orig. Karl Gustavovich Fabergé
born May 18, 1846, St. Petersburg, Russia
died Sept. 24, 1920, Lausanne, Switz.
Russian goldsmith, jeweler, and designer.
Educated in Europe and England, he took over his father's jewelry business in St. Petersburg in 1870. The objects he designed quickly won him the patronage of European and Russian royalty. Specializing in gold, silver, malachite, jade, lapis lazuli, and gemstones, he manufactured not only conventional jewelry but objects of fantasy, much of it inspired by the decorative arts of the Louis XVI style . He opened workshops in Moscow, Kiev, and London and became most famous for his jeweled Easter eggs for Alexander III and Nicholas II . His workshops were shut down after the 1917 revolution, and he died in exile.