Description A RUSSIAN GOLD CIGARETTE CASE, ST PETERSBURG, 1908-1917...

Description

A RUSSIAN GOLD CIGARETTE CASE, ST PETERSBURG, 1908-1917

The surface with sunburst and diagonal reeding, with cabochon sapphire thumbpiece, struck with maker's mark in Cyrillic 'CB' (in English, it would be 'SV'), possibly by Fabergé workmaster Sergei Verkhovtsev, marked 56 zolotnik-gold standard for 14K gold, width 9.2cm, length 6.4cm, depth 1.6cm

Reference: Encyclopedia of Whos Who in the House of Faberge by Will Lowes and Christel Ludewig McCanless, page 191

Occasionally a Fabergé piece will bear the initials of a workmaster that cannot be confidently identified. The initials CB on the gold cigarette case are possibly attributed to Sergei Verthovtsev. A gold cigarette case sold at Christies New York in 1998, it was stamped with initials CB and their catalogue suggests Verthovtsev as the workmaster. However, Von Habsburg, Fabergé (1987) states CB was a workmaster for Fabergés rival, jeweller Karl Karlovich Hahn. Karl Bok was also thought to have used the initials CB and another possible creator of this piece was an artist called Ekaterina Yakovlevna Aleksandrova. She was the wife of François Birbaum, studied at the Baron Stieglitz Central school of applied arts and later worked for Fabergé.