Miniature Compote

1896

Miniature Compote, 1896. House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918). Silver, aventurine quartz; overall: 15.2 cm (6 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hiller-Borneman Collection 2022.111 The House of Fabergé specialized in the creation of little treasures intended as opulent personal gifts. In creating luxurious accessories for a desk or tabletop, Fabergé often used native hardstones such as multicolored agate and quartz, green nephrite, pink rhodonite, and rock crystal found in the Ural Mountains of western Russia. Fabergé's designers often paired hardstones with silver mounts, particularly in the Moscow workshop where the silver studios were concentrated. Pink aventurine is the rarest form of this type of quartz, which is most commonly found in an olive green form.