SWEETMEAT BOX OR BONBONNIÈRE
.916-standard silver-gilt, gold, guilloché enamel, rose-cut diamond
H. ¾ inch • W. 1½ inches • D. 1⅛ inch
 
WORKMASTER: Henrik Immanuel Wigström

DATE: 1899–1908

PLACE: St. Petersburg
 
MARKS OR SIGNATURES: On the interior of the lid: 88, in square punch; FABERGÉ, in Cyrillic, in an oblong punch.

On the interior base: 88, kokoshnik head facing left with the initials Ja. L. in Cyrillic for Jakov Ljapunov, 88, all in an elliptical punch; H.W. in an oval punch.
 
The first contract of Henrik Immanuel Wigström (Finnish, 1862–1923) with the House of Fabergé was as a twenty-two-year-old journeyman in the workshop of Mikhail Evlampievich Perchin (Russian, 1860–1903) in 1884. It is today thought that Wigström, Perchin and Agathon Fabergé, also aged twenty-two, working with the inspired imagination of Peter Carl Fabergé, forever changed the history of decorative arts in Russia beginning in that year.
 
Upon the premature death of Fabergé chief workmaster Mikhail Perchin in 1903, Wigström became the head workmaster for the firm, a post he held until the closing of the business in 1918. He had assisted Perchin in the creation of twenty-six imperial Easter eggs and created an additional twenty after taking over the Perchin shop.
 
Wigström was conversant with historic styles ranging from the Antique through that of the Renaissance and the French court styles of Louis XV and Louis XVI to that of the Napoleonic First Empire to the Art Nouveau and Secession modes. Of all of these, however, he was probably the most enamored of the neoclassical Louis XVI style. During that era, goldsmithing achieved a zenith of perfection, a standard to which any later skilled goldsmith would aspire. Wigström was an accomplished goldsmith, and his shop used guilloché enamels with a commensurate degree of accomplishment accompanied by a broad palette.
 
This diminutive box is testament to Wigström’s fondness for the Louis XVI style and his skill as a guilloché enameller. The diamond encircled rose-cut diamond at the center of the lid draws the viewer’s attention to the guilloché sunburst on which it rests. The potentially problematic embellishment of the box’s edges is subtly and successfully resolved through the use of a guilloché ondé pattern. The lid is given an elegant finish through the use of a yellow gold edge in a classic Louis XVI guilloché. Typical of all Fabergé boxes, the rear hinge is so precisely crafted as to disappear into the general design of the box lid’s silver-gilt and yellow gold edge.
The interior of the box is in bright-finished silver-gilt throughout. 
 
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