Sotheby’s announces the November sale of £1 million worth of Fabergé and other personal objects from the Russian Royal family (a variety of Grand Dukes and Duchesses) that had been lost for 91 years in the Swedish legation. Sotheby’s doesn’t explain how these personal effects found their way to Stockholm. (The cigarette cases still contain tobacco and cigarettes from 1918.) The rage for Imperial items has raised the value of these objects while they slumbered in storage. Here’s the Sotheby’s press release:
Deposited at the Swedish Legation in November 1918, the month Sweden broke off diplomatic relations with the Russian revolutionary government, the existence of the trove was unknown for ninety one years and recently surfaced among diplomatic holdings in Stockholm. Sotheby’s has now been asked to sell this collection, which represents one of the most important groups of objects with Romanov provenance to be offered at auction in recent times. It is expected to realise in the region of £1 million. The sale of this previously unknown and private collection will comprise around 100 lots of cigarette boxes and an extraordinary array of cufflinks, including many fine pieces of Fabergé, that bear ciphers, Imperial inscriptions and coats of arms and even photographs of the Vladimirs and their immediate family. Estimates for the objects in the auction – several of which are in immaculate condition – range from £80-120 up to £4,000-6,000 for a set of cufflinks, and for a cigarette box from £700-900 up to £70,000-90,000.
