A jeweler by birth and a manager by vocation. Carl Faberge was born in St. Petersburg in 1846 in the Russified French family, among precious metals and gemstones. He inherited his father's jewelry production and raised the family business to the unprecedented height. Karl received jewelry education in Germany, and economic education he got in France. Then he travelled around the world. He studied the art of working with precious metals from the Venetians, the skill of Saxon lapidary art artisans and French enamellers. At home, Faberge worked without pay as a restorer at the Imperial Hermitage. He brought up a taste for the works of old masters there. At the age of 26, young jeweler took up his father's business. While colleagues worked in the Renaissance, Rococo and Empire styles, Faberge turned to the Art Nouveau style. At various exhibitions, he examined new trends, and at the same time was on the scout for gifted jewelers. As a result, he gathered up to 500 craftsmen in his numerous workshops, and a bright talented artisan was in charge of each one. In 1882, at the All-Russian Art and Industry Exhibition in Moscow, Faberge products attracted the attention of royal persons - Emperor Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna. At the Nuremberg Exhibition of Fine Arts, copies of Scythian treasures were awarded with gold medal, and their creator gained the right to put the stamp of a two-headed eagle on his products. At an exhibition in France, Faberge received the Order of the Legion of Honor. “If the whole value of expensive items consists only in multitude of diamonds or pearls, then they are of little interest to me”, Faberge used to say. The master even worked with steel and tin to create his works of art. Thanks to Faberge, brooches made of Karelian birch, into which he imbedded diamonds, became fashionable.

"Faberge is the incomparable genius of our time" - Maria Feodorovna wrote so flatteringly about the master in a letter to her sister, Queen Alexandra of England. "Lefty of Petersburg" or "singer of graceful dreams" - among all those high-flown epithets, the jeweler himself preferred the capacious “the Imperial Court supplier”. It was not only Russian Imperial Court – the Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Spanish, English royal courts appreciated art items by Faberge. The master made decorative vase for Otto von Bismarck, jade wreath for the tomb of the Swedish king Oscar II, jade Buddha for the Siam court temple.

More details about the life of the unequalled artisan are in the section "Authors".
The section "Russian Metal Artworks" features works by Faberge that are stored in the museum Collection exposition. The lectures narrating about the prominent jeweler creative work "Carl Faberge: jewelry manager" and “The firms, Imperial Court Supplies’” are presented in the section "Lecture Course”.

Thematic photo album commemorating the 170th birth anniversary the jeweler “Masterpieces by Fabergé in the museum Collection exposition” is in our Photo Gallery.

Revised materials from the site “Культура.РФ”