in the form of a delicate snowflake finely set with rose diamonds in an alloy of platinised silver and mounted on yellow gold.
Workmaster: Albert Holmström,
St. Petersburg, 1913.
The design for this jewel is in Holmström Workshop’s jewellery design book, dated 26th April 1913.
Provenance
The Nobel Family.
Exhibited:
Fabergé in Sweden, National Museum of Sweden 1997, number 231
Fabergé and the Russian Jewellers, Wartski, June 2006, number 293
Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution, Victoria & Albert Museum London, November 2021 – May 2022
Illustrated
Fabergen suomalaiset mestarit, Tillander-Godenhielm Ulla, 2011, page 158.
Fabergé : His Masters and Artisans, Tillander-Godenhielm Ulla, 2018, page 154.
Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution, Victoria & Albert Museum London, 2021, page 55.
Fabergé’s winter jewels are sublime creations which perfectly evoke the beauty of Russia’s harsh winters. They were envisioned by the gifted and young female designer Alma Pihl, after she looked up at the north-light of her studio and saw winter through the windowpane. Her uncle, Fabergé’s chief jeweller Albert Holmström brought her ideas to life by producing the intricate jewels in his workshop behind Fabergé’s premises in St. Petersburg. Most were bought by Emmanuel Nobel the Swedish industrialist and cherished patron of Fabergé. The climax of the winter jewels is the Imperial Winter Easter Egg given by Emperor Nicholas II to his mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, for Easter 1913.