Edge Rewrite
restyle Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

Jump to content

Fabergé UK Limited

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Fabergé" redirects here. For other uses, see Fabergé (disambiguation).
Fabergé UK Limited (jeweller)
TypePrivate
IndustryLuxury goods
Founded2007; 19 years ago (2007)
FounderGustav Fabergé (1842), Peter Carl Fabergé, Tatiana Fabergé, Sarah Fabergé
Headquarters
London
,
United Kingdom
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Sergei Mosunov (Owner and CEO)[1]
ParentSMG Capital
Websitefaberge.com

Fabergé (French: Fabergé; Russian: Фаберже, Faberzhe) is a luxury jewellery house based in London.

First known for its Imperial Fabergé eggs, they became notable for the decorative objects and jewellery created for the Russian Imperial Court, and for other royal families, aristocracy and collectors.

Today, Fabergé UK Limited is headquartered on Buckingham Palace Road, London and creates fine jewellery with precious and semi-precious stones, time pieces and Fabergé eggs.[2]

The company has existed in some form since 1842.

Early History

[edit]
The first Faberge boutique outside Russia, at 173 Bond Street London, 1907.
The first Faberge boutique outside Russia, at 173 Bond Street London, 1907.

The House of Fabergé was founded in Saint Petersburg in 1842 by goldsmith Gustav Fabergé and later expanded under his son Peter Carl Fabergé, who assumed control of the firm in 1872.[3] Under Carl, Fabergé became one of the leading jewellery houses of Imperial Russia, producing jewellery, decorative objects and the Imperial Easter Eggs commissioned by Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II after being appointed Goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial Crown and establishing a relationship with the Russian royal family that would define the firm's international reputation.[4]

By the early twentieth century, the firm employed about 500 artisans and designers.[5] In 1903 it opened a London branch, its only permanent branch outside the Russian Empire, serving British royalty and an international clientele. The branch closed in 1917 following the disruption of trade during the First World War and the Russian Revolution.[4][6]

After the Revolution, Carl Fabergé's sons Alexander and Eugène established Fabergé & Cie in Paris, which continued until 2001. Separately, in 1937, American businessman Samuel Rubin registered Fabergé Inc., using the Fabergé name for perfume without the family's permission. Following a legal settlement with the family, Rubin retained the right to use the name and later sold the company.

Fabergé Inc. subsequently passed through several owners and was acquired by Unilever in 1989. Unilever expanded registration of the Fabergé trademark and licensed the name for jewellery, watches, decorative eggs and other products, including work produced by German jeweller Victor Mayer.[5]

In the early 2000s, Fabergé egg collector Viktor Vekselberg and business partner Brian Gilbertson had hoped to buy the Fabergé brand name from Unilever but their attempts failed.[7][8] In 2004, Vekselberg had purchased more Fabergé objects from the Forbes family leaving him with the most extensive Fabergé jewellery collection.[9]

In 2007, Pallinghurst Resources acquired Unilever's Fabergé trademarks, licences and associated rights for US$38 million and formed Fabergé UK Limited, beginning the modern history of the company.[10] [11]

Fabergé UK and Fabergé Heritage Council

[edit]
Tatiana (Tania) Fabergé
Tatiana (Tania) Fabergé was the head secretary of the CERN Theoretical Physics department from 1957 until her retirement in 1995, and member of the Fabergé Heritage Council from 2014.
Sergei Mosunov, Faberge UK Limited Owner.
Sergei Mosunov, Faberge UK Limited Owner and CEO, 2025.

Pallinghurst's aim was to restore Fabergé as the leading maker of luxury jewellery by reuniting the Fabergé brand with the Fabergé family. They engaged Tatiana Fabergé and Sarah Fabergé, great-granddaughters of Peter Carl Fabergé, and formed the Fabergé Heritage Council.[12] Prior to their appointments, Tatiana had been the founding secretary of the CERN Physics Department and Sarah had trained as a jeweller.

