Miniature Bathroom Chair (Bidet) (1908–17): Art, History and Details

Miniature Bathroom Chair (Bidet) (1908–17) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Henrik Wigström (Russian, 1862–1923); House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918).

The work and its context

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

The giving of small precious objects as intimate gifts between family members within the imperial court was spurred by the House of Fabergé's seemingly endless supply of bejeweled utilitarian objects decorated as expensively as possible, such as this stamp moistener disguising as an exquisite miniature bathroom chair (bidet) in the Louis XVI taste of the late 1700s.

Object facts

• Title: Miniature Bathroom Chair (Bidet)
• Date: 1908–17
• Creator attribution: Henrik Wigström (Russian, 1862–1923); House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918)
• Culture: Russia, St. Petersburg
• Type: Miscellaneous
• Technique: gold, nephrite, enamel, pearls
• Dimensions: Overall: 8.3 x 3.5 x 4.5 cm (3 1/4 x 1 3/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1966.455

A detail from the museum

The seat of this miniature bathroom chair cleverly opens to reveal a small compartment probably containing a damp sponge or ball of cotton to moisten stamps on a desk.

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.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

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.