Elephant Bell Push
Cat. no. 87
Workmaster: Henrik Wigström (1862-1923)
St. Petersburg, 18961908
Opal, jade, gold, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, enamel
The Cleveland Museum of Art, The India Early Minshall Collection

This little elephant with its trappings is not an exercise in exoticism by Fabergé, but a reference to the Danish Order of the Elephant, one of the oldest orders of chivalry, founded in 1462. The wives of Edward VII of England and Alexander III of Russia were Danish, daughters of Christian IX, and it is presumed that Fabergé employed this symbolism on objects intended for Danish members of the family.

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