Bell Push

Description

This bell push sat on a dressing table in a wealthy household to summon a servant during the Gilded Age around 1900. Life "below stairs" wasn't as easy as movies and television have portrayed it. Servants could be summoned at all hours of the day and night, interrupting their work, and causing disruption at the whim of the wealthy owners or their guests. The House of Fabergé became the most celebrated Russian supplier of such luxury goods as servant bell pushes. As court jeweler to the Russian imperial family, the Fabergé firm created jewels and luxurious accessories both for the tsar and the Russian state as well as other European royalty and aristocrats.

Provenance

India Early Minshall [1885–1965], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art (?-1966); The Cleveland Museum of Art (1966-)

Bell Push

House of Fabergé

c. 1895–1915

Accession Number

1966.472

Medium

silver gilt, enamel, bowenite, cabochon sapphire

Dimensions

Diameter: 3.5 x 5.8 cm (1 3/8 x 2 5/16 in.)

Classification

Miscellaneous

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

The India Early Minshall Collection