Fabergé Miniature Silver Recumbent Cow on Nephrite Base, Russia

Eastern Europe, Russia, Imperial Russian. A miniature cast silver cow lies at rest on a polished slab of spinach-green nephrite, its head turned toward the viewer. The silversmith chased the hide in fine, directional strokes that follow the animal's form, ruffled into a curly forelock between the curved horns and smoothed across the haunches. One foreleg is tucked under, hooves and dewclaws are crisply finished, and the tail curls over the hind leg. The bevel-edged hardstone base shows the black mineral flecks typical of Siberian-type nephrite. The silver bears a kokoshnik assay mark with the 84 zolotnik standard and a Cyrillic Faberge mark under the Imperial double-headed eagle, with a French swan import mark on the right leg. It was made as a desk or cabinet ornament, in the tradition of the naturalistic animal studies that the Faberge firm made popular. The marks reported on this piece follow the Russian hallmarking system. Russia introduced the kokoshnik mark, a woman's head in a traditional headdress, in 1896, and it became standard from 1899. A head facing left, as here, belongs to the period before 1908, when the mark was changed to face right. The number 84 gives the fineness in zolotniki, meaning 84 parts of pure silver in 96, or about 87.5 percent. A Cyrillic "K. Faberge" stamped beneath the Imperial double-headed eagle is the mark of the firm's Moscow branch. That branch opened in 1887 and made much of the house's silver. The eagle refers to the firm's Imperial Warrant as Purveyor to the Court. The small swan in an oval is a French customs mark. From 1893 France struck it on imported silver from countries that had no hallmarking agreement with France. It shows the piece passed through French customs and entered the French market at some point after it was made. Item # 205726

Estimate:£301.42

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