Fabergé style silver-gilt, enamel, and glass caviar server

This small but beautiful lidded server is crafted in the manner of Fabergé. The server is comprised of a glass body, an inner glass liner, and a lid, the surfaces throughout ornamented with guilloché enamel and exquisite silver-gilt mounts.

The spheroid body, open at the top, is formed from finely cut faceted glass. The open top of the glass body is mounted with a silver-gilt foliate frieze and a silver-gilt bounded guilloché enamel disc, into which sits the glass liner, the rim of the liner encompassed by a corresponding silver-gilt mount. This liner is designed to hold caviar and is sealed by an ornately detailed lid. The lid, the surface of which is decorated with beautiful turquoise guilloché enamel and occasionally inset with precious stones, is extensively mounted with silver-gilt elements, including, most strikingly, a finial in the form of a sturgeon—the sturgeon being the source of caviar.

The piece is marked with ‘88’, designating 91.6% silver, and an illegible maker’s mark.