In September 2009, Fabergé UK Limited launched its first collection and in December they opened a boutique in Geneva. On 6 July 2011, the company launched two collections of egg pendants, including a dozen egg pendants. In 2011, Fabergé was offered in the Fine Jewellery Room at Harrods in London's Knightsbridge and Fabergé opened a boutique on Grafton Street in the heart of London's Mayfair area.[13] In May 2012, Fabergé opened a boutique on New York's Madison Avenue.[14]

In January 2013, Fabergé was sold to the gem mining company Gemfields for 142 million new shares in Gemfields plc, with a value of $90 million at completion of the transaction.[15]After the transaction, Gilbertson, Pallinghurst and its co-investors held some 74% of Gemfields. Other companies continued to try to use the Faberge name but were stopped.[16]

In November 2015, Fabergé won a Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève award, the 'Ladies Hi Mechanical' prize.[17] In 2017, Gemfields invited Ukrainian model Mariana Voinova to be an ambassador. [18][19] On 3 October 2017, Fabergé unveiled male and female ranges in its advertising campaign and in 2020 they created a $2 million collection called The Emerald Isle Collection in collaboration with The Craft Irish Whiskey Co., offering a range of jewellery and other items.[20]

In August 2025, Gemfields sold Fabergé to SMG Capital, an investment company owned by entrepreneur Sergei Mosunov, for approximately US$50 million. It signalled a return of the brand to a Russian-born owner. Residing in London, Mosunov founded RAIN Group, developing optical materials for infrared and ultraviolet use and manufacturing optical for fiber optical voltage meters, defence and other purposes.[21] Shortly after the acquisition, Mosunov, who is owner and CEO, announced plans to invest in developing new collections that would focus on quality and heritage.[22]

Fabergé has boutiques in London, Dubai and through a network of authorised retailers who sell Fabergé fine jewellery, time pieces and continues to create Fabergé eggs and gifts.[23] The British Royal Family continues to acquite Fabergé pieces with Queen Consort Camilla seen wearing earrings, pendants and brooches.[24] Celebrities who have worn contemporary Fabergé jewellery including Jenna Ortega, Shania Twain, Lewis Hamilton, Lucy Lui and Kim Kardashian.[25]

In 2025 Queen Camilla wore Fabergé jewellery for her 20th wedding anniversary to King Charles III of Britain, continuing the tradition set by royalty at the start of Fabergé's history.[26]

Cultural status, collections and museum exhibitions

[edit]
Sarah Fabergé with the Orange Egg.
Sarah Fabergé with the Orange Egg.
Faberge: Imperial Jeweler to the Tsars exhibit, 2009.
Faberge: Imperial Jeweler to the Tsars exhibit, 2009.
Faberge exhibition
Fabergé Museum, Saint Petersburg.

Fabergé has continued to be collected, referenced in popular culture, and is the subject of regular auctions and museum exhibitions. In 2009, a Fabergé museum was opened by Alexander Ivanov in Baden-Baden, formerly a spa destination for 19th-century Russian aristocrats. It houses an extensive collection of some 1,500 items including the Karelian Birch egg, made exclusively in 1917 for Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. The museum also owns one of the Constellation eggs, which Ivanov claims is the original finished piece, also purchased by the Tsar as an easter gift for his wife Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse).[27]

Businessman Malcolm Forbes stirred the imagination of his contemporaries in the 1980s having purchased his first egg in the 1960s and it was later reported that he owned a larger collection of Fabergé items, second only to Queen Elizabeth II.[28] Collector Matilda Geddings Gray, who died in 1971, passed her collection to a foundation so that it could be exhibited to the public. [29] The collection was on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art and at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville. The rare Imperial Napoleonic Egg and Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket from her collection were featured in the exhibition Fabergé Revealed at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.[29]

