Russian Silver lapis lazuli basket Easter Egg pendant market HW Henrik Wigström (1862-1923)

Russian Silver lapis lazuli basket Easter Egg pendant market HW Henrik Wigström (1862-1923)

Signed: HW

Marked: 88

Size: 3.5 cm L x 1.5 cm diameter

weight 11.6g.

Carved lapis lazuli Easter Egg pendant. Gilt silver fittings and basket-shaped bottom part. Hallmarked with 88 Russian silver standard and makers mark on the fitting ring.

Henrik Wigström (1862-1923) – workmaster mark H.W.

– active 1903-1917

He inherited the Perkhin workshop after the death of his friend, and became the third and last senior workmaster responsible for most of the Tsar Imperial Easter eggs for the years 1904-1917. In the McFerrin Collection the Wigström workshop is represented by a two-sided Louis XVI Fire-Screen Frame with photographs of Tsar Nicholas and the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of a later vintage. Different colored golds depict the floral motives. The various colors are made through the addition of copper, silver, zinc, iron, etc., to form an alloy, for example, green gold is 75 parts of pure gold to 25 parts of silver. Further details on the alloys used by Fabergé can be gleaned from Lowes & McCanless, Fabergé Eggs: A Retrospective Encyclopedia (2001), 275.