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Henrik Immanuel Wigström (1862-1923)

Queen Mary's Fabergé fan c. 1912

Plain weave cream silk leaf, backed with silk gauze; front guard of mother-of-pearl with two-colour gold enamelled in blue and white over a guilloché ground, decorated with two Burmese cabochon rubies; back guard and sticks of mother-of-pearl (2 + 16); gold pin; gold loop; bone | 23.0 x 40.5 x 2.8 cm (whole object) | RCIN 25136

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  • A plain weave cream silk fan leaf, backed with silk gauze, painted in watercolour, bodycolour and gold with central vignette depicting a couple in eighteenth-century dress seated by a lake, further views of lakes in vignettes at either side; gold painted silk edge-binding.

    This fan was purchased by Queen Alexandra from Fabergé’s London branch in December 1912 as a Christmas present for her daughter-in-law Queen Mary. It retains its original birchwood box, with Fabergé’s Imperial Warrant stamped inside the lid. The London branch of Fabergé opened in 1903, largely because of the popularity of the firm’s output with King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. By the time of the purchase of this fan the branch was based at 173 New Bond Street, where it remained until the closure of the London operation in 1915. Between 1902 and 1914 disbursements of over £3,000 were made by Queen Alexandra to Fabergé; of this, over £2,500 was paid from the Queen’s presents account, for gifts. King Edward VII also made numerous purchases from Fabergé, and in 1907 placed a major commission with the firm - for miniature animal sculptures of the domestic and farm animals at Sandringham. A strong interest in Fabergé was inherited by King George V and was shared by Queen Mary and by their daughter-in-law Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

    The guards of this fan are stamped by the workmaster Henrik Wigström, by whom a number of other fans with painted silk leaves are known. The stock book containing watercolour records of the objects produced in Wigström’s workshop between 1909 and 1915 includes a number of sketches of fans, but none of these relates to surviving fans in the Royal Collection. In the present fan, a Rococo-inspired leaf is combined with guards decorated in a Neoclassical style. With an assay mark of 56 zolotniks, and ‘FABERGE’ in Cyrillic; with a paper label in Queen Mary’s handwriting: ‘From Queen Alexandra Xmas 1912’.

    Text adapted from Unfolding Pictures: Fans in the Royal Collection, 2005
    Provenance

    Purchased from Fabergé’s London branch by Queen Alexandra, 24 December 1912 (£26 10s; 118 roubles), as a gift for Queen Mary

  • Medium and techniques

    Plain weave cream silk leaf, backed with silk gauze; front guard of mother-of-pearl with two-colour gold enamelled in blue and white over a guilloché ground, decorated with two Burmese cabochon rubies; back guard and sticks of mother-of-pearl (2 + 16); gold pin; gold loop; bone

    Measurements

    23.0 x 40.5 x 2.8 cm (whole object)


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