On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Imperial Lilies-of-the-Valley Basket
House of Carl Fabergé
Workmaster: August Wilhelm Holmström
This basket is considered the most important Fabergé piece in the United States and the highest achievement of the workmaster August Wilhelm Holmström. It consists of nineteen individual stems decorated with pearls and diamonds and was presented to Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna (wife of Czar Nicholas II) on the occasion of her visit to the Pan-Russian Exhibition in 1896. The czarina treasured it not only because the lily-of-the-valley was one of her favorite flowers but also because, in the language of the flowers, it symbolizes domestic happiness and conjugal bliss.
[Wolfram Koeppe, 2011]
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