This miniature bust, in smoky quartz on a column of nephrite applied with the imperial double-headed eagle, was produced after the death of the Tsar in November 1894. Another portrait bust by Fabergé exists; it was made in 1912, possibly in connection with the Romanov dynasty’s tercentenary, celebrated in 1913. This bust formed part of Queen Alexandra’s collection. She was the Tsar’s sister-in-law and it may have been a present to her from the Dowager Tsarina Maria Feodorovna. A silver portrait bust of Alexander III is listed in the items belonging to Maria Feodorovna and confiscated from the Anichkov Palace in 1917. Fabergé had earlier supplied a gold bust of Alexander III as the surprise inside the Alexander III Commemorative Egg, given to Maria Feodorovna at Easter 1909 by Tsar Nicholas II. Reflecting the close dynastic links between the families, the Tsar and Tsarina often saw their British royal relations, whether in England, Russia or Denmark. Queen Victoria recalled a visit paid by Alexander III (then the Tsarevich) and Maria Feodorovna (Minny) in her Journal on 1 July 1873: ‘The Csarevitch led me in [to dinner], as 36 years ago his Grandfather, the Emperor Nicholas had done. He is very good-natured. I wore the Russian order, & sat between him & Minny.’ In a telegram to Queen Victoria at the time of the Tsar’s death, the new Tsar Nicholas II wrote ‘dearest beloved father has been taken from us. He gently went to sleep’.

Text adapted from Fabergé in the Royal Collection