Among the pieces of Fabergé bringing competition at last week’s Russian art sales in London was this c.1909-13 silver vodka cup offered at Sotheby’s.
The figure is modelled on Mikhail Antonovich Gurie, the Swiss manager of Carl Fabergé’s St Petersburg flagship shop from 1900-18.
Affable, energetic and multilingual, Gurie would deliver objects to the Russian court and Emperor Nicholas II would consult him on purchases. Empress Maria Feodorovna referred to him as ‘my little Gurie’.