AN IMPORTANT JEWELED AND GUILLOCHÉ ENAMEL TWO-COLOR GOLD IMPERIAL PRESENTATION...

Rectangular with rounded corners, the gold body enameled in translucent apple green over a sunburst guilloché ground, the hinged cover centering a rose-cut diamond-set Imperial double-headed eagle, the sides of the cover and body wrapped with chased green gold laurel bands, with a diamond-set thumbpiece, marked inside cover and base; in the original red leather fitted Fabergé presentation case
35⁄8 in. (9.2 cm.) wide
6 oz. 4 dwt. (193 gr.) gross weight

Provenance
Acquired by the Imperial Cabinet of Emperor Nicholas II from Fabergé for 500 roubles on 10 August 1910.
Presented by Emperor Nicholas II to Carl Christian Ludwig Pagenkopf (1841-1916), a representative of the Indo-European Telegraph Company, on 18 August 1910.
Acquired from Wartski, London, in 1933 and gifted to Margot Emma Metcalfe (1907-1995).
By descent in the family.

Lot Essay
This magnificent guilloché enameled gold cigarette case by Fabergé, decorated with the Imperial double-headed eagle and preserved in its original red leather case, was an important Imperial presentation gift. It was given by Emperor Nicholas II to Carl Ludwig Pagenkopf (1841-1916), a representative of the Indo-European Telegraph Company, in August 1910. The original Fabergé invoice for the cigarette case with the scratched inventory number ‘8092’ survives and records its purchase price at 500 roubles, a substantial sum, considering that an average price for a gold Fabergé cigarette case ranged between 200 and 300 roubles.

Carl Ludwig Pagenkopf served in St. Petersburg as a representative of the Indo-European Telegraph Company, a private British company operated by the Siemens Brothers, whose telegraph network linked London with Tehran and Calcutta. Following the successful laying of the first international submarine telegraph cable between England and France in 1851, Siemens Brothers went on to establish the Indo-European Telegraph Company in 1868. The company completed a remarkable 6,900-mile land and submarine telegraph route that revolutionized communications across Europe, Russia, and Asia.

Born in Prussia, Pagenkopf moved to London in the 1860s, possibly to work for the Siemens Brothers Telegraph Works, before later representing the Indo-European Telegraph Company in St. Petersburg. In 1910-1911, he played an important role in overseeing agreements between the company and the Russian and Persian governments concerning the operation and maintenance of telegraph lines in northern Persia, including the Tehran-Meshed and Meshed-Khaf routes. It is likely that the present cigarette case was presented by the Imperial Russian Court in recognition of his contribution to these negotiations.

Construction of the Indo-European Telegraph line began in 1868, and the system became operational in April 1870 with the message transmission time of 28 minutes. The Siemens family involved their three manufacturing companies, in Berlin, St. Petersburg and London, and used their close relationships with the telegraph companies in Prussia and Russia to facilitate the concessions in those countries for the line. The Indo-European Telegraph line remained in operation until 1931, with some sections continuing to function until the end of the 20th century.

An almost identical Fabergé gold cigarette case in red enamel was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 25 November 2014, lot 426. We are grateful to Dmitry Krivoshey for his assistance with the research of the present lot.