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BELL PUSH

Creator(s): Fabergé (Firm) , Mikhail Evlampievich Perkhin (Workmaster)

On view in: Icon Room


About this object

A bloodstone elephant with a howdah in gold with white opaque enamel and red translucent guilloché enamel stands atop a circular, mound-shape base. The elephant's eyes are made from tiny diamond chips. The enameled howdah is decorated with a brick-like pattern painted on the white opaque enamel. There is a small ruby en cabochon set at the top. The base, also in bloodstone, is ornamented with several parallel bands of cast gold in varying styles. Uppermost are foliate swags hanging from somewhat crude bows. A tulip or bell-shaped bloom (?) hangs from each of the bows. At the base of the circular mound is a simple gold band with reeding. About the central section is a gold band ornamented with white opalescent enamel over a chevron pattern. Affixed to the white enamel is a guilloche (continuous figure eight pattern) made from two foliate bands. (Like the swags at the top, these foliate bands appear less refined than the reeding above or the egg and dart ornament below). Gold egg and dart pattern ornaments the molding near the base.

Object name:
BELL PUSH
Made from:
Bloodstone -- enamel -- gold -- ruby -- diamond chips
Made in:
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Date made:
1899-1903
Size:
2 11/16 × 2 in. (6.8 × 5.1 cm)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:
11.65
Class:
GOLD
Signature marks:
MARK: MP [Cyrillic] [Struck on rim below white enamel band] They have been identified as the mark of Mikhail Evlampievich Perkhin (1860-1903). The two capital initials are placed within an oval. They are partially obscured and difficult to compare to other Perkhin marks. ASSAYER'S MARK & GOLD STANDARD: 56 [Cyrillic] IL [Struck on rim below white enamel band] The mark is partially obscured. It has been interpreted as 'Ia.L.', i.e. the initials of St. Petersburg assayer Iakov Liapunov. This would be consistent with the attribution to Perkhin.
Credit line:
Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973