Fabergé Jewelled Smoky Quartz Bunny Rabbit

St Petersburg, circa 1900

A rare smoky quartz model of a rabbit by Fabergé, carved with humour in the Japanese taste after a netsuke. The bunny stands on its hind legs, nose raised to the air, its eyes set with rose-cut diamonds in gold. Apparently unmarked, and contained in its original Fabergé burr-wood case. A small carving with a distinguished royal provenance, passing through Wartski and the collections of King Paul of the Hellenes, Robert Strauss and Lord Thomson of Fleet.

With the Antikvariat, 1920s; Wartski, London, 1920s; King Paul of the Hellenes; Sotheby's, London, 25 November 1957, lot 103; Robert Strauss; his sale, Christie's, London, The Robert Strauss Collection of Works of Art by Carl Fabergé, 9 March 1976, lot 34; Lord Thomson of Fleet; Wartski, London; private UK collection; André Ruzhnikov, from whom acquired by the present owners, August 2020.

G. Munn, Wartski: The First Hundred and Fifty Years, 2015, p. 81, illustrated.

Fabergé's hardstone animals were particularly prized by the British royal family, whose collection at Sandringham remains the largest. Royal provenance of this calibre is uncommon among them.