For more than half a century, the descendants of American philanthropist and collector Matilda Geddings Gray preserved one of America's most distinguished groups of Fabergé and Russian Works of Art. Its sale at Christie's last week, in the Stream Family Collection auction, not only marked the end of a remarkable collecting chapter but also revealed a market willing to compete aggressively for rarity, provenance and beauty.
Text by Vickery Art
Last week, Christie’s New York presented A Treasured History: The Stream Family Collection, one of the most significant private collections of Fabergé and Russian Works of Art to come to market in recent years. Formed principally by the Louisiana collector and philanthropist Matilda Geddings Gray (1884–1971) and subsequently preserved by her descendants, the collection offered a rare glimpse into the golden age of American collecting, when masterpieces of Imperial Russian craftsmanship were still readily available to discerning buyers.ç
Matilda Geddings Gray was the driving force behind the Russian Works of Art section of the collection which included fine jewellery and other European works of art and objets de vertu. Acquiring works through Armand Hammer, Hammer Galleries and other leading New York dealers active between the 1940s and 1960s, Geddings Gray belonged to the same generation of American collectors who transformed the United States into one of the principal centres for Fabergé collecting. Alongside figures such as Marjorie Merriweather Post, whose collection is today housed at Hillwood Estate and Museum, and, somewhat later, Malcolm Forbes, she recognised the extraordinary artistic and historical significance of Fabergé at a time when many masterpieces were still accessible on the market.
Remarkably, unlike Post and Forbes, it appears that Gray may never have visited Russia. Yet she became one of a generation of American collectors who assumed stewardship of Imperial Russian cultural heritage during a period when the Soviet Union was actively dispersing works of art abroad. The Stream Family Collection stands as a testament to that phenomenon, preserving objects that might otherwise have been scattered or lost.
The results achieved at Christie’s were exceptional by any standards. The Russian Works of Art section, comprising only thirty three selected lots, realised $6.35 million against a combined high estimate of $3.02 million, achieving 210.5% of its aggregate high estimate. All thirty-three lots sold, resulting in a 100% sell-through rate. More strikingly, almost one-third of the lots achieved more than double their high estimates, demonstrating not merely enthusiasm for a handful of trophy objects but sustained competition throughout the section.
Fabergé hardstone flowers emerged as the strongest-performing category, accounting for almost 29% of the section’s total value despite representing only five of the thirty-three lots offered. Together they realised $1.83 million, more than double their collective high estimate. Their success confirms the continuing strength of the market for Fabergé’s most poetic creations, where technical mastery and naturalistic beauty combine to create objects that transcend the boundaries between jewellery, sculpture and decorative art.
Among the flowers, the pansy proved particularly desirable. A favourite flower of the Imperial family, immortalised in the Imperial Pansy Egg of 1899, the subject held special resonance for collectors. Gray herself owned four Imperial Easter eggs, making the flower’s appearance within the collection especially fitting. The subtle shading of the matte enamel petals demonstrates Fabergé’s unparalleled ability to imitate nature through precious materials.
A particularly rare and enchanting piece among this group is the hardstone cactus. Fashioned from carved nephrite with gold spines and accented by delicate rhodonite blossoms, it encapsulates the ingenuity and humour that characterise Fabergé at its finest. Estimated at $120,000–180,000, it sold for $406,400, illustrating the intensity of demand for exceptional hardstone studies.
The greatest surprise of the sale, however, was an apparently overlooked object: an Imperial Russian jewelled, enamelled silver, gold and rhodonite hand seal and stand engraved with the cypher of Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Nicholas II. Estimated at only $6,000–8,000, it realised $127,000, more than twenty times its low estimate. Little appears to be known about the piece – it does not appear to be marked - beyond its association with the heir to the Russian throne and its probable use as a personal ex libris for his private library in the early 1890s. Yet bidders clearly recognised a rarity whose historical significance far exceeded its estimate.
The highest-priced lot in the Russian Works of Art section was a magnificent Russian three-colour gold cup, cover and stand by David Rudolph of St Petersburg, presented to Count Saltykov and later acquired by Emperor Nicholas II. Realising $1.21 million against an estimate of $300,000–500,000, it demonstrated the enduring appeal of objects combining exceptional craftsmanship with Imperial provenance.
Many visitors know the Matilda Geddings Gray Collection through the treasures on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including three Imperial Fabergé Easter eggs: the Danish Palaces Egg, the Caucasus Egg and the Napoleonic Egg. Through the work of the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation and the stewardship of successive generations, the collection has become one of the most important legacies of American collecting in the field of Russian decorative arts.
The buyers who raised their paddles at Christie’s last week acquired more than beautiful and rare objects. They acquired fragments of a remarkable collecting story and tangible links to the splendour, upheaval and survival of Imperial Russian culture throughout the turbulent twentieth century.
