Lot 157: A silver-gilt table cigarette boxFabergé, workmaster Alexander Wakeva, St. Petersburg, retailed in Moscow, 1908-1917

Fabergé, workmaster Alexander Wakeva, St. Petersburg, retailed in Moscow, 1908-1917
the hinged rectangular box with bands of anthemion motifs to the stepped lid and base, the underside engraved 'Weihnachten (Christmas) 1908' with various signatures, 88 standard
height: 6cm (2in); width: 13.2cm (5in).

PROVENANCE:
Property of Countess Veronika Henckel von Donnersmarck

Among the seven engraved signatures is that of Mirbach, probably Count Wilhelm von Mirbach who would have celebrated his first Christmas as Counsellor to the German Embassy in St. Petersburg where he served until 1911. The other names appear to be Keyserlingk, Scharfenberg, Luxburg, Bray and two others.

Our thanks to the Foreign Office Archives in Berlin for confirming that the five men whose names match those engraved on the box were serving in 1908 at the German Embassy in St. Petersburg, either as career diplomats or on military secondments:

Wilhelm Freiherr von Mirbach-Harff (1871-1918)

Marineattaché Fregattenkapitaen Freiherr von Keyserlingk

Militaerattaché Major Torsten Graf von Posadowsky-Wehner (born 1864)

Dietrich von Scharfenberg Attaché (1882-1962)

Wilhelm Graf von Bray-Steinburg Legationssekretaer (1875-1953)