Sotheby's - Auctions - Imperial
Treasures: Faberge from the Forbes Collection
Сотби - Аукционы - Императорские сокровища: Фаберже из коллекции Форбса
The Orange Tree (Bay Tree) Egg
A Faberge Imperial Easter Egg presented by Tsar Nicholas II to his mother
the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna at Easter 1911. "Faberge, who
had traveled a lot, had absorbed all the currents, the various artistic
currents, in Paris, in Florence, in Dresden, in London," says Von
Habsburg. "He could go back to this memory bank and select objects
from it. For instance, the Bay Tree egg in the Forbes Magazine Collection
is based on an 18th century mechanical orange tree, a French automaton,
which was a fairly well-known object which Faberge must have seen during
his travels. Other eggs that Faberge made were based on objects he saw
in the imperial treasury and used as prototypes for his first eggs."
The eleven-inch Bay Tree egg (1911), laden with gemstone fruits set among
carved jade leaves, conceals tiny bellows to produce the sweet song of
a feathered bird. "When you turn one of the little precious fruits,
these jade leaves part and a small bird appears and sings and then disappears
back into this little tree which is all of about 11 inches high!"
(Forbes)
© 2004 Sothebys.com LLC www.sothebys.com
© 2004 Mr. Victor Vekselberg's Foundation
Был объявлен аукцион: Sale N07981 April 20-21, 2004.
Но аукционному дому Сотби сделали предложение,
от которого он не мог отказаться. О сенсационной продаже-покупке было
объявлено 4 февраля 2004 года.
Теперь всем нам предоставляется возможность полюбоваться
этой красотой. Надеюсь не только на фотографиях, но и в живую. Обещают
показать даже в Ижевске. Now the opportunity to admire is granted all
of us this beauty. I hope not only in photos, but also in alive. Promise
to show even in Izhevsk.
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