A silver and bowenite paper weight
by Carl Fabergé

the oval bowenite weight surmounted with a highly naturalitisc silver study of anteater, the anteater has been
made through a lost wax casting. It was modelled in wax, cast in silver and then finished by hand.
The wax used is destroyed in the casting process. Fabergé employed professional sculptors
to carve these wax studies. Many of them were trained at the Baron Stieglitz School
and they worked in the design studio located on the top floor of Fabergé's premises
on Bolshaya Morskaya Street, St. Petersburg.

Bowenite weight measures 11cm by 5.4 cm

Workmaster: Karl Gustav Hjalmar Armfelt
St. Petersburg,
91 zolotnik silver stand,
inventory number ending: 4593

The Royal collection contains a similar paperweight with an oval piece of aventurine quartz
surmounted by a study of Vassilka the Borzoi. Vassilka, a gift from Alexander III and
Marie Feodorovna to King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra lived on the
Royal Estate at Sandringham (RCIN 40800).