FOOTED DRESSING TABLE TRAY (VIDE-POCHÉ)
Silver
H. ½ inch • W. 5½ inches • D. 3½ inches
 
WORKMASTER: Unidentified

DATE: 1896

PLACE: Moscow

MARKS OR SIGNATURES: On the base: double-headed eagle/ K. FABERGE, in Cyrillic; 84, St. George and the Dragon, partially struck/ 1896, in an oval punch.
 
This diminutive dressing table tray of rococo cartouche form bears the Moscow hallmark of K. Fabergé in Cyrillic characters surmounted by the double-headed eagle signifying the imperial warrant granted to the House of Fabergé by Tsar Alexander III in 1884.
 
Objects in the Louis XV, or rococo, taste were a staple of the House of Fabergé’s silver trade, together with pieces in the slightly later neoclassical Louis XVI style since both modes carried welcome connotations of eighteenth-century French taste and culture, which had been admired and emulated in Russia since the reigns of Elizabeth Petrovna (1709–1762; r. 1741–1762) and Catherine II the Great (1729–1796; r. 1762–1796).
 
Even on small objects such as this, the Fabergé silversmiths lavished great attention on the chased finish. That attention imparted a spritely and vivacious character to the tray, which was well suited to its asymmetrical rococo form.
 
The tray is supported on a trio of equidistant demi-spherical feet.
 
Please contact for price