Flower Study of a Miniature Lily of the Valley (c. 1885–1915): Art, History and Details

Flower Study of a Miniature Lily of the Valley (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:

A small, carved rock crystal vase holds this lily of the valley study. The pearls, forming the flower’s buds, are drilled and attached to the remarkably slim gold stem. The hand-cut nephrite (jade) leaves enhance the naturalistic aura of the flower. 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.

Object facts

• Title: Flower Study of a Miniature Lily of the Valley
• Date: c. 1885–1915
• Creator attribution: House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918)
• Culture: Russia, St. Petersburg
• Type: Miscellaneous
• Technique: pearls, jade, rock crystal, gold, diamonds
• Dimensions: Overall: 5.1 x 2.3 cm (2 x 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1966.445

A detail from the museum

Small and delicate, Fabergé’s flower studies were given as intimate gifts to friends by Tsarina Alexandra and others in the court. She kept them in all the palaces as a reminder of spring during the harsh Russian winters.

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.