a gold working roulette wheel with a pearl ball, the wheel enamelled translucent red over an engraved ground and opaque black, held beneath a bombe rock crystal cover, the body enamelled verdant green over radiating sunburst and moiré guillochages, with opaque white enamel rims, the tapering two coloured gold trigger with a chased foliate finial.
Workmaster: Fedor Affanassiev,
St. Petersburg, circa 1909,
inventory number: 18955.
Diameter: 5 cm
Provenance
Purchased from Fabergé’s London branch on Dover Street on 24th November 1909 for £23 ,10s by Sir Ernest Cassel.
In Fabergé’s ledgers it is described as,
‘Roulette, green en, white opq. en rims, seal silver, red & black’.
Thence by family descent,
Wartski London,
Private Collection.
The entry for the wheel in Fabergé’s London Ledgers
Illustrated
‘Fabergé in London’ (McCarthy, 2017), page 149.
Sir Ernest Cassel K.C.M.G. K.C.V.O, G.C.M.G, G.C.V.O, G.C.B was a prominent member of London society and close friend and confidant of King Edward VII. He was also Winston Churchill’s mentor and played an important role nurturing him in his early career. Of German birth he reputedly arrived in England in 1869 with just a bag of clothes and a violin. With flair and acumen, he went on to build one of the country’s greatest fortunes.
Fabergé made two roulette wheels and this is believed to be only surviving one. The other was purchased by Leopold de Rothschild; it then passed to his son in law Lord Carnarvon – of Tutankhamen fame – to King Farouk of Egypt to Wartski to Mrs. Henry Ford II of the automobile family. Mrs Ford liked it so much she took it on beach picnics near her home on the American East Coast to entertain guests. It is said that while returning home after one such outing she discovered her wheel had been left behind. She swung the car around and sped back to see, to her horror, the tide had come in and washed it away.
Both wheels were sold at Fabergé’s London branch. The London office opened in 1903 to serve Queen Alexandra’s, sister of Empress Marie Feodorovna, interest in Fabergé’s work. It quickly attracted a wider and glittering clientele extending to Aristocrats, American heiresses, exiled Russian Grand Dukes, Randlords, Maharajas, Socialites and Financiers. Fabergé’s English patrons were particularly discerning and the branch sold some of the firm’s most inspired works of art. Franz Birbaum, manager of Fabergé’s workshops, recalls in his memoirs that the work destined for England possessed ‘greater simplicity of form and more restrained ornamentation, with special attention being paid to the technical finish’.
The wheel is a highly imaginative and delicately finished piece. The thinly curved flawless cover of rock crystal is a triumph of lapidary work. Mechanisms of any type are rare in Fabergé’s work and demanded the firm’s highest levels of craftsmanship. Its enamelled and lacquered silver wheel is finely balanced on gimbals and is sprung by turning the gold trigger to the side.
The demand for its work in London led the firm to tailor pieces to its English customers. The roulette wheels were made for the London market which was then as now, a centre for international trading. Sir Ernest who made his fortune from finance cherished the wheel. Unlike most of his purchases from Fabergé which were given away as gifts he kept the wheel for himself.
