Russian peasant girl

Peter Carl Fabergé

ca. 1910 · Jasper, sapphire, purpurine, nephrite, jade · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This figurine is an exceptionally rare extant example of a Russian folkloristic figure composed of Siberian hardstones and purpurine. The deep crimson material known as purpurine was a variety of a similar chemically made glass known in the eighteenth-century workshops of Murano, near Venice. The manufacture of purpurine would appear to have been brought about by the crystallization of a lead chromate in a glass matrix, resulting in an extremely durable material of great beauty, on account of both the intensity and the unique depth of its sang-de-boeuf color. The House of Fabergé seems to have had the exclusive use of this remarkable material. The mark C. FABERGÉ, inscribed in English, indicates that the object was destined for the firm's shop in London.

Artist

Peter Carl Fabergé

Date

ca. 1910

Medium

Jasper, sapphire, purpurine, nephrite, jade

Culture

Russian, St. Petersburg

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1954