Fabergé - Objects of Desire

by Cynthia Coleman Sparke

Monday 22nd November 2021

This talk is all about the London connections of the legendary St Petersburg jewellers, Fabergé.

Although the firm’s Russian sales ledgers disappeared, those of the London branch, which opened in 1903, document royal patronage and a ‘Who’s Who’ guide of Edwardian prosperity. 

 American heiresses and other prominent visitors flocked to Fabergé's London showroom, and this branch supplied jewellery to delight buyers on the Continent and even further afield. The role of the London business was really important and provides us, today, with insight into a pre-war society that was forever altered by the world events that followed.

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Cynthia Coleman Sparke is an independent researcher, author and lecturer on Russian pre-Revolutionary works of art, consulting regularly on Fabergé for auction houses. Having periodically grown up on and off in Moscow within a family of Russian art collectors, she was destined for a career in Russian art. Previously, Cynthia ran the Russian Department for Christie’s in New York and worked for Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington DC. This was followed by a restoration project at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, Nicholas II’s last residence. Her book Russian Decorative Arts was published in 2014 by the Antique Collectors’ Club. Cynthia now lives permanently in London. 

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