Faberge, Peter Carl (1846-1920),
Russian goldsmith and jeweler, whose designs were so imaginatively conceived and opulently executed that his work elevated jewelry to a decorative art level unequaled since the Renaissance.

A descendant of Huguenot immigrants, Fabergé was born in Saint Petersburg. Educated in Western Europe, Fabergé took control of the family jewelry business in 1870. He rapidly gained a reputation as a designer, working with precious and semiprecious stones and metals and drawing on many styles, including Old Russian, Greek, Renaissance, baroque, art nouveau, naturalism, and caricature. His creations, displayed at the Pan-Russian Exhibition in Moscow (1882), won him a gold medal; further honors followed.

He was appointed goldsmith and jeweler to the Russian imperial court and also to many other crowned heads of Europe. At its peak his firm had branches in Moscow, Odesa (Odessa), Kyiv, London, and Saint Petersburg and employed some 700 people to produce its jeweled flower baskets, gold-and-enamel Easter eggs, miniature animals, chalices, bonbonnières, and numerous other lavish objects. The Russian Revolution ended Fabergé's business in 1918.