Fabergé gold and enamel magnifying glass, workmaster Mikhail Perkhin (Michael Perchin), St. Petersburg, 1899-1903

Gold, glass (or rock crystal?), enamel, diamonds, moonstone

1/4 x 1 1/2 x 3 15/16 in. (6.9 x 37.8 x 99.5 mm)

Inv. no. ab_4750

Provenance: 

Forbes Collection (FAB80009)

Jeremy Grantham, Boston

Presented by Queen Mary (1867-1953) to her surgeon, Sir Russell Wilkinson, KCVO (1888-1968) 

Exhibited: 

New York, Forbes Magazine Galleries, circa 1980-circa 2001

Edinburgh, The Fine Arts Society, 8 – 31 August 1987; Aberdeen, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum, 5 –26 September 1987, Fabergé and the Edwardians, no. 87

Fort Worth, The Kimbell Art Museum, 25 June – 18 September 1983, Fabergé, The Forbes Magazine Collection, no. 49; also traveled to Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Fine Art, 22 November 1983 – 14 April 1984; Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 27 June - August 12, 1984

San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Fabergé in America: The Legacy of the Tsars, May 25 - July 28, 1996; also travelled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 12 - April 30, 1996; Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, August 24 - November 9, 1996; New Orleans, Fine Arts Museum, December 7, 1996 - February 8, 1997; and Cleveland Museum of Art, March 12 - May 11, 1997

Publications:

Solodkoff, Alexander von. Masterpieces from the House of Fabergé. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1984, p. 177.

Habsburg, Géza, ed. Fabergé in America. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996, no. 248, p. 245.

Forbes, Christopher and Robin Tromeur-Brenner. Fabergé. The Forbes Collection. New York: Lauter Levin, 2000, pp. 174-175, 285.