Cleveland Museum of Art

Dish

House of Fabergé

Date

c. 1904–16

Medium

bowenite, silver

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The House of Fabergé specialized in the creation of little treasures intended as opulent personal gifts. In creating luxurious accessories for a desk or tabletop, Fabergé often used native hardstones such as multicolored agate and quartz, green nephrite, pink rhodonite, rock crystal, and pale green bowenite found in the Ural Mountains of western Russia. Fabergé's designers often paired hardstones with silver mounts, particularly in the Moscow workshop where the company's silversmiths were concentrated. Sometimes called "new jade," bowenite is actually considered a semiprecious gemstone. Though Fabergé obtained his supply from the Ural Mountains of Russia, bowenite is also the state mineral of Rhode Island.

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