Richmond Exhibition Pictures

Finally my computer issues are resolved and here are photos from the preview of the Faberge exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  Not only has the Virginia's Pratt Faberge Collection been displayed in a beautiful new layout, pieces from the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation, Hillwood and McFerrin Collections are also on loan for this viewing.

Fan ca. 1890 (Mikhail Perkhin)

Firescreen-style enamel & precious metals frame

Lilies of the Valley Basket 1896 (Augusst Holmstrom)

Theo's father ran the London Faberge operation

Silver Monumental Kovsh from the Faberge Moscow workshop

Napoleonic Egg 1912 (Henrik Wigstrom); Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation Collection

Nobel Egg (designed by Alma Theresa Pihl)

Pelican Egg (Mikhail Perkhin) 1897

Peter the Great Egg (Mikhail Perkhin) 1903

Peter the Great Egg has miniature portraits of Tsar Peter and Nicholas II on the exterior

Red Cross Egg with Portraits 1915

Revolving Miniatures Egg 1896

Hardstone Zarnitsa Sailor figure

Tsesarevich Egg 1912 (modern base)

Note the rear view of the surprise portrait is the back of Aleksei's head

Contemporary work in Museum lobby was gathering point for the group, what a contrast w/Faberge!

Museum director Alex Nyerges hosted a lovely breakfast for the group but we all crowded towards the stairwell leading down to the galleries filled with Faberge!  Everyone was so excited, including authors and experts who have devoted their entire lives' work to Faberge.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts New Faberge Exhibition

Here are the details of the upcoming major exhibition at the VMFA, as reported on the Museum's web site:

Jul 09, 2011 – Oct 02, 2011    NewMarket Gallery

The name Fabergé is synonymous with refined craftsmanship, jeweled luxury and the last days of the doomed Russian imperial family. The array of enameled picture frames and clocks, gold cigarette cases and cane tops, hardstone animals and flowers in rock crystal vases, and ruby encrusted brooches and boxes continue to fascinate viewers as they did when first displayed in the windows of Fabergé’s stores in St Petersburg, Moscow and London.

In summer 2011, VMFA will feature the largest collection of Fabergé in the United Sates. The exhibition, Fabergé Revealed, includes more than 500 objects and will be at VMFA July 9 – October 2. The Russian jeweler Karl Fabergé crafted objects for the Russian imperial family in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including specially commissioned Easter eggs. VMFA’s collection, the largest public collection of Fabergé outside of Russia, includes five of the thirteen Russian imperial Easter eggs that are in the United States.

In addition to showcasing VMFA’s extensive Fabergé collection, the exhibition will feature loans from three important private collections. The collection of Matilda Geddings Gray of Louisiana has loaned its rare Napoleonic Egg and its celebrated Imperial Lilies of the Valley Basket. More than twenty noteworthy loans from the Arthur and Dorothy McFerrin Foundation Collection include the elegant Nobel Ice Egg and the spectacular Empress Josephine Tiara. Additionally, in a complimentary exhibition of the Hodges Collection, more than 100 pieces will come from the family collection of Virginia-born Daniel Hodges, including the historic Bismark Box and the monumental Coiled Serpent Paperweight.

Napoleonic Egg

Christel McCanless, noted Fabergé author, is arranging a special preview on July 8.  Please see our "favorite links" section to contact Ms. McCanless about this event.

McGregor by Fabergé -- The End of the Line in America

In our last post, we journeyed with the fabled Fabergé name from the royal court of St. Petersburg to the corner drugstore in America.  Yet there is one more chapter to be told of this name finding a home on Main Street, USA.

In 1984, George Barrie sold Fabergé Inc. for $180 million to McGregor Corp.  McGregor, a men's and boys' clothing manufacturer, was controlled by self-made millionaire Meshulam Riklis through his company Rapid America.   Riklis was known for his elegant financial mechanisms used to acquire businesses, often placing investors at risk with his leveraged buyouts using junk bonds.  However, he was most likely better known to the public for his May-December marriage to the much younger singer, Pia Zadora, and his launching of her career through his business connections and ownership of the Riviera casino in Las Vegas. 

In 1985, the company launched a new men’s cologne, McGregor by Fabergé.  Part of the distribution network was Rapid-American owned discount department store chain McCrory’s.  Fabergé and Billy the Kid children’s wear under the same banner, what would Carl Fabergé have thought? 

