Sit, Sit

pull up a chair.

this one-suits-

that dress.

A book?
This one-

or this one?
Better, I think.

Malachite is a powerful design element at the moment. Just ask the Romanovs-Faberge was working it up for them into all sorts of baubles for years and years.

The Russians have been tinkering with malachite for centuries-

I've always loved malachite-a tiny little frame was given me by clients-some of my first and dearest-sadly at the moment it's in a drawer in oh-so many pieces-and needs repair.

This frame is actually inspired by one of Faberge's imperial designs- a recent find-(on etsy)- it only lacks the perfect picture.

The Malachite Room in the Winter Palace, designed by Alexander Briullov in the late 1830's.

The Malachite Room rendered by Ukhtomsky Konstantin Andreyevich

The great Russian Imperial Lapidary Workshops at Peterhof created this urn for George IV- a gift from Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, consort of Nicholas I. It was dropped off via the Russian Ambassador Prince Lieven in 1827. Like anything new-George placed it in one of his newest rooms-to best advantage-in the central bay window of The Crimson Drawing Room at Windsor.

A book of fairy tales by Russian Pavel Bazhov, The Malachite Casket, written in 1939, is one of the best loved of all the Russian children's fairy tales. The tales are set around Ural mining stories.Sergei Prokofiev took the most beloved of Bazhov's tales and composed the ballet The Tale of the Stone Flower. In the story Bazhov's Mistress of Copper Mountain reigns over the precious stones of the Urals-and has little use for mortals unwilling to yield to her powers-but a young carver Danila has lessons to teach the great Mistress-

  Every day Danila went to the woods looking for inspiration and observing many flowers and plants. He worked for a long time and at last completed a vase like the one in the sketch. When he showed it to the other craftsmen, they liked it and praised it. But Danila said, "This vase is made precisely according to the sketch, but there is no living beauty in it. When you look at the simplest flower, joy fills your heart because of its beauty. Where is there such beauty in the stone?" . the story unfolds here

 Russian malachite boxes ( above & below) & from Yale Burge.

 I fantasize about a perfectly carved malachite box and that fairy story-with its happily ever after ending-but not without its perils. It's quite comforting to know the Mistress of Copper Mountain could not prevail over true Love-nor could she ever make me part with my most recent malachite find. You're sure to see masses of malachite now that we've open that box. Be careful about too much of it though-and get a good piece-we don't all have the windows of the Crimson Drawing Room at Windsor or a palace like The Hermitage.



 the chair is covered in a Tony Duquette for Jim Thompson fabric, the dress is Monique Lhuillier

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