill the spaces. This extraordinary technical feat is all the more impressive because the platinum is not welded but cut. The five oval panels around the centre of the egg feature a stylised floral motif, replicating the technique of petit-point.
In the list of confiscated treasures transferred from the Anichkov Palace to the Sovnarkom in 1922, the egg is described thus: ‘1 gold egg as though embroidered on canvas’. The designer, Alma Theresia Pihl, was inspired to produce the needlework motif when watching her mother-in-law working at her embroidery by the fire. Alma Pihl came from a distinguished family of Finnish jewellers employed by Fabergé. Her uncle, Albert Holmström, took over his father August’s workshop and was the Workmaster responsible for the production of this iconic egg. The egg was confiscated in 1917 and sold by the Antikvariat in 1933 for 5,000 roubles. It was purchased by King George V from Cameo Corner, London, on 22 May 1933 for £250 ‘half-cost’, probably for Queen Mary’s birthday on 26th May.
Fabergé continues to use the technique of 'invisible setting' with the Mosaic Egg Pendants in the Imperial collection. The exquisite Imperial White Gold Mosaic Blue Sapphire Egg Pendant features invisibly-set princess cut blue sapphires, set in 18k white gold. The Imperial Rose Gold Mosaic Ruby Egg Pendant features 284 invisibly-set princess cut Mozambican rubies set in 18k rose gold and the Imperial Yellow Gold Mosaic Ruby, Sapphire & Diamond Egg Pendant features invisibly-set princess cut multi-coloured sapphires, Mozambican rubies, tsavorites and white diamonds, set in 18k yellow gold.
