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Fabergé Sedan Chair

September 28, 2019

Faberge Sedan ChairThe House of Fabergé is best known for the elaborate jewel-encrusted eggs that were designed for Russian Tsars, but they also created an amazing line of jewelry and other objects. Recently, a model of a sedan chair, made of gold, jadeite, crystal and pearl sold at an auction in the UK; it was part of the series known as Jewelled Objets de Fantasie produced by Faberge. These objects are extremely rare; it is believed that less than 10 sedan chairs were made by Faberge and only a few are thought to still exist.

Originally the tiny sedan chair, just 6 x 3.5 inches, was made for the Russian royal family but was sold off after the 1917 Communist revolution. Shortly thereafter, it ended up with Wartski, a London antique dealer, and was sold to a collector in 1929 for just £75 (that would be about £3,000 today). The chair was consigned to an auction house by the descendants of the original purchaser, where it received a pre-sale estimate of £60 -100,000. The piece drew the attention of 6 bidders, all but one on the phone; when the hammer finally came down the new owner paid £380,000 [£480,000 ($591,000) w/p]. I bet the family had quite a celebration!

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