Fabergé and the Russian Crafts Tradition: An Empire's Legacy

This title accompanies an exhibition at Baltimore's Walters Art Museum that explores Russian decorative art collected by Henry Walters and Jean Liddell in the mid- to late 20th century. It begins with three scholarly yet accessible chapters that provide historical and artistic context on the Stieglitz and Polovtsov families, late 19th-century Russian art collectors and patrons. It then examines Alexandre Polovtsoff's life and career, especially as an émigré art dealer in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s, and imperial Russian jewelry during the Romanov dynasty (1613–1917). Independent decorative arts scholar Trombly describes and illustrates, in color and lavish detail, 73 objects, including icons, jewelry, tableware, porcelain, and enamel work. Most notable are two imperial Easter eggs—the Gatchina Palace Egg and the Rose Trellis Egg—commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II from the workshop of Peter Carl Fabergé and purchased by Henry Walters from Alexandre Polovtsoff in 1930. The book concludes with a short list of late 19th- to early 20th-century Russian enamel artisans, a brief bibliography, the Stieglitz-Polovtsov family tree, and a glossary of jewelry and enamel terms and Russian words.