Copyright & Trademark Notice

After leaving Russia following the Revolution, the Fabergé family was scattered and had lost control of its business. The American oil billionaire Armand Hammer collected many Fabergé pieces during his business ventures in communist Russia in the 1920s. Konstantin Akinsha, writing in Art News, June 2004, says, “Hammer had been fortunate: in Moscow, he had received not only imperial Easter eggs and other objects but the stamps of the company with which every object made in the workshop had been marked.

Thus, he was equipped to produce Fabergé forgeries in America. ”

“In 1937, Hammer’s friend Samuel Rubin, owner of the Spanish Trading Corporation, which imported soap and olive oil, closed down his company because of the Spanish Civil War and established a new enterprise to manufacture perfumes and toiletries. He registered it at Hammer’s suggestion as ‘Fabergé Inc. ’

Eugene and Alexander two Fabergé sons who lived in Paris and ran a small workshop called Fabergé et Cie learned about the existence of Rubin’s company only after the end of World War 11 but their attempts to sue Rubin were unsuccessful.

According to documents in the Fabergé private archive which is in the care of Tatiana Fabergé the artists’ great-grand-daughter and research by Skurlov Eugene and Alexander didn’t have the money to hire American lawyers and agreed to a settlement proposed by Rubin who paid them $25 000 for the right to use the name. Rubin later sold his company to Unilever which now distributes the right to use the name of the jeweler to the czars.

Theo Fabergé was Carl Fabergé’s last grandson. Theo Fabergé designed exclusively for the St. Petersburg Collection. His products are © St. Petersburg Collection.

The sponsor mark ‘TF’ is registered to record Theo Fabergé’s work in precious metals. This continues the tradition of Carl Fabergé’s hallmark ‘CF’, which was first registered in London in 1911.

Theo Fabergé passed away peacefully on 20 August 2007 in his 85th year.

The complete history of Fabergé is presented in our St. Petersburg Collection book, titled Theo Fabergé and the St. Petersburg Collection. This book is not available in bookstores but is available wherever the Collection is available.