Wartski

Wartski, in Grafton Street, Mayfair, London, are jewellers that have held royal appointments as Jewellers to H.M. the Queen and H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. They sell silver and works of Russian art; Wartski are particularly known for having sold many of Carl Fabergé's Imperial Russian Easter eggs. The firm was founded in Bangor, North Wales by Morris Wartski in 1865, and moved to the seaside resort of Llandudno, where the Marquess of Anglesey was the best customer and David Lloyd George was engaged as the firm's lawyer. Wartski expanded with a showroom in London in 1911, where the firm was patronised by the connoisseur Queen Mary; it remains a family-held business.

Emanuel Snowman, Wartski's son-in-law, travelled to the U.S.S.R. from 1925 to negotiate the purchase of former Romanoff jewels and "objets d'art" from the "Antiquariat" set up to attract essential foreign currency. His son, (Abraham) Kenneth Snowman (1919-2002), wrote standard works, "The Art of Carl Fabergé" (1953), followed by "Carl Fabergé: Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia" and "Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe" (1966), written at the urging of Sacheverell Sitwell. As a curator, Snowman organised the exhibitions of Febergé at the Victoria and Albert Museum (1977) and at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York (1983). He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1994 and appointed CBE for his services to the arts and to charitable institutions in 1997.

References

* [http://www.wartski.com/ Wartski.com]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20020812/ai_n12631328 "The Independent", Aug 12, 2002 : Obituary of Kenneth Snowman]