S T A I
R. Auctioneers & Appraisers.
October 26 – 27, 2013
Russian Imperial Treasure.
LOT 125: AN IMPORTANT FABERGÉ IMPERIAL CARVED
HARDSTONE PORTRAIT FIGURE OF KAMER-KAZAK N.N. PUSTYNNIKOV, THE PERSONAL COSSACK
BODYGUARD OF EMPRESS ALEXANDRA FEODOROVNA, ST. PETERSBURG, DATED 1912
ESTIMATE: $500,000 – $800,000
Depicted in an alert and
attentive posture, with studied gaze, the long nephrite coat affixed with gold and multi-colored enameled orders and
medals, and bordered with brown Caucasian sardonyx, the gold edges enameled
with black Imperial eagles and outlined with translucent red enamel, the
life-like face and hands carved of cachalong, the eyes set with cabochon
sapphires, the hair and beard of grey Siberian jasper, the belt of purpurine,
with black jasper trousers and boots, the trousers with gold piping, the
purpurine and black jasper fur shako with gold trim (lacks bow-knot), the heels
of the boots inscribed, FABERGE in
Cyrillic capitals on one, and, 1912, on the other, the soles of the boots
inscribed in Cyrillic capitals, N.N.PUSTYNNIKOV, on one, and, KAMERKAZAK since
1894, on the other. Contained in original fitted holly wood case, the interior
silk lining stamped in black with the Imperial Eagle and with, Fabergé, St.
Petersburg, Moscow, London, in Cyrillic.
Height 7 inches (17.8cm).
Provenance: Nicholas II, Hammer Galleries, Mrs. George H. Davis.
Thence by Descent
Nicholas II commissioned
Fabergé to produce this portrait figure of N.N.Pustynnikov, the personal
Cossack bodyguard (Kamer-Kazak, or Chamber-Cossack) to the Empress Alexandra
Feodorovna , and also a second figure, of the Kamer-Kazak to the Dowager
Empress Maria Feodorovna. See, H.C. Bainbridge, Peter Carl Fabergé, B.T.
Batsford Ltd., London, 1949, p.113, where Bainbridge, who was Fabergé’s
representative in London from 1908 to 1917, discusses these orders from the
Tsar. The personal bodyguards to the Empress and Dowager Empress accompanied
them whenever they left their residences and were held in high esteem by the
Imperial family, which explains Nicholas’s desire to memorialize them in this
fashion. Nikolai Nikolaievich Pustynnikov (1857-1918) faithfully served the
Empress Alexandra from the time of her marriage to Nicholas II in 1894 until
the imprisonment of the Imperial family in 1917, hence the inscription of 1912
on the boot of the figure, “Kamer-Kazak since 1894.” A photograph of Pustynnikov
accompanying the Empress Alexandra and
her daughters Olga, Tatiana and Maria, in a horse-drawn sleigh, is reproduced
by Alexander von Solodkoff, The Jewel Album of Tsar Nicholas II and a
Collection of Private Photographs of the Russian Imperial Family, Ermitage,
London, 1997, p.193.
In his 1949 memoir,
Bainbridge describes the figure of Pustinikov (sic), which he illustrates, as
the personal bodyguard of the Dowager Empress . In fact however as we now know,
Pustynnikov was the Kamer-Kazak of the Empress Alexandra, and the personal
bodyguard of the Dowager Empress Maria was Alexei Alexeievich Kudinov. Fabergé’s
invoice to the Emperor for the figure of Kudinov, described by Fabergé
on the invoice as the Kamer-Kazak to the
Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna has been published by Valentin Skurlov,
Tatiana Fabergé and Viktor Ilyukhin.
See, K. Fabergé, and his Followers, Hardstone Figures, published in
Russian by Liki Rossii, St. Petersburg, 2009, p.62, where the authors also
reproduce the image of Pustynnikov’s figure, although at that time its
whereabouts remained unknown. The figure of Kudinov is preserved in the
collections of the State Pavlovsk Museum, near St. Petersburg, and was
exhibited in 1993/4 in London, Paris and St. Petersburg. See, Géza von Habsburg and Marina Lopato, Fabergé:Imperial Jeweler,
Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1994, p.203. The figure of Pustynnikov was also kept
at Pavlovsk until the 1920’s when it left Russia with the American entrepreneur
and art dealer Armand Hammer, who subsequently sold it to an antecedent of the
present consignor on December 11th, 1934.
