{"id":27744,"date":"2026-09-23T11:54:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T11:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=27744"},"modified":"2026-09-23T11:54:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T11:54:53","slug":"in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberge-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-later-it-resurfaced-in-a-family-attic-and-sold-at-auction-for-a-record-5-2-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=27744","title":{"rendered":"In 1934, a New York collector bought a Faberg\u00e9 figure tied to Russia\u2019s imperial court; nearly 80 years later it resurfaced in a family attic and sold at auction for a record $5.2 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-134432540,imgsize-389540,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-later-it-resurfaced-in-a-family-attic-and-sold-at-auction-for-a-record-52-million.jpg\" alt=\"In 1934, a New York collector bought a Faberg\u00e9 figure tied to Russia\u2019s imperial court; nearly 80 years later it resurfaced in a family attic and sold at auction for a record $5.2 million\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A tiny figurine connected to Russia\u2019s last imperial family spent nearly eight decades hidden from public view before emerging from a New York attic and selling for $5.2 million at auction.<!-- --> The hardstone figure, created by the Faberg\u00e9 workshop in 1912, depicts Nikolai N. Pustynnikov, a personal Cossack bodyguard to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Emperor Nicholas II. It was discovered in 2013 in an attic in Rhinebeck, New York, decades after it had been purchased by an American collector in 1934.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"3\"\/>When the seven-inch figure was finally offered at Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York, on October 26, 2013, it had an estimated value of between $500,000 and $800,000. <!-- -->After around 15 minutes of intense bidding, however, the hammer price reached $5.2 million, setting a record for a Faberg\u00e9 hardstone figure at auction at the time. Including the buyer\u2019s commission, the total was reported at about $5.98 million.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>From Russia\u2019s imperial court to a New York attic<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>The figure dates to the final years of the Russian Empire, when Faberg\u00e9 produced highly detailed hardstone portraits of people and character types associated with imperial Russia.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>Pustynnikov served as a Kamer-Kazak, or Chamber Cossack, for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The bodyguards were non-commissioned officers taken from the Cossack regiments. Pustynnikov was born in the Cossack city of Novocherkassk, northeast of the Black Sea. He began his military service in 1876 and faithfully served Empress Alexandra from the time of her marriage to Emperor Nicholas II in 1894 until the Russian Revolution.<!-- --> Being appointed to attend a member of the Imperial family was a great honour and brought tremendous privileges. He was a highly esteemed servant who was closely identified with the Empress.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/>In 1912, Emperor Nicholas II commissioned the figure of Pustynnikov for his wife, together with one of his brother&#8217;s Cossacks, Andrei Kudinov, Kamer Kazak, as a gift to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Henry Bainbridge, Faberg\u00e9\u2019s agent in London and biographer, wrote: &#8220;The Tsar Nicholas II commissioned Faberg\u00e9 to make stone models of these guards. <!-- -->They were to be portraits from life, the two Cossacks attending at the Faberg\u00e9 studios where they were modelled in wax.<!-- -->&#8220;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"21\"\/>Faberg\u00e9 says the figure was one of an exceptionally rare group of lifelike hardstone figures that attracted the attention of Emperor Nicholas II. The company says estimates have placed the number of such figurines produced at between 60 and 80, although Tatiana Faberg\u00e9, in &#8216;Faberg\u00e9: A Comprehensive Reference Book&#8217;, considered the actual number to be considerably lower.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/>Portrait figures showing identifiable historical people are rarer still. Faberg\u00e9 notes that these works are considered comparable in rarity to the famous Imperial Easter Eggs.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"26\"\/>The Pustynnikov figure itself is particularly distinctive. The design for the figure of Pustynnikov dated 31st January 1912 is contained in the design album of Faberg\u00e9\u2019s Chief Workmaster Henrik Wigstr\u00f6m. Although the production of the figure was supervised by Wigstr\u00f6m, it was probably carved by either, Derbyshev or Kremlev, the master lapidaries. They<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"28\"\/>worked from a wax model produced by the sculptor Boris Fr\u00f6dman-Cluzel. <!-- -->According to an art-market report, the seven-inch statuette features a coat made from nephrite and jasper, with gold and enamelled orders and medals. The boots bear Cyrillic inscriptions identifying Faberg\u00e9, the year 1912 and Pustynnikov\u2019s position as a Kamer-Kazak dating back to 1894.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"32\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Nearly 80 years out of sight<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>The figurine had already travelled a remarkable distance before reaching the attic. After the 1917 Revolution, the Imperial family&#8217;s possessions were confiscated and the two Chamber Cossack figures ended up at Pavlovsk Palace. <!-- -->By 1925, the Pustynnikov figure had been sold to American industrialist and art dealer Armand Hammer, who later brought it to the United States. Hammer later sold it to George H. Davis, a Faberg\u00e9 collector, in New York in 1934.<!-- --> After that transaction, the object eventually disappeared from public view.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"38\"\/>For decades, its whereabouts remained unknown. The trail was finally picked up when the piece was found in the attic of a deceased descendant of the collector in Rhinebeck. <!-- -->Importantly, the discovery was accompanied by documentation, including receipts that helped establish its history and connection to the 1934 purchase. That provenance helped transform what could have appeared to be an old decorative object into an important piece of Russian imperial art.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"42\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>A record-breaking auction<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>The discovery came at a time when Faberg\u00e9\u2019s rare hardstone figures were already attracting major interest from collectors. <!-- -->The previous auction record for a hardstone figure was $1.8 million, achieved at Sotheby\u2019s in New York in 2005 for a figure depicting a boyar.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"47\"\/>The Pustynnikov figure more than doubled that price. The $5.2 million hammer price also demonstrated the premium attached to works that combine rarity, craftsmanship and a documented connection to the Romanov court. The figure was eventually purchased by London jeweller and Russian art dealer Wartski, which has a long history of dealing in Imperial Russian works of art.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"51\"\/>What began as a forgotten object in an Upstate New York attic therefore turned out to be a surviving fragment of the final years of Imperial Russia, carrying with it a trail that stretched from Faberg\u00e9\u2019s workshop and the imperial court to a 1934 New York sale and, nearly 80 years later, one of the most remarkable antique discoveries to reach auction.<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/world\/us\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-later-it-resurfaced-in-a-family-attic-and-sold-at-auction-for-a-record-5-2-million\/articleshow\/134432375.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A tiny figurine connected to Russia\u2019s last imperial family spent nearly eight decades hidden from public view before emerging from a New York attic and selling for $5.2 million at auction. The hardstone figure, created by the Faberg\u00e9 workshop in 1912, depicts Nikolai N. Pustynnikov, a personal Cossack bodyguard to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l-150x150.avif","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l-300x169.avif","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/in-1934-a-new-york-collector-bought-a-faberg-figure-tied-to-russias-imperial-court-nearly-80-years-l.avif"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"A tiny figurine connected to Russia\u2019s last imperial family spent nearly eight decades hidden from public view before emerging from a New York attic and selling for $5.2 million at auction. 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