YOUTH SET
Fork, knife, teaspoon, soupspoon
Silver, steel
Fork: L. 7⅞ inches • Knife: L. 7⅞ inch
Spoon: L. 5¾ inches • Soupspoon: L. 7½ inch
WORKMASTER: Unidentified
DATE: 1899–1908
PLACE: Moscow
MARKS OR SIGNATURES: On each piece: 84, kokoshnik head facing left, with the Cyrillic initials I.L. for Ivan Lebedkin. Additionally: Fork: double-headed eagle / FABERGE, in Cyrillic. Knife: double-headed eagle in a draped cartouche, on the steel blade. Soupspoon: K.F. in Cyrillic, in an oval punch.
Although the four pieces of this youth set bear the Moscow hallmarks for the 1899 to 1908 date cycle, it is possible to date them yet more precisely through the black-stenciled Fabergé mark on the padded ivory satin lining of the case lid. That stenciled mark bears the double-headed eagle denoting the Imperial Warrant granted to the House of Fabergé in 1884, the Fabergé name in Cyrillic, and the city names of St. Petersburg, Moscow and Odessa. The Fabergé branch in Odessa was established in 1890, with the Kiev branch opening in 1905. However, the city of Kiev’s name does not appear in the black stenciled trademark, meaning that the silver must date from 1899, as indicated by the hallmarks, but prior to 1905, when the Kiev branch was founded.
Fabergé’s silver flatware was fabricated in Moscow, which had functioned as the center for Russian silver production since the sixteenth century. The city had a number of advantages for the House of Fabergé vis-à-vis silver. It boasted a number of highly qualified training schools, a ready supply of trained silversmiths, and a salary scale for such workers considerably lower than that of St. Petersburg.
Contrary to St. Petersburg practice, the Fabergé silver workmasters did not mark their wares, with the result that present-day collectors of Fabergé table silver know little about the lives of the Fabergé staff working in San Galli House, the firm’s Moscow headquarters for silver production.
Unlike the vast panoply of silver flatware patterns available to Americans in the Belle Époque, only a limited range was offered in Russia. In the case of Fabergé, these were in the Louis XV and XVI, First Empire and Georgian tastes. This youth set is in a variant of the perennially popular “King’s Shell” pattern and is distinguished by its superior weight and highly chased finish.
The set retains its original fitted Fabergé holly wood presentation case.
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