Description:
This distinctive silver porte cigarette simulating the surface of molten gold was made in the Russian Imperial capital during the Romanov dynasty’s twilight years. With rounded corners to slip easily into one’s pocket, the samorodok surface (a nugget-like finish) was produced by heating the silver to just below melting point followed by rapid cooling. With a gilt interior and a gold-mounted cabochon ruby pushpiece.
Workmaster Gustav Lundell, St. Petersburg, 1908-17, stamped with the Cyrillic initials G.L.84, the Russian silver standard and the kokoshnik for St. Petersburg, 1908-17.
4 7/8 x 2 ¾ x 1/2 in. (12.4 x 7 x 1.3 cm.), sold together with a custom suede travel pouch from Italy.
Karl Gustaf Johansson Lundell, Fabergé Workmaster
Of Swedish descent, Lundell was born in Loppi, Finland in 1833. He has been listed as a goldsmith working in St. Petersburg and the head manager of Fabergé’s Odessa branch.
Nowhere else in the world was the cigarette- case more popular as a gentleman’s accessory than in Imperial Russia. Whether purchased for personal use or adornment, or as a gift, in gold, platinum, enamel or jeweled, it was the object of choice for men of aristocratic bearing. Tsar Nicholas II never traveled without a small collection cigarette-cases to be bestowed as Imperial gifts.
For similar samorokok cigarette-cases by Fabergé, including one by Lundell, see John Traina The Fabergé Case. New York, 1998, pp. 101-104.
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