Turtle Bell Push (c. 1895–1915): Art, History and Details

Turtle Bell Push (c. 1895–1915) 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:

In creating luxurious accessories for a desk or tabletop, Fabergé often used native hardstones such as multicolored agate and jasper, green nephrite, pink rhodonite, and rock crystal found in the Ural Mountains of western Russia. By paying careful attention to the unique colors and textures of the stones, Fabergé and his craftsmen brought them to life, turning milky agate into this turtle bell push or black jasper into sleeping puppies. The use of native materials also promoted Russian nationalism, which appealed greatly to the tsar and his family.

Object facts

• Title: Turtle Bell Push
• Date: c. 1895–1915
• Creator attribution: House of Fabergé (Russian, 1842–1918)
• Culture: Russia, St. Petersburg
• Type: Miscellaneous
• Technique: agate, gold, silver, diamonds, rubies
• Dimensions: Overall: 2.6 x 7.7 x 6.1 cm (1 x 3 1/16 x 2 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1966.473

A detail from the museum

To summon the butler, a quick push on the turtle's head would ring the bell downstairs.

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.
• Fabergé, Peter Carl, and Deborah E. Horowitz. The Fabergé Menagerie. Exh. Cat. Baltimore: The Walters Art Museum, in association with London: Philip Wilson Pub, 2003.

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.