The story goes that the artist sketched a series of ideas for brooches in the shape of the ice crystals that formed on the window close to her desk.
The first designs were followed by the famous Winter Egg - an Easter gift for the Tsarina Maria in 1913 last sold at Christie’s in 2002 for $9.6m - and then ‘ice flower’ necklaces, bracelets, pendants and charms.
Fabergé’s rock crystal, platinum, silver and diamond ‘ice flower’ jewel, SKr175,000 (£13,200) at Stockholms Auktionsverk.
Fabergé’s customer Dr Emanuel Nobel, head of the Nobel oil empire in Russia and nephew of Alfred Nobel, placed an order for 40 pieces.
Tributes to the Nordic winter, they fitted his requirement for novel gifts that were fashioned in precious materials but not so valuable that they could be perceived as bribes. They were given at banquets to female guests, typically hidden in an envelope concealed within a white linen table napkin.
Fabergé’s rock crystal, platinum, silver and diamond ‘ice flower’ jewel, SKr175,000 (£13,200) at Stockholms Auktionsverk.
The 1½in (3cm) high ‘ice flower’ pendant in a Fabergé box that came for sale at Stockholm Auktionsverk (25% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Sweden on June 12 was consigned by a member of the Nobel family. It improved on a guide of SKr100,000-120,000 to sell at SKr175,000 (£13,200).
