Silver photo frame with guilloché enamel. Saint Petersburg. I.S. Britsyn. 1908-1917.

Master of the Faberge company I. Britsyn. Silver photo frame with guilloché enamel. St. Petersburg, 1908-1917. Silver, carving, blue guilloché enamel, beveled glass. Hallmarks: 84 samples, female head in a kokoshnik, facing to the right and code of the St. Petersburg Assay Office, workshop “BRITSYN”, “I.B”. Dimensions: height 10 cm, frame diameter – 9.8 cm, clear diameter – 5.8 cm O. Weight: 248 g. Britsyn Ivan Savelievich (1870-1952). Former employee of the Faberge company in St. Petersburg (“Our former employee.” From the notebook of Eugene Faberge - Tatiana Faberge Archive, Versonne, France). He passed the exam to become a goldsmith in March 1903 and opened his own enterprise, “Russian Enamel” (Malaya Konyushennaya Street, 12), where 10-15 people worked. The companys products were awarded a gold medal at the St. Petersburg Craft Exhibition in 1909. In 1910 – 1917 Ivan Britsyn repeatedly supplied his products to the courts of members of the imperial family and to the Cabinet of His Majesty. Ivan Britsyns products were in constant demand on the English market. He made products made of stone and purple, collaborated with A. Sumin. During the NEP period he had his own workshop (1923). Britsyns products are often exhibited at auctions at the worlds largest auction houses and are listed along with Faberge items. Britsyn managed to create his own creative style, unlike Faberge, the distinctive features of which are original shaping, large guilloche patterns of unexpected geometry and a more contrasting and “thick” palette of enamels. Cigarette cases with pale blue and white transparent enamel are considered Britsyns calling card. Britsyn, one of the few, besides Faberge, made table clocks. The revolution of 1917 interrupted the work of the extraordinary jeweler. Information about his work in the period 1924-1952. are very scarce, but it is known that Ivan Savelyevich continued to work in his specialty.