The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 18, 2024

Bell Push

Bell Push

c. 1895–1915
(Russian, 1842–1918)
Russia, St. Petersburg
silver gilt, enamel, bowenite, cabochon sapphire
Diameter: 3.5 x 5.8 cm (1 3/8 x 2 5/16 in.)
The India Early Minshall Collection 1966.472
Location: 211 Fabergé

Did You Know?

The advent of electricity in the 1880s made systems of buttons and bell pushes to call servants more efficient than the old lever and pully system within the wall that often broke with a vigorous tug.

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.
  • ?-1966
    India Early Minshall [1885–1965], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1966-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Hawley, Henry H. Fabergé and His Contemporaries: The India Early Minshall Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 82-3, cat. 40 ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org
  • Fabergé in America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 12-May 11, 1997).
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2/12/96-4/28/96); The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (5/25/96-7/28/96); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (8/24/96-11/2/96); New Orleans Museum of Art (12/7/96-2/8/97); The Cleveland Museum of Art (3/9/97-5/11/97). "Fabergé in America," exh. cat. no. 15, p. 42; p. 30; color repr. p. 42.
    Year in Review: 1967. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 29-December 31, 1967).
    The India Early Minshall Collection: Faberge and his Contemporaries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 15, 1967-January 21, 1968).
  • {{cite web|title=Bell Push|url=false|author=House of Fabergé|year=c. 1895–1915|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1966.472