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A Monthly Culture Matrix For the Cosmopolitan Traveler

Fabergé: Romance to Revolution


Victoria and Albert Museum / London / Art

The name was Favri in 17th-century France. As the French Protestant family traveled eastward, fleeing religious persecution, the name morphed to Fabri, Fabrier, Faberges, and finally, in 1825, to Faberge. When the goldsmith Gustav Faberge opened his store in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1842, he added the accent on the “e.” The name is now commensurate with jaw-dropping imagination and refinement—jewelry and objets made of precious metals and gemstones, enamel work of perfection, and, of course, the fairy tale Imperial Easter Eggs that were a standing annual order from the Russian Tsars. The house flourished under Carl Fabergé, Gustav’s son, and opened a London branch in 1903. This exhibition lays emphasis on the House’s Anglo-Russian connection. —L.J.

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Victoria and Albert Museum Cromwell Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW7 2RL, UK
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