Faberge, Peter Carl (1846-1920), Russian goldsmith and jeweler,
whose designs were so imaginatively conceived and opulently executed
that his work elevated jewelry to a decorative art level unequaled
since the Renaissance.

A descendant of Huguenot immigrants, Faberge was born in Saint
Petersburg.  Educated in Western Europe, Faberge took control of the
family jewelry business in 1870.  He rapidly gained a reputation as
a designer, working with precious and semiprecious stones and metals
and drawing on many styles, including Old Russian, Greek, Renaissance,
baroque, art nouveau, naturalism, and caricature.

His creations, displayed at the Pan-Russian Exhibition in Moscow
(1882), won him a gold medal; further honors followed.  He was
appointed goldsmith and jeweler to the Russian imperial court and
also to many other crowned heads of Europe.  At its peak his firm had
branches in Moscow, Odesa (Odessa), Kyiv, London, and Saint Petersburg
and employed some 700 people to produce its jeweled flower baskets,
gold-and-enamel Easter eggs, miniature animals, chalices, bonbonnieres,
jewelries music boxes and numerous other lavish objects.

The Russian Revolution ended Faberge's business in 1918.

Miguel de Mattos