A silver and turquoise paper weight
by Carl Fabergé,

the chased and engraved silver snake curled around a large
turquoise matrix, its head raised ready to strike.

Workmaster Johann Victor Aarne,
St. Petersburg, 1896- 1904.

Provenance:

Wartski sold to a 'stranger' 19th April 1956,
Robert Strauss, sold Christies 9th March 1976, lot 27,
Wartski,
Mr & Mrs Nigel Broackes.

Exhibited:

Fabergé, 1846-1920,
Victoria & Albert Museum,
London, 1977,
number S15.

Illustrated:

Fabergé: Court Jeweller to the Tsars, G. von Habsburg &
A. von Solodkoff, (London, 1979), plate 103.

A comparable piece, from the collection of the Dowager Tsarina Marie Feodorovna,
in the form of two silver lizards opposing each other over a stepped block of lapis
lazuli is in the Peterhof State Museum- Reserve, (inv PDMP 58).