Unlike Barrie, Riklis did not seem to be interested in promoting Fabergé with celebrities and growing the brand, rather using the venerable name’s cash flow and equity to grow his business empire.  Later that same year, he took the company private and shortly thereafter, transferred the assets from Rapid to the Riklis Family Corp.  This transfer in May, 1986 was virtually cashless as it was paid for by the issuance of non-voting, cumulative preferred stock issued by the newly formed entity.

Mark R. Goldston became President of the new Riklis business and targeted an acquisition, storied American cosmetics brand Elizabeth Arden.  Goldston (who would later be involved in the Revlon turnaround) concluded a deal for $725 million to acquire Arden from pharmaceutical giant Ely Lilly & Co.  Fabergé Inc. was now valued at $1.2 billion.

In 1989, Fabergé Inc. fell into the sights of a multinational consumer-brand Goliath, the Dutch-British firm Unilever, which during that period of time was building its personal care product portfolio. Unilever had just bought the American business Chesebrough-Ponds in 1987, picking up the marks Aqua-Net, Cutex, Pond’s and Vaseline.  Now it paid the Riklis Family Corp. $1.55 billion for Fabergé Inc.  Unilever had a new strategic vision for the brand, looking to restore its luster as a name synonymous with luxury.

This brings to a close the American chapter in the Fabergé story, from the family losing the rights to its own name – and by extension, its history – for $25,000 to what was now a cosmetics powerhouse brand with rather common roots heading back to its royal heritage in Europe.  

Small pieces of the Fabergé legend were to remain in the US, such as the “House of Igor Carl Fabergé” for Franklin Mint; the Forbes Collection of historic Fabergé in New York City; and the development of the Fabergé-style Vivian Alexander line of egg creations.   These will be topics for future posts.

American Use of the Fabulous Fabergé Name

The last Imperial Easter Egg by Peter Carl Fabergé was made for the Russian Czar Nicholas II in 1916.  The first egg was commissioned in 1885 and over the next 30 years 50 such magical creations came from the Fabergé workshops. World War I and the Bolshevik  Revolution destroyed that madly opulent era of the last Romanovs, and with it the House of Fabergé. The Fabergé family was scattered across Europe after losing all with the political upheaval in St. Petersburg.   Youngest son Nicholas was safe in England while his brothers were imprisoned in Russia; Carl and his wife made their way to Switzerland where he died in 1920.  But that was not the end of this famous name, in fact a new chapter was beginning.

The American oil tycoon Armand Hammer purchased many Fabergé pieces during his business trips to communist Russia in the 1920’s. Konstantin Akinsha wrote in Art News, June 2004:  “Hammer had been fortunate: in Moscow he had received not only Imperial Easter eggs and other objects but the stamps of the company with which every object made in the workshop had been marked. Thus he was equipped to produce Fabergé forgeries in America. ”  Not to say that Hammer was ever involved in the production of "Fauxberge" but his contact with the art of Carl Fabergé led to a new use of the famous name.

Akinsha continued: “In 1937 Hammer’s friend Samuel Rubin owner of the Spanish Trading Corporation which imported soap and olive oil closed down his company because of the Spanish civil war and established a new enterprise to manufacture perfumes and toiletries. He registered it at Hammer’s suggestion as ‘Fabergé Inc.’”

Thus began the American chapter in the continuing saga of the Fabergé name and family.  Akinsha wrote: “Eugene and Alexander, two Fabergé sons who lived in Paris and ran a small workshop called Fabergé et Cie, learned about the existence of Rubin’s company only after the end of World War II but their attempts to sue Rubin were unsuccessful. According to documents in the Fabergé private archive which is in the care of Tatiana Fabergé [Carl's great-grand-daughter] and research by [Valentin] Skurlov, Eugene and Alexander didn’t have the money to hire American lawyers and agreed to a settlement proposed by Rubin who paid them $25 000 for the right to use the name.”

And that is how for many years, the name of the world's most renowned jeweler was prominently featured on fragrance (such as Brut), cosmetics and toiletries available at the corner drugstore on Main Street, USA! 

Our next post will continue on the evolution of name as it has been used commercially over the last 75 years. A note of thanks to author Andrew Moore as the source of reference materials.

The Steel Military Egg -- the last Imperial Easter Egg