A hardstone cat by Carl Fabergé,
naturalistically carved from a single piece of cream coloured chalcedony, modelled in confrontation with its back highly arched and tail upright, its eyes set with cabochon rubies.
Contained in its original silk and velvet lined fitted hollywood case, the lid silk stamped ‘Fabergé, St .Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa’ in Cyrillic beneath the Imperial warrant.
Height 4 cm.
The Royal Collection contains a similar study of cat with an arched back carved from Kalgan Jasper and set with emerald eyes. It was bought by King George V from Wartski on 31st December 1929 for £15 .
Provenance
HRH Thyra, Princess of Denmark, The Crown Princess of Hanover, Duchess of Cumberland and Teviotdale,
HRH Princess Olga of Hanover and Cumberland, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg,
Ernest Augustus IV, Prince of Hanover, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick,
HRH Monika, Princess of Hanover, Countess zu Solms-Laubach.
Exhibited:
Fabergé Hofjuwelier de Zaren, at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, 1986-1987, number 192.
Fabergé-Cartier at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, 2004, number 103.