null

Faberge Chronology

1814 Birth of Gustav Fabergé in Pirnau, in the Baltic.

1842 Gustav Fabergé marries and opens a jewelry shop in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1846 Birth of Peter Carl Fabergé in St. Petersburg.

1860 The Fabergé family moves to Dresden, Germany, leaving the jewelry shop in the care of their friend Pendin.

1870 Peter Carl Fabergé takes over his father's shop. He starts the system of cooperating workmasters, which in succession has enabled Kollin, Perkhin, Wigstrom, and today VICTOR MAYER, to contribute to the Fabergé legacy.

1872 Peter Carl Fabergé marries Augusta Jacobs. Their four sons, Eugene, Agathon, Alexander, and Nicolas, all join their father's business.

1882 Peter Carl's younger brother Agathon Fabergé , born and raised in Dresden, joins the company. At the Panrussian Exhibition in Moscow, Fabergé wins the Gold Medal.

1885 Tsar Alexander III of Russia gives the first Imperial Easter egg as a present to the Tsarina, and appoints Fabergé the Imperial Goldsmith.

1886 Mikhail Perkhin (1860-1903) becomes head workmaster. Moscow branch opened.

1897 Fabergé is appointed Royal Goldsmith for Sweden and Norway.

1900 At the Exposition Universelle in Paris, both Peter Carl Fabergé and Victor Mayer are Exhibitors. Fabergé is named "Maitre" of Paris goldsmiths. Opening of Odessa branch.

1903 Fabergé opens London branch.

1906 Fabergé opens Kiev branch.

1910 Fabergé receives the title "Court Jeweler to the Tsars".

1916 The last pre-revolutionary Imperial Easter egg the so-called War Egg, is delivered.

1918 Murder of Nicholas II and his family. Bolsheviks close the Fabergé business. Peter Carl Fabergé flees Russia.

1920 Peter Carl Fabergé settles in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he dies on 24 September.

1924 Carl's sons Eugene and Alexander founds "FABERGÉ & Cie" in Paris. They try to continue the company, but lacking the genius of their father, they fail.

1951 The only surviving relatives of Peter Carl Fabergé decide to sell their rights to a company that can continue their legacy. The Fabergé family then merges with FABERGÉ, Inc. USA.

1989 Victor Mayer becomes workmaster of FABERGÉ. After a long search FABERGÉ finds a competent and highly qualified workmaster in the house of Victor Mayer, which was founded in 1890. The manufactory, managed by Dr. Herbert Mohr-Mayer, a grandson of the company's founder, has not only mastered the required techniques, but also fulfills the prerequisites of craftsmanship needed to continue - after a gap of seven decades - the life's work of Peter Carl Fabergé. The family-owned Victor Mayer GmbH & Co., as the world's only authorized workmaster, receives from FABERGÉ the right to mark approved limited edition designs with the workmaster symbol "VM" and the legendary signet "FABERGÉ".

1990 Official presentation of the first FABERGÉ collection by workmaster Victor Mayer in the Palais Montgelas in Munich, Germany.

1991 On the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, the first post-revolutionary FABERGÉ egg, made by the new workmaster Victor Mayer, is presented to Michael Gorbachev.

1996 Inspired by Antonio Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," Victor Mayer creates and egg for one season each year.

1999 The Millennium Egg is created.

2000 Based on the world-famous Pinecone Egg produced in 1900, Victor Mayer designs an extraordinary jewelry collection.

Random House / Grandfather Frost / Alaska Gallery

Russian American Company

1-800-742-6228