{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O152852"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O152852/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BR3027/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BR3027/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2007BR3027","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BR3028","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O152852/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O152852","accessionNumber":"M.5:1,2-2017","objectType":"Sturgeon and case","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Carl Fabergé used many types of hardstone to make lively and humorous depictions of animals for an aristocratic clientele. Queen Alexandra assembled a celebrated collection and her husband King Edward VII commissioned Fabergé to produce models of the favourite animals at Sandringham. Fabergé's London branch sold about 250 models of animals between 1907 and 1917.","physicalDescription":"Sturgeon carved in banded agate with rose-cut diamond eye.\nRectangular case of varnished light-coloured wood with rounded corners.   The lid has a concave groove running around its top  edge.  The base has a  bevilled edge.  Lid lined with cream-coloured silk, discoloured and probably  marked by an adhesive label no longer present.  Silk printed with double- headed eagle of Imperial Warrant in black above St Petersburg, Moscow,  London in Cyrillic letters.  Fitted base of cream-coloured chamois leather,  possibly later.  Brass catch.  A case made for Fabergé, but probably not for  this object.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Faberge","id":"A7330"},"association":{"text":"goldsmith","id":"AAT25319"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"agate","id":"AAT11135"},{"text":"diamond","id":"AAT11084"},{"text":"silk (textile)","id":"AAT243428"},{"text":"chamois","id":"AAT32341"},{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"stone setting","id":"x34787"},{"text":"stone-cutting","id":"AAT54080"},{"text":"joinery","id":"x36614"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved agate and rose-cut diamond.\r\nWooden  case lined in silk and chamois leather","categories":[{"text":"Jewellery","id":"THES48930"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2007BR3027","2007BR3028"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"91","id":"THES49703"},"free":"","case":"56","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"013","id":"THES412321"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Sturgeon","id":""}],[{"text":"case","id":"THES251008"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Russia","id":"x29110"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"Russia","id":"x29110"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca.1910","earliest":"1905-01-01","latest":"1914-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from Nicholas Snowman and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2017","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"67","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"18/07/2017","earliest":"2017-07-18","latest":"2017-07-18"},"part":"sturgeon","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"16","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"18/07/2017","earliest":"2017-07-18","latest":"2017-07-18"},"part":"sturgeon","note":""},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"34","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"04/09/2017","earliest":"2017-09-04","latest":"2017-09-04"},"part":"case","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"94","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"04/09/2017","earliest":"2017-09-04","latest":"2017-09-04"},"part":"case","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"52","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"04/09/2017","earliest":"2017-09-04","latest":"2017-09-04"},"part":"case","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Captioned as being in 'Queen Alexandra's Collection', Henry Charles Bainbridge, Peter  Carl Fabergé (London, 1949),  plate 86.\r\n\tExhibited and published: Fabergé Hofjuwelier der Zaren, Munich, 1986-7, no. 341.\r\n\r\n\tThis is one of twelve objects presented from the Kenneth and Sallie Snowman  Collection by their son, Nicholas.  Eleven were given in 2017 under the Cultural Gifts  Scheme administered by HM Government.  The twelfth, a ring with a cameo of  Elizabeth I, was given through the Art Fund in 2016.\r\n\r\n\tKenneth Snowman (1919-2002) was described on his death by Terence Mullaly as ‘one  of the last leading representatives of the London art market’s golden age’.  His father,  Emanuel Snowman, married the daughter of Morris Wartski, a pedlar in North Wales  whose talents made  him the owner of a Rolls-Royce with shops in Bangor and Mostyn  Street, Llandudno, the ‘golden half-mile’ which was said to boast more royal warrants  than anywhere outside London.   In 1927 Emanuel made his first purchases of works of  art sold by the Soviet Government, the foundation of Wartski’s pre-eminence as an  international dealer in Fabergé.  Kenneth remembered seeing them laid out on the  mantelpiece and bookshelves of the morning room of their house in Hampstead.   Aiming at first to be an artist, Kenneth studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art, and  earned a fee in 1939 through his illustrations, drawn more from Gray’s Anatomy than  from life, for the best-selling Technique of Sex written by Elliot Philipp under the  pseudonym of Anthony Havil.  He exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Paris Salon,  but a bazaar at which Sallie Moghi-Levkine (1919-95) presided over the tombola had  introduced him to the love of his life and in due course the need to find a more reliable  income.  He joined the family firm and, making full use of Sallie’s Russian, brought to  Fabergé scholarship a new energy and authority.  \r\n\r\n\tIn an interval at the Royal Opera House on 7 January 1976 he sketched out for Sir Roy  Strong a plan for the Fabergé exhibition he curated at the V&A to celebrate the Silver  Jubilee, a legendary success which had 150,000 visitors queuing down the Brompton  Road, brought the hot-dog sellers over from the Science Museum, and inspired  exhibitions across Europe and North America.  Wartski became famous for its  scholarship, exhibitions and books.  Kenneth Snowman’s eminence as an authority on  Fabergé carried him into a short story by Ian Fleming, The Property of a Lady, later  incorporated in the plot of the film Octopussy.  James Bond ‘looked Mr Snowman  straight in the eyes’ and said “Will you give me a hand?”.\r\n\r\n\tKenneth Snowman wrote with even greater affection and no less authority on gold  boxes.  Eighteenth-Century Gold Boxes of Europe, first published in 1966, was revised  in 1990.  One of the great influences on Fabergé’s work was Johann Christian Neuber  (1736-1808), court goldsmith at Dresden, and two examples of his work are included in  Nicholas Snowman’s gift. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Banded agate with rose-cut diamond, Fabergé, Russia, ca. 1910, with case","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["M.5:1-2017","M.5:2-2017"],"accessionNumberNum":"5","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":2017,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Previous loan number","id":"THES50326"},"number":"LOAN:SNOWMAN.33-2003"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Sturgeon","Case"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-18","recordCreationDate":"2008-04-17","availableToBook":false}}