Lot 107: A FABERGÉ SMOKY QUARTZ, GOLD AND ENAMEL LIQUEUR GLASS, WORKMASTER ERIK KOLLIN, ST. PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1890

A FABERGÉ SMOKY QUARTZ, GOLD AND ENAMEL LIQUEUR GLASS, WORKMASTER ERIK KOLLIN, ST. PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1890 the bowl formed from carved and polished smoky quartz, the stem set with a gold ducat enameled in translucent red and opaque white, the flared circular foot with horizontal reeding marked with workmaster's initials, Fabergé in Cyrillic, and 56 standard. With fitted wood box. height 3 1/2 in. 8.9 cm Workmaster Erik Kollin, St. Petersburg

Although Erik August Kollin (1836-1901) was one of Fabergé's earliest workmasters, his designs, especially for small cups or tumblers, evince a refreshingly modern sensibility. This liqueur glass, for example, relies on simplified lines and circles to highlight the enameled coin that serves as part of the stem. The coin itself is one of the many "Utrecht [Dutch] ducats" illegally minted in Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. On Kollin's work, see Géza von Hapsburg, Fabergé: Imperial Craftsman and His World, London, 2000, pp. 150-151.

A la Vieille Russie, New York