Fabergé style gold, nephrite, and bloodstone flower model

This beautiful objet d’art is a Fabergé style flower model. In this instance, the model represents four daisies, utilising precious materials as substitutes for plant matter in a highly successful enactment of trompe l’oeil—the artistic endeavour by which the eye is fooled. The flower of each daisy is crafted from yellow and white hardstone, with a single diamond at the centre of each flower head serving as the stigma. The stem of each daisy is wrought from chased gold, while the leaves and the undersides of the flower buds are carved from nephrite. The entire bundle sits within a beautifully carved veined bloodstone vase, the effect of which is to cause us to believe what we see is not simply inorganic material but the material of a living bundle of flowers.

Famed jeweller Karl Fabergé is best-known today for the Imperial Easter Eggs he produced for the Russian court, but he and his company also designed and manufactured several other types of pieces. Chief among these was the series of hardstone flower models, after which the present piece follows, which he began producing in the 1880s for several important clients across Europe and America.

The model is stamped on the chased gold stem of one daisy with a spurious 'Fabergé' mark in Cryllic script, in addition to two other indistinct marks.