An Imperial desk seal by Carl Fabergé,

the handle naturalistically carved from a single piece of brown agate in the form of an owl,
its eyes set with rose diamonds, with chased gold claws, stood on a gold mount enamelled
translucent pink over an engraved ground, with a circular uncut gold seal.

Contained in its original silk and velvet lined fitted hollywood case, the lid silk stamped
'Fabergé, St .Petersburg, Moscow, London' in Cyrillic beneath the Imperial warrant.

Workmaster: Fedor Afanassiev,
St. Petersburg, 1908-1917,
inventory number 20183,

Height 2.7 cm.

Provenance:

Purchased by the Dowager Tsarina Marie Feodorovna from Fabergé
in St. Petersburg on 15th April 1910 for fifty-five roubles

Exhibited:

Fabergé Hofjuwelier de Zaren,
at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung,
Munich, 1986-1987, number 212.

Fabergé-Cartier
at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung,
Munich, 2004, number 261.

Provenance:

HRH Thyra, Princess of Denmark, The Crown Princess of Hanover,
Duchess of Cumberland and Teviotdale,

HRH Princess Olga of Hanover and Cumberland, Princess of Great Britain
and Ireland, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Ernest Augustus  IV Prince of Hanover, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick,

 HRH Monika, Princess of Hanover, Countess zu Solms-Laubach.