The richly diverse display of Faberge and other Russian decorative arts tells a story of imperial and modern patronage, artistic production and its sources, and connoisseurship in a new, thematic organization at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The newly reinstalled Faberge gallery will showcase the full range of holdings bequeathed to the museum in 1947 by Fredericksburg patron Lillian Thomas Pratt, from her well-known jeweled imperial eggs to a humble copper ashtray made just before the Russian revolution. Among featured recent gifts will be an impressive silver ceremonial vessel and a group of colorful enamels in the Old-Russian style donated by Mrs. Rita Gans of New York. Many of the objects on display, including Mrs. Pratt's jeweled icons and a seldom-seen bread-and-salt tray, have been restored to their original splendor, and the new Faberge gallery promises as many surprises as a traditional Easter egg hunt.
Funding for the renovation of the Faberge gallery has been made possible by Mr. and Mrs. T. Fleetwood Garner, Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Cabaniss, Jr., and Mrs. Elizabeth Golsan Schneider. Additional funding has been received from The Council of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Fund. Schwarzschild Jewelers is the corporate sponsor.

Reproduced on the front of this bookmark: A Frame of nephrite, gold, and silver, with an ivory back (51/2 by 23/4inches) Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Bequest of Lillian Thomas Pratt, 47.20.320 Fabergé and Henrik Wigström, the talented workmaster in charge of numerous imperial commissions, signed this delicate frame of rich green stone, enlivened by multihued metals. Within the frame, a stairstep photograph captures the last Czar's children. Grand Duchess Olga, the firstborn child, is at the top, followed by Tatiana, Marie, Anastasia, and finally yhe youngest of all, Czarevich Alexis. © Virginia Museum of Fine arts, Richmond

MR. AND MRS. PRATT BELIEVED WEALTH SHOULD BE USED FOR PUBLIC GOOD

LARGEST PUBLIC FABERGÉ COLLECTION WILL GO BACK ON VIEW IN RICHMOND

MUSEUM PUBLISHES BOOK, VIDEO ABOUT FABERGÉ AND PRATTS