Cover for a Miniature Teapot

1886–96

Cover for a Miniature Teapot, 1886–96. Mikhail Evlampievich Perkhin (Russian, 1860–1903), House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918). Gold, bowenite; The Cleveland Museum of Art, The India Early Minshall Collection 1966.479.b 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, rock crystal, and pale green bowenite found in the Ural Mountains of western Russia. Fabergé's designers often paired hardstones with gold mounts, particularly in the St. Petersburg workshop where the goldsmiths were concentrated. Sometimes called "new jade," bowenite is actually considered a semi-precious gemstone. Though Fabergé obtained his supply from the Ural Mountains of Russia, bowenite is also the state mineral of Rhode Island.