Our Spotlight on Russian Jewelers, showcasing the many talented artisans of Imperial Russia continues with Vladimir Finikov. Many of the House of Bolin’ workmasters in St. Petersburg were of European or Swedish descent. Finikov, Bolin’s chief jeweler was native to Russia and a brilliant jeweler, designer and silversmith. In jewelry he worked with large baroque pearls enhanced with lines of…
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1906-The Beginning of the End
It was 1906 when two of Russia’s greatest jewelers…. by now the patriarchs of the trade, Carl Fabergé on the left and Edvard Bolin on the right, got together to bid. Yes! They joined forces secretly on an enormous quantity of imperial gemstones, the finest in the land. The crème de la crème came from Treasury no 2 of the Imperial…
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Stellar St. Petersburg Jeweler: Sophia Schwan
This star sapphire brooch is by a brilliant St. Petersburg jeweler named Sophia Schwan. Sophia Ivanovna (active 1898–1917) was a workmaster of the Court jeweler Bolin of Russia. Bolin sold the finest jewels in the Russian empire in the 19th century and was the most expensive jeweler in the land. Sophia was the widow of Robert Schwan, a goldsmith who worked…
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Difficult to Pronounce…
Is the name of Leopold Pfisterer, a leading 18th century St Petersburg jeweler, but feast your eyes on the master’s glittering creations. Jeweler to the Empress of All Russias Catherine the Great, for as long the monarch reigned, some 30 years, Pfisterer produced magnificent treasures some of which are still preserved in the Diamond Fund of the Moscow Kremlin. A…
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Behind Every Great Man…
Enter Catherine I, the first in a line of five Empresses of Russia in the 18th century whose reign, beginning in 1725 would mark the dawn of the Romanov Dynasty’s glorious age of jewels and diamonds. Catherine was overshadowed by her husband Tsar Peter the Great, the mighty sovereign who founded St. Petersburg. Yet the story of Catherine I who…
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A Rare Find: A Russian Aquamarine Necklace and Ring Parure
The parure (a French word for jewelry set) was still the height of fashion not only in London, Paris and Vienna, but also in the courts of St. Petersburg, at the turn of the 20th century. It often consisted of a necklace, bracelet, pair of earrings, a ring, several brooches and, for the grand ones, a tiara. While several examples…
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