St. Petersburg, around 1900
Cat sitting upright with raised head, the bushy tail curled around the front paws, the fur carved in detail from the stone, the eyes made of faceted green demantoids.
In the original wooden case, the silk lining with the court supplier's mark of Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920) and the names of the branches: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Odessa. Fabergé opened the Odessa branch in 1890, and it existed until 1918.
Purpurin, like obsidian, is a volcanic rock glass. However, purpurin is artificially produced from glass that is fused with pure gold, giving it an opaque, bright red colour. The production of porporino was discovered in the Vatican mosaic workshops of Alessio Matteoli in the 18th century but was then forgotten. An employee of Fabergé rediscovered the old production process around 1890 and improved it. Purpurin was then used exclusively by Fabergé.
A similar cat figurine made of agate with emerald cabochon eyes - a gift from the Tsarina's mother Maria Feodorovna to her sister Thyra - is depicted in Habsburg.
Height: 2.9 cm
Cf. Géza von Habsburg: “Fabergé-Cartier, Rivalen am Zarenhof”, exhibition catalogue, Munich 2003, no. 326
We would like to thank Alexander von Solodkoff for his expertise.
