Yesterday my Arts Editor and I attended the opening of an exhibition called Unknown Fabergé at The Museum of Russian Art. On display is just about everything except that for which Fabergé is best known – the famous eggs (although a video demonstrating the hidden wonders of several eggs is available to watch). Instead, we learn that, much like Louis Comfort Tiffany, the Fabergé workshop had a wide collection of artifacts for sale.
This item, possibly my favorite, is a three inch tall sedan chair done in precise, painstaking detail. This is the sort of thing I love: technically difficult detail which contributes artistically to the whole. The artifacts range from cigarette cases and door bells, clever picture frames, several quite lovely clocks (I admit to lusting after a triangular red specimen), to this tiny sedan chair, roughly life size in this picture.
The display is not perfect. Some of the signs are not as well-lit as they might be, and several were placed at a height of three feet, making reading difficult. I understand that a sign may not be affixed to a glass panel, but some other solution would have been better.
But this is a quibble. Those who love Fabergé, or just miniature detail work, should know this exhibit may not reappear for another 30 years in this area, so make your plans to visit TMORA before February 26, 2017, and enjoy yourself.
