Fabergé, Peter Carl, 1846-1920

Abstract The collection represents portions of the extensive research library and archives formed by Christel Ludewig McCanless over forty years. A noted Fabergé scholar, McCanless published the first annotated bibliography of literature about Fabergé in 1994, the premiere encyclopedia about the Fabergé eggs in 2001, and founded the "Fabergé Research Newsletter" and "Fabergé Research" website in 2006. While dedicated to research about the artistry of Fabergé, McCanless' collection also includes...

Abstract The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt’s Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum’s permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price...

Scope and Contents This series is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and item descriptions that detail the purchases Pratt made from the Schaffer collection in the 1930s and 1940s. Correspondence between Alexander S. Schaffer, his wife Ray Schaffer, and Pratt discuss sales, payments, display cabinets, family matters, and books and articles he sent to Pratt about Russian history, war, and family matters. After 1944, some of the correspondence, invoices and item descriptions came from A La...

Scope and Contents This series is comprised of invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels and correspondence that document the purchases Pratt made from the Hammer Galleries in the 1930s and 1940s. The Lord and Taylor invoices are undated, but the item numbers match up with Hammer Galleries price tags, and the Galleries did present and sell their collection at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s (probably 1934 based upon letterhead from the item descriptions).Price tags were often...

Scope and Contents

This series is comprised of the few clippings that were found in the collection. As none of these particular clippings were mentioned in the correspondence directly, it’s possible that they did not originally belong to Pratt. The photographic copies of some of the articles were obviously made much later, but were retained as they may have been copies of articles Pratt once kept.