Lot 231: 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

According to the Foreign Office Archives in Berlin, most of the signatures belong to Germans serving in the German Embassy in St. Petersburg in 1908. 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 where he served until 1911. The other names identified appear to be Keyserlingk, Scharfenberg, Luxburg, Bray-Steinburg and Posadowsky-Wehner.

For a similar box, see Christie's Geneva, 10 May 1989, lot 88.