Who was Peter Carl Faberge?

By Gurman Bhatia | Updated: 5 June 2012 11:22 IST

Highlights

Peter Carl Faberge was a Russian jeweller known for his creations called the Faberge eggs.

If you have visited the Google homepage today, then you may have noticed the Google doodle, which honours Peter Carl Faberge. The doodle is created using famous Faberge eggs. But the question is - Who Peter Carl Faberge was?

Peter Carl Faberge was a Russian jeweller known for his creations called the Faberge eggs. The Faberge eggs are creations similar to Easter eggs, but are adorned with precious gemstones and metal rather than normal day to day things.

Born to Gustav Faberge, a jeweller himself, he carried forward the family legacy of jewellry making. The 'House of Faberge' a jewellry firm founded by his father in 1842 was taken over by Peter at the age of twenty four in 1870. Only after he took control of the company, it was able to get international recognition.

The House of Faberge became a name famous for its 'Imperial eggs' and came to be patronised by the Tsars and imperial court as well as other royal houses and aristocracy of Europe. This is also when Faberge's firm took a giant leap from being a mere jewellry maker to creating high art.

As for Faberge, he brought the art of enameling to technical perfection. His work relied on exquisite detailing and designing rather than carat weightage. He preferred to work on the essential appeal of the product. Faberge branched out from St. Petersburg in 1887 to establish a shop in Moscow, where he produced work in the traditional Russian fashion. Later on, significant pieces from Faberge's collection went on to be auctioned.

In St. Petersburg, there were a number of discrete workshops; each headed by a separate master goldsmith or jeweller known as a work master but Faberge's Moscow branch was managed as a more or less unitary workshop.

Faberge was also associated with Mir Iskusstva (World of Art), a movement founded in 1898. Members of Mir Iskusstva took particular interest in the applied arts, as well as in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Russian artistic movements. Prominent members of this association included Sergey Diaghilev, Alexander Benois, and Leon Bakst.

As Google honours this fine goldsmith and an artist par perfection, we admire him for his contribution to the world of art as well.

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Further reading: jeweller, St. Petersburg, Peter Carl Faberge, Easter, Google, Google Doodle, Gustav Faberge

Who was Peter Carl Faberge?

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