Saturday Sparkle: A Magnificent Fabergé Brooch, 1900

Brooch
Fabergé, circa 1900
Possibly acquired by Queen Alexandra while
Princess of Wales
The Royal Collection

The Royal Family collected many, many brooches by Fabergé over the years. All of them were very carefully logged into the inventory of the Royal Collection—except one. This brooch with a large, bluish cabachon chalcedony set into a frame of green enamel leaves, rubies and rose-cut diamonds has no records and is not mentioned in any of the inventory lists.


The brooch’s reverse is engraved with the mark of Fabergé, and stylistically, it dates to circa 1900. However, no one is quite sure how it came into the Royal Collection. I’m always quick to point toward the greatest collector of them all, Mary of Teck. But, historians feel that this was the one brooch Mary didn’t get hold of first. Circumstantial evidence points to Queen Alexandra who probably bought this brooch as a little present for herself while she was the Princess of Wales. Obviously, she failed to mention it to anyone.