Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna: An Imperial Fabergé Two-Color Gold and Opalescent Pink Guilloché Enameled Diamond-Shaped Clock Fabergé, Workmaster Mikhail Perkhin, St. Petersburg, before 1896, with scratched inventory number 49813 5 x 5 inches (12.7 x 12.7 cm) 278 grams (gross) In original Fabergé fitted presentation case. PROVENANCE: Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna; Prince Vasili Alexandrovich, sold April 1949; Thelma D. Zane, thence by descent; Private Collection, California. EXHIBITED: Fabergé in America, 1996-1997, catalogue no. 23. LITERATURE: Geza von Habsburg (ed.), Fabergé in America, Thames & Hudson / Museum of Fine Arts San Francisco: New York, 1996, illus. p. 47. This diamond-shaped clock with an opaque white enamel ribbon, pearl bezel, and opalescent pink guilloché ground is the epitome of Fabergé's work in the Louis XVI revival style at the turn of the century. The inventory number confirms that the clock entered Fabergé's stock in 1894 and may have been a purchase by or a gift to Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna on her marriage in August of that year. This clock is confirmed by photographic evidence to have been in the collection of the Grand Duchess at least by 1900, when it appears in archival photographs of her boudoir in the Farm Palace at Tsarskoe Selo. The clock was possibly a favorite piece of the Grand Duchess Xenia, and it is evident that the clock went with her when she travelled -- it also appears in photographs of her rooms in the Salon of the old palace at Ai-Todor, Crimea (1902), and further in several images from 1911 taken in her sitting room or boudoir at her palace in St. Petersburg located at Moika, 104. The clock was therefore likely among the objects taken with the Grand Duchess when she left Petrograd for the south with her children on her 42nd birthday, April 6, 1917. The Grand Duchess arrived at Ai-Todor, where she joined her mother, the Dowager Empress, and her sister Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, who had been expelled from Kiev by the Provisional Government and sent to the Crimea. The Romanovs were placed under house arrest and were unable to leave until a British ship, the H.M.S. Marlborough, was sent by King George V to take them to Great Britain. Grand Duchess Xenia spent the rest of her life in England in a series of homes placed at her disposal by the British Crown. Though we do not know exactly when this clock was given to Prince Vasili by Grand Duchess Xenia it was likely a gift during his post-war November 1947 trip with his wife Princess Natalia and their young daughter, Princess Marina. It was after this trip that the Romanovs first felt the need to place their most valuable possessions in the Zane family's safe deposit in San Francisco. Heritage Auctions thanks Valentin Skurlov and Anna and Vincent Palmade for their assistance with the research of this lot. Property of a California Family HID03101062020 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

Recently given a conservation cleaning, original back replaced with synthetic "French ivory".

The clock in overall extremely fine original condition with minimal wear to cast and stamped frame, the original enamel surfaces with light regular wear consistent with age and use. No signs of replacements to pearl mounts. No visible signs of either damage or repair to surface enamel with the naked eye. No signs of damage to opaque white enamel.

Enamel of the clock face with three hairline cracks at 7, 6, and 5 o’clock descending fron central point,

Under UV light, no signs of restoration or repair.

Slight torquing and light distortion to gold wire strut consistent with age and use.

Marked clearly with multiple marks of Fabergé in Cyrillic, 56 zolotniki gold standard mark with St. Petersburg mark before 1899, and scratched inventory number to frame casing, and with hallmarks of Mikhail Perkhin to wire strut, back and edge of frame.

Original Box:

Original octagonal stained Viatka birch box has been conserved and reglued with minimal intervention and no refinishing or repolishing. Original interior silk and velvet lining intact, the lining of the lid with black staining from jeweler’s rouge applied to frame at some point in the past. One original ribbon remaining, a secondary reversible new ribbon installed by conservator to facilitate removal of clock from fitted lining.
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