Fabergé treasures donated to V&A from collection of former Wartski chairman

The V&A has been awarded a clutch of Fabergé treasures from the estate of Kenneth Snowman, the well-known collector of works by the Russian jeweller and former chairman of jewellery dealer Wartski.

• Laura Chesters
  
• 20 Mar 2017

The nine works by Carl Fabergé and two by the eighteenth-century goldsmith, Johann Christian Neuber, have been donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) by son Nicholas Snowman, from the Kenneth and Sallie Snowman Collection under the tax-saving Cultural Gifts Scheme. In a separate presentation, via the Art Fund, a rare enamelled ring mounted with a cameo of Elizabeth I has been donated.

Kenneth Snowman, who died aged 82 in 2002, and his wife Sallie had an extensive Fabergé collection.

The gift is a coup for the V&A as there are very few Fabergé items held in British public collections.

The V&A said the Fabergé works “constituted a major benefit to the study of European jewellery in the UK”.

Snowman published his first book on Fabergé in 1953 and the V&A said these nine objects “reflect a career of fifty years as scholar, dealer and curator”. For a time he was chairman of the family firm, jewellery dealer Wartski's. His father, Emanuel, had married the daughter of Morris Wartski, who established the firm in Llandudno in 1865.

"Devoted to the V&A"

The donor, Nicholas Snowman, son of Kenneth, said: “In 1977 my father curated a major Fabergé exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum to honour the Queen's Silver Jubilee. He was devoted to the V&A.”

He said following the latest donation the V&A now “possesses the most significant public collection of Fabergé in Britain and its important collection of gold boxes has been enriched enormously.”

Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, said: “Nicholas Snowman’s Cultural Gift is the most important donation of Fabergé ever made to a British public collection and will greatly enrich the V&A’s jewellery holdings. It is an act of great generosity and cultural philanthropy.”

The Cultural Gifts Scheme was introduced by the Government in 2013 as an initiative to encourage donations to UK public collections in exchange for tax-savings. The scheme offers tax relief at 30% of the valuation of a donated item, which can be offset against their capital gains or income tax.

The acceptance of the 11 objects under the Cultural Gifts Scheme will generate a tax reduction of £615,000.