Footnotes

• Provenance
  Purchased at Wartski by private collectors
  Thence by descent
  
  The production of Fabergé's approximately eighty flower studies was a collaborative effort involving a variety of skilled artists at the firm from early designs, apparently executed by Carl Fabergé himself, to jewellery, stone carving, and gold work. They were exhibited as early as the All-Russian Industrial Exhibition in Moscow in 1882 where the combination of materials and use of native hard stones would have delighted visitors.
  
  Fabergé flower studies were cherished within the Imperial family with lilies of the valley finding particular favour with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. Similar examples are also preserved in the Royal Collection of Fabergé, formerly belonging to Princess Victoria and Queen Alexandra. The Victorian aristocracy would have been conversant with the language of flowers and the lily of the valley held special meaning with its ties to May, bridal purity, and as a first sign of spring following a seemingly endless Russian winter.