A Fabergé gold & champlevé enamel thimble, workmaster Feodor Afanasiev, Saint Petersburg, circa 1895, with original scratched inventory number 23993. Of traditional form, the upper half & top with hand-dimpled surface, the lower half with a Greek key design in turquoise blue champlevé reserving a rectangular cartouche engraved with initials. The interior with a partially obscured collection inventory mark or number in black. The small thimble possibly intended for a child or young girl. Struck with workmaster’s Cyrillic maker’s mark & 56 gold fineness standard.Height: 3/4 inches (1.9 cm); diameter of base: 5/16 inches (1.4 cm)
Provenance:
With A la Vieille Russie, New York
Sotheby’s New York, 8 December 1992, lot 484.
Exhibited: “Fabergé, A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of The Cooper-Hewitt Museum,” New York, A La Vieille Russie, 22 April-21 May 1983, no. 375.
Illustrated: Fabergé, A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of The Cooper-Hewitt Museum (NY:A La Vieille Russie, 1983), pp. 108-109, cat. no. 375.