A Fabergé gold & guilloché enamel pendant egg, Eduard Kortman, Saint Petersburg, circa 1885. The egg enameled translucent red over an engine-turned ground beneath a gold profile of an officer’s parade helmet of His Majesty’s Life Guards Cuirassiers Regiment, the reverse of the egg engraved with the Cyrillic monogram AN & the reverse of the helmet engravedin Russian 25 years (25 let). Height: 1 1/8 in. (2.8cm).
St. Petersburg jeweler Johann-Eduard Kortman (1843-1903) produced jeweled awards for the Imperial court & was a supplier to Fabergé. His workshop on Nevsky Prospect was known for skilled engraving & guilloché work, as was advertised on the firm’s fitted boxes. After his death in 1903, the business passed to his associates A. Grinberg & K. Prokofiev, who continued to work using Kortman’s maker’s mark up until March 1918. His mark is frequently confused with that of Erik Kollin, who died in 1901. On Kortman, see T. Muntyan & I. Komarov, “Kortman ili Kollin? K voprosu o rasshifrovke kleima ‘E.K.’ [Kortman or Kollin? On the question of differentiating the maker’s mark ‘E.K.’],” Antikvarnoe obozrenie 2005, no. 2, pp. 58-61.