Fabergé’s principal customers in London were the friends and courtiers of Kings Edward VII and George V. The tastes of British High Society were essentially feudal and the Royal family’s endorsement of Fabergé’s work made it highly fashionable. King Edward VII’s reign differed from that of his mother, Queen Victoria. He balanced his duties with enjoying the luxuries that his position afforded him; with little care for restraint, he indulged in food, house parties, shooting, horseracing and the company of women. The barriers of class and creed, which had stymied Queen Victoria’s life, were ignored and his circle included both traditional aristocratic members and the newly moneyed. Many came from the hedonistic ‘Marlborough House Set’, which surrounded him when he was Prince of Wales.

The beautiful Lady de Grey had been one of the innermost members of the Marlborough House Set and an influential hostess. Henry Bainbridge, Fabergé’s London manager placed her first in the ranks of great Edwardian ladies. Her circle of friends extended from royalty to artists and writers. She promoted Oscar Wilde and he light-heartedly dedicated his play A Woman Of No Importance to her. She was a Russophile and, on her father’s side, descended from Count Vorontsov, the Russian Ambassador to Britain at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Fabergé’s work was only one outlet for her appreciation of Russian arts. After attending the debut performance by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris, she was instrumental in arranging for the troupe’s British debut at Covent Garden in the summer of 1911. According to Mrs. Hwfa Williams, the Edwardian socialite, Countess de Grey was inseparable from the ballet. Parties at her country residence, Coombe Court, were enlivened by the presence of the dancers; Williams recalled that ‘Nijinsky, Pavlova, and the whole company were there’.

The Countess was one of Fabergé’s most significant customers in London. Her purchases were bought as gifts for her friends and were occasionally made on a joint account with her husband the Earl de Grey, later 2nd Marquis of Ripon. Many of her choices were presents for the Royal family and it is possible to identify items she acquired within the Royal Collection. On 21 December 1907 she bought a botanical study, described in the ledgers as a ‘flower cherry’, for £61; a cherry flower with purpurine fruits and white enamel flowers is in the Collection. Her generosity in giving Fabergé gifts was reciprocated by others in the Royal circle and she amassed her own collection of Fabergé’s works.

Stanislas Poklewski-Koziell, the First Secretary of the Russian embassy in London, was a rich and gregarious bachelor. He lived on Clarges Street, four blocks along Piccadilly from Fabergé’s Dover Street shop. His father had made a fortune through the lucrative business of supplying vodka to Russians and much of this wealth passed to Stanislas. His bonhomie won him the friendship of King Edward VII, and they were often in each other’s company. Poklewski-Koziell was an accomplished card player and played Bridge with the King at his home. On one occasion the King won and when it came for Poklewski-Koziell to settle the debt, he was a pound short. As the King was leaving, he turned to his host and said: ‘Remember, Poklewski you owe me a pound’. Poklewski-Koziell paid the debt with a box from Fabergé, in the lid of which was mounted a pound note. Bainbridge, who knew many generous men, described Poklewski-Koziell as ‘perhaps the most prolific present-giver the world has ever seen’. Some of the finest pieces sold at Fabergé’s London branch were bought by him. He was spellbound by the alluring Countess de Grey and according to Bainbridge ‘paid homage’ to her with treasures from Fabergé.