The drawing for this
figure of Pustynnikov from the workshop of Fabergé’s Head Workmaster, Henrik
Wigström, was published in 1994 in the exhibition catalogue above referenced,
Fabergé: Imperial Jeweler, and in 2000. See, Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm, et al ,
Golden Years of Fabergé, Drawings and Objects from the Wigström Workshop, A La
Vieille Russie, 2000, p.51, where the author refers to this figure, under the
heading of “Personal commissions by the Imperial family,” as “(an)example of
gifts alluding to the daily life of the Empresses.” Obviously this figure was
ordered by Nicholas II from Fabergé as a gift to his wife the Empress
Alexandra.
The drawing was
apparently designed to serve as a model for both Kamer-Kazaks, with, of course,
the individual features of each one.
Although the production of these portrait figures was executed under the
supervision of Wigström, presumably by the stone-carving masters Derbyshev or
Kremlev, the actual modeling in wax was carried out from life by sculptor Boris
Frödman-Cluzel in his studio. Bainbridge wrote; “The Tsar Nicholas II
commissioned Fabergé to make stone models of these guards. They were to be portraits from life, the two Cossacks attending at the
Fabergé studios where they were modeled in wax,” p.113. For an essay on the
sculptor Boris Frödman-Cluzel, born in 1878, see, Valentin Skurlov, Fabergé
Firm Artist and New Discovery of Fabergé’s Stone Scuptures, Carl Fabergé,
Goldsmith to the Tsar, National Museum, Stockholm, 1997, where the author notes
(p.37), that, “as late as 1925 the figurine of Chamber-Cossack Pustynnikov was
still at the Pavlovsk Palace Museum, together with his ‘brother’
Chamber-Cossack Kudinov.”
According to Bainbridge
and other researchers, the total number of hardstone carvings of human figures
produced by Fabergé was probably no more than fifty. They are therefore
extremely rare, on a level of rarity with the Imperial Easter Eggs, and the
portrait figures, depictions of actual persons rather than simply “types,” are
rarer still. Very few portrait figures were produced by Fabergé. Another known
portrait figure is of the famous Gypsy singer Varya Panina, reproduced by
Alexander von Solodkoff, Fabergé, Pyramid, London, 1988, p.84, and one other
can be identified as the Yardman (Dvornik) of Fabergé’s St. Petersburg premises, reproduced by A.K.
Snowman, Carl Fabergé, Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia, Greenwich
House, 1983, p.72.
The figures of the
Kamer-Kazaks, Pustynnikov and Kudinov may be considered the most important
hardstone figures produced by Fabergé. Their cost of 2300 rubles each was more
than twice the cost of the second most expensive figure purchased by Nicholas
II during the period 1908 to 1912, which was the boyar, at 950 rubles (sold by
Sotheby’s New York, April 21st 2005, lot 44), and almost three times the cost
of the famous dancing moujik, at 850 rubles, formerly in the collection of
Forbes Magazine and now owned by the Link of Times Foundation. See, Tatiana
Fabergé, Eric-Alain Kohler and Valentin Skurlov, Fabergé: A Comprehensive
Reference Book, Editions Slatkine, Geneva, 2012, p.395, where the authors give
the cost of the Pustynnikov figure and state that this figure “has now
disappeared,” and also Valentin Skurlov’s essay above referenced, published in
Stockholm in 1997, where the author lists the costs of eleven hardstone figures
purchased by Nicholas II between 1908 and 1912 ranging in price from 480 rubles
to 2300 rubles.
This figure of
Kamer-Kazak Nikolai Nikolaievich Pustynnikov has remained in the hands of the
same family since 1934, and has never before been publicly exhibited. Its
re-emergence into the public sphere in 2013 after the greater part of a century
is therefore a significant addition to the history and documentation of
Fabergé’s creations.
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