ENVELOPE MOISTENER

Creator(s): Fabergé (Firm) , Anna Carlovna Ringe (Workmaster)

Currently in storage

About this object

The envelope moistener is made from a small aubergine porcelain mounted in silver. The bulbous porcelain body is glazed in a dark purple in imitation of late eighteenth-century Chinese monochrome porcelains produced during the reign of Qian Long (r. 1736-95). The unmarked silver top is decorated with a rosette around the opening and a reeded motif tied with ribbons and a leaf-form collar. The simple foot is molded.

Object name:

ENVELOPE MOISTENER

Made from:

Porcelain -- silver

Made in:

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Date made:

1899-1904

Size:

5.9 × 4.4 cm (2 5/16 × 1 3/4 in.)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:

12.150

Class:

SILVER

Signature marks:

MARK 88 [kokoshnik left] for silver standard; [Cyrillic] IaL for assayer's mark; [Cyrillic] K. FABERZHE (maker's mark); [Latin] AR (workmaster's mark) [Struck on underside of silver base] IMPORT MARK Swan facing left within an oval [Struck twice on underside of foot]. This mark was established in France on 29 June 1893 to mark objects made of precious metals imported into France from countries, which had not established commercial treaties with France, or on objects sold through public sales with unknown or hard to distinguish standard or maker's marks. SCRATCHED NUMBER 6882 [On underside of silver base. Appears below the maker's mark and above the assayer's mark and silver standard. The loop of the 6 is indistinct, but is distinct under magnification] 1809/26 [Scratched on underside of foot, above and right of maker's mark. This seems to be Hammer's inventory mark. The code R.H 1809/26 appears on the base of the Hammer Galleries description in the object file]

Credit line:

Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973