Fabergé eggs in popular culture are frequently metaphors for concepts such as the 'ultimate prize', such as in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy, where a Fabergé egg is the central object of the plot. In the 2004 film Ocean's 12, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and crew compete with another thief to steal a Fabergé egg from a European museum.[30] In the 2009 film Thick as Thieves, film stars Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas play thieves attempting to steal two Fabergé eggs from a heavily guarded vault. In the American animated series, The Simpsons, Fabergé eggs are featured in the episode 'The Last of the Red Hat Mamas' in which a group plans to rob Mr Burns of one million dollars worth of Fabergé eggs.[31] The American television personality Joan Rivers collected Fabergé jewellery and marketed copies on her television show from 1990 to 2014.[32][33] This was coined by Fabergé specialist Géza von Habsburg as Fauxbergé.[34] In the 2015 TV Series, Bull, an episode called 'A Fabergé Egg (1905)' is about shopkeeper Mr Richards who needs to restore his precious collection, but one of the eggs goes missing. [35]

Continuing its prominence, the hotel Bellagio hosted an extensive exhibition of Fabergé jewels in 2014.[36] Rare examples of Imperial eggs have contrinued to be auctioned over the years. [37]

In 2022, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London hosted one of the largest contemporary exhibitions of Faberge featuring over 200 objects in Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution. It included three eggs lent by the Kremlin Museums.[38]

In 2025, “The Winter Egg” of 1913, which had been thought to have been lost, was auctioned by Christies for £20 million. It was carved out of fragile rock crystal for the Romanovs.[39]

In 2026, Faberge celebrated 180 years since Peter Carl Fabergé's birth.[40]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ {{https://www.ft.com/content/b3ff4e78-f6e6-42eb-87b6-c61f763d11f7
  2. ↑ "Fabergé Official Website | Luxury Jewellery & Iconic Fabergé Eggs". FABERGÉ. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. ↑ "180 year anniversary". FABERGÉ. 2012-11-16. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  4. 1 2 McCarthy, Kieran (2017). Faberge in London: The British Branch of the Imperial Russian Goldsmith. Suffolk, England.: ACC Art Books Ltd. ISBN 9781851498284.
  5. 1 2 Snowman, A. Kenneth (1974). The Art of Carl Fabergé. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society.
  6. ↑ "Fabergé: The Sandringham commission · V&A". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  7. ↑ Butler, Ben (27 July 2014). "Caymans court lambastes former BHP chief Brian Gilbertson". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 25 August 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  8. ↑ Vardi, Nathan (8 June 2011). "Fighting A Russian Billionaire For The Faberge Brand". Forbes. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  9. ↑ Bennett, Will (5 February 2004). "Billionaire buys £50m Fabergé eggs for Russia". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  10. ↑ Coatsworth, Daniel (22 August 2013). "Fabergé revival and rubies to put a shine on Gemfields". Shares. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  11. ↑ "Persons with significant control". Companies House. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  12. ↑ "Fabergé Heritage Council – Preserving the Legacy of Fabergé Craftsmanship". FABERGÉ. 2026-06-25. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  13. ↑ DeMarco, Anthony. "Fabergé Returns to London after Nearly 100 Years". Forbes. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  14. ↑ Cranston, Matthew (2007-08-31). "Faberge eggs now in several baskets". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  15. ↑ "Pallinghurst up, to sell Faberge stake". Independent Online. 21 November 2012. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  16. ↑ Algar, Selim (12 March 2015). "Fabergé: Same-name eatery is still ripping us off". New York Post. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  17. ↑ Gwinnett, Giles (2 November 2015). "Fabergé takes prize at the 'Oscars' of global watch industry, says Gemfields". Proactive Investors.co.uk. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  18. ↑ "Ascending: Mariana Voinova became the face of a French brand". L'Officiel Baltic. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  19. ↑ "Model of the Week: Filip Wolfe". Models.com. Archived from the original on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  20. ↑ "The Emerald Isle Collection". Fabergé. 1 February 2020. Archived from the original on 9 April 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  21. ↑ "Fabergé Owner Speaks with the Financial Times About What's Next". FABERGÉ. 2025-11-14. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  22. ↑ "Fabergé's Russian owner hatches plan to revive brand". 2025-11-14. Archived from the original on 2025-12-20. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  23. ↑ "Fabergé: Luxury brand Fabergé sold to tech investor for $50mn". Financial Times. 11 August 2025. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  24. ↑ Saad719 (2025-02-14). "Queen Camilla's Fabergé Earrings". The Royal Watcher. Retrieved 2026-08-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  25. ↑ "Unwrap Timeless Luxury This Christmas: Fabergé Jewellery at W.E. Clark & Son". www.weclarkandson.co.uk. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  26. ↑ "HM Queen Camilla Wears Fabergé for 20th Wedding Anniversary". FABERGÉ. 2025-04-06. Retrieved 2026-08-13.
  27. ↑ "Fabergé Museum, Baden-Baden". Archived from the original on 28 August 2022. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
  28. ↑ Brown, Abram (Sep 19, 2017). "Jewels, Eggs and Empires: The Story Of Forbes And Faberge". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved 5 May 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. 1 2 "Fabergé from the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation Collection". 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  30. ↑ King, Susan (12 Dec 2004). "For 'Ocean's Twelve,' a museum-quality set". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 May 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  31. ↑ "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas". IMDb. Nov 27, 2005. Retrieved 5 May 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  32. ↑ "Joan Rivers Fabergé Collection". Fabergé. 23 June 2016. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  33. ↑ "Jewelry by Joan Rivers". Cellophaneland.com. 29 September 2014. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  34. ↑ "Fake Fabergé". KFabergé.com. Archived from the original on 16 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  35. ↑ "Bull: A Faberge Egg (1905)". IMDb. Oct 21, 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  36. ↑ Whitehair, Jennifer (18 November 2014). "All that glitters in Vegas is gold – Fabergé exhibit opens at Bellagio". Vegas.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  37. ↑ "FABERGÉ AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS". FABERGÉ. 2012-11-16. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  38. ↑ "Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution - Exhibition · V&A". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  39. ↑ "This rare Fabergé egg was thought lost for decades — now it could break auction records". www.ft.com. Archived from the original on 2025-12-31. Retrieved 2026-08-10.
  40. ↑ "Peter Carl Fabergé 180th Anniversary | Celebrating a Legendary Legacy". FABERGÉ. Retrieved 2026-08-10.

