Flower Study of a Lowbush Cranberry or Lingonberry (c. 1885–1915): Art, History and Details

Flower Study of a Lowbush Cranberry or Lingonberry (c. 1885–1915) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This flower study depicts a lowbush cranberry or lingonberry. To achieve a naturalistic effect of ripening fruit, Fabergé varied the coloring of the berries. Some are made of chalcedony in hues of milky white to represent unripe berries, while others appear in deep reddish agate to represent ripe ones. Fabergé’s inspiration for his flower studies is said to have come from the floral brooches of precious stones that were made in the 1700s for Catherine the Great as well as from the Japanese art of flower arranging, known as ikebana. Fabergé’s flower studies were given as intimate gifts to friends by the tsarina and others in the court. She also liked to take them around to wherever the imperial family was residing as a reminder of spring during the harsh Russian winters.

Object facts

• Title: Flower Study of a Lowbush Cranberry or Lingonberry
• Date: c. 1885–1915
• Creator attribution: House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918)
• Culture: Russia, St. Petersburg
• Type: Miscellaneous
• Technique: chalcedony, jade, rock crystal, gold
• Dimensions: Overall: 11.5 x 4.8 cm (4 1/2 x 1 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1966.446

A detail from the museum

The stems of Fabergé’s flower studies are set into little basins carved from rock crystal to resemble pots of water.

Collection credit

The India Early Minshall Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hawley, Henry H. Fabergé and His Contemporaries: The India Early Minshall Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.
• Habsburg, Géza von, and David Park Curry. Fabergé in America. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996.
• Swezey, Marilyn Pfeifer, Caroline de Guitaut, and Joyce Lasky Reed. Fabergé Flowers. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Publishers, 2004.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.