{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O152865"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O152865/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BR3025/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2007BR3025/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2007BR3025","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BR3026","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O152865/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O152865","accessionNumber":"M.8:1,2-2017","objectType":"Seal","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":"Obsidian seal with rose-cut diamond eyes.\r\nRectangular case of varnished wood with  rounded corners.  The lid has a concave groove  running around its top  edge.  The base has a  bevilled edge.  Cream-coloured silk inside lid with  double-headed eagle of Imperial Warrant printed  in black above St Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa (Odesa) in Cyrllic letters.  Fitted base of yellowish cream- coloured velvet.  Brass catch.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Faberge","id":"A7330"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"obsidian","id":"AAT11254"},{"text":"diamond","id":"AAT11084"},{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"},{"text":"silk (textile)","id":"AAT243428"},{"text":"velvet","id":"AAT133711"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"stone setting","id":"x34787"},{"text":"joinery","id":"x36614"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"carved obsidian and rose-cut diamonds\r\nWood, silk, velvet","categories":[{"text":"Jewellery","id":"THES48930"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2007BR3025","2007BR3026"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"91","id":"THES49703"},"free":"","case":"56","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"013","id":"THES412321"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Seal","id":""}],[{"text":"case","id":"THES251008"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Russia","id":"x29110"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1880-1915","earliest":"1880-01-01","latest":"1915-12-31"},"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":"25","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"seal","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"77","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"seal","note":""},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"39","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"case","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"62","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"case","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"63","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"case","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Exhibited and published: Fabergé Hofjuwelier der Zaren,  Munich, 1986-7, no. 321\r\n\tOn loan from the Kenneth and Sallie Snowman  Collection from 2003 until made a Cultural Gift by  Nicholas Snowman, 2017\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.  \r\n ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Obsidian seal with rose-cut diamonds, Fabergé,  Russia, 1880-1915, and wooden case","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["M.8:1-2017","M.8:2-2017"],"accessionNumberNum":"8","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":2017,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Previous loan number","id":"THES50326"},"number":"LOAN:SNOWMAN.41-2003"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Seal","Case"],"assets":["2019LW6747"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-18","recordCreationDate":"2008-04-17","availableToBook":false}}