Julius Alexandrovich Rappoport (1864-1916) was a senior workmaster of the House of Fabergé in Saint Petersburg from 1883 until the closure of his workshop in 1908. He held principal responsibility for the firm's silver work, including large presentation pieces, animal sculptures, table services and architectural objects, and was one of the most consequential of the seven principal workmasters who, with Carl Fabergé himself, defined the output of the firm during its great period under Imperial patronage.

Training and entry to Fabergé

Rappoport was born in Mitau, Courland, in the Russian Baltic provinces. He trained as a silversmith in Berlin and entered Fabergé's employ around 1883. He soon became the firm's specialist for silver larger than small fittings and bibelots, and his Saint Petersburg workshop on Yekateringofsky Prospekt produced silver items in volume for sale through the Fabergé shops in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Kyiv and London.

Workshop output

Rappoport's silver covered the full range of Fabergé production. Large presentation pieces commissioned for state and corporate occasions in the 1890s and early 1900s were almost always made in his shop. Silver hardstone animal sculptures, in which Saint Petersburg lapidaries cut hardstone bodies that Rappoport's silversmiths fitted with mounts, eyes and bases, became one of the firm's signature lines and were popular with both the Russian Imperial family and foreign clients. Table silver, candelabra, kovsh-form vessels in the Russian historicist style, and a great variety of cigarette cases and accessories also passed through his shop. Fabergé objects bearing Rappoport's mark, the Cyrillic letters I.P. or his name in full, are now among the most easily attributable Fabergé works in the trade.

Imperial patronage

The largest and most significant Rappoport commissions were Imperial. He produced silver wedding presents for grand ducal marriages, silver presentation pieces commissioned by the Tsar from Fabergé for foreign sovereigns, and many of the silver-mounted objects that were part of the Imperial Easter Egg series, even though the eggs themselves were generally finished by Mikhail Perkhin or Henrik Wigström. His shop also handled most of Fabergé's silver work for the Coronation of Nicholas II in 1896.

Closure and final years

Rappoport closed his workshop in 1908 and retired, leaving the senior silver responsibility within Fabergé to other workmasters. He died in 1916, before the closure of the parent firm during the Russian Revolution. His mark on a Fabergé silver piece is one of the most reliable indicators of pre-1908 production and is therefore an important dating tool for collectors and auction-house specialists.

Significance

For the trade today Rappoport is significant as the silversmith behind a large proportion of surviving Fabergé silver, including many of the firm's most important large presentation pieces. His mark is well documented and his style is identifiable, which makes his output unusually well-charted by comparison with the more variable attribution of much pre-Revolutionary Russian silver. Pieces firmly attributed to his shop carry a serious premium when offered with documentation at auction and are a key reference for what the firm could achieve in silver during its great Imperial period.