Sources

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
  • McCarthy, Kieran (2017). Faberge in London: The British Branch of the Imperial Russian Goldsmith. Suffolk, England.: ACC Art Books Ltd. ISBN 9781851498284.
  • Bainbridge, Henry Charles (1949). Peter Carl Fabergé – Goldsmith and Jeweller to the Russian Imperial Court – His Life and Work. London, UK: Batsford.
  • Birbaum, Franz P. (1992). Skurlov, Valentin V.; Fabergé, Tatiana (eds.). The History of the House of Fabergé according to the recollections of the senior master craftsman of the firm, Franz P. Birbaum. St Petersburg: Fabergé & Skrulov.
  • Faber, Toby (2008). Fabergé's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6550-9.
  • Fabergé, Tatiana; Proler, Lynette G. & Skurlov, Valentin V. (1997). The Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs. London, UK: Christie's. ISBN 090343248X.
  • von Habsburg, Géza (1987). Fabergé. Geneva: Habsburg, Feldman Editions. ISBN 0-571-15384-4.
  • von Habsburg, Géza (2004). Fabergé Treasures of Imperial Russia. Moscow: Link of Times Foundation. ISBN 5-9900284-1-5.
  • von Habsburg, Géza (2005). Fabergé Then and Now. Munich: Hirmer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7774-2635-8.
  • Hill, Gerald (2007). Fabergé and the Russian Master Goldsmiths. New York: Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-9970-0.
  • Snowman, A. Kenneth (1953). The Art of Carl Fabergé. London, UK: Faber & Faber. OCLC 780876554.
  • von Solodkoff, Alexander (1984). Masterpieces from the House of Fabergé. New York: Harry N. Abrahams. ISBN 0-8109-0933-2.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fabergé_UK_Limited&oldid=1369189640"