Fabergé and the King’s Horse.
‘I never saw such a sight & I never heard such cheering’
is how Prince George, later King George V, described the commotion following the Derby of 1896. The winner Persimmon belonged to his father Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales and future King Edward VII.
In the Derby Persimmon was pitched against Leopold de Rothschild’s horse St Frusquin. The Prince of Wales and Leopold were friends; they met while studying at Cambridge together and remained close. In spite of and perhaps partly because of their friendship, they were also fierce rivals on the turf. Persimmon and St Frusquin were half brothers, both sired by the all-conquering St Simon. Persimmon was a large horse with a springy action, a fine neck, a bold eye and an electrifying pace. St Frusquin, although described as an ‘ordinary looking colt’ and ‘without elegance’, was one of the fastest racehorses of his generation. In the spring of 1896 he easily won the Two Thousand Guineas at Newmarket. No horse has ever been thought more likely to win the race and St Frusquin remains its shortest priced winner at odds of 12/100. The Derby was the eagerly anticipated opportunity for the Prince to prove his horse was the faster of the brothers and could outstrip St Frusquin.
The day did not begin well for the Prince as Persimmon nearly failed to make it to the race. It was planned that he would travel to Epsom by train but when taken to the station Persimmon, a usually compliant traveller, stubbornly refused to board it. The situation became desperate when two horse specials had already left the station and the last one was scheduled to leave in only minutes. With the train driver threatening to leave the trainer Richard Marsh could wait no longer and press-ganged a dozen sturdy volunteers to carry Persimmon, foaming at the mouth into his box. Once inside the horse settled down quietly to enjoy his feed.
At the course Persimmon was dressed in the Prince’s colours while St. Frusquin and his jockey Tommy Loates wore the Rothschilds’ distinctive blue and yellow stripes. The race was divided between them and St Frusquin, following his Two Thousand Guineas win, was the favourite at odds of 13to 8 on. It began as expected and Leopold’s horse quickly took and held the lead. Persimmon trailed behind until the last furlong when, willed forward by his jockey Jack Watts, he rallied and dramatically finished the home straight a neck in front. The course erupted at the Royal win. Crowds rushed from the stands towards the enclosure, where the Prince was leading his horse, throwing their hats in the air. Their number was so large that the cheering was deafening. Persimmon’s win cemented the Prince’s affection for the horse. His fondness grew as Persimmon went on to win the St. Leger and the following year the lucrative Eclipse Stakes and Ascot Gold Cup. It was Persimmon’s success that enabled Lord Northcliffe to irreverently observe that Edward VII was ‘The greatest monarch we’ve ever had – on the racecourse‘. Persimmon eventually retired to the Royal Estate at Sandringham. His winnings and later stud fees funded the rebuilding of the stables there. To commemorate his contribution King Edward VII commissioned a life size bronze statue of Persimmon and placed it on the lawn in front of the new stables.
Through their kinship to the Russian Imperial Family, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra were enthusiastic patrons of Carl Fabergé, Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia. In 1903 Fabergé opened a branch in London, the only one outside of Russia, to serve their interest in the firm. Under the patronage of the Royal Family the London branch quickly grew to rival those of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Fabergé’s English patrons were among his most discerning. The branch sold many of the firm’s most inspired creations, including more than thirty flower studies and four hardstone figures. Franz Birbaum, manager of Fabergé’s workshops, remembered 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’.
In response to the Royal demand Fabergé began tailoring his work to reflect the interests of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. In 1907 at the suggestion of Mrs George Keppel, he sent a sculptor named Boris Frödman Cluzel from Russia to the Royal retreat at Sandringham to model the menagerie of animals kept there. Frödman Cluzel was a highly talented graduate of the Stieglitz school of Art in St. Petersburg. He was accommodated on the estate and the King and Queen keenly supervised his wax modelling of their animals. On a Sunday in December 1907 the King was shown the finished studies in Sandringham’s dairy. Henry Bainbridge the manager of Fabergé’s London branch recalled the day by writing.
‘I have searched the chronicles, Rastrelli, Charles Cameron and Falconet in Russia, Rubens in England, even Cellini as he progressed from one city to another in all the glory of renaissance Italy, with the Medicis as near as can be at his beck and call, and I can find nothing which quite compares with the homely pageant on that Sunday afternoon, in the heart of England, where craftsmanship by Royal Command was given an opportunity, to display itself in a manner which those who were concerned in it can never forget.’
Once the King’s approval was given the waxes were returned to Russia where Fabergé’s craftsmen copied them in hardstones and mounted them in precious metals. The delightful animals produced in the Sandringham Commission form the backbone of the Royal Collection of Fabergé. The largest of the pieces in the commission was a silver model of Persimmon stood on a nephrite base. It was made in the workshop of Fabergé’s last Chief Workmaster Henrik Wigström and from Frödman Cluzel’s wax. In October 1908 King Edward bought the model for £135 and it is now in the Royal Collection (RCIN 32392). The King was so taken with it that only two months later, in December 1908, he ordered Fabergé to cast additional bronzes of Persimmon. One of which is illustrated here.
