![]() | In 2013 the executor of a Rhinebeck, New York estate made a discovery in the attic of George and Betty Davis, finding a rare Fabergé figure that sold at auction for $5.2m. An unassuming wooden box held a hardstone portrait figure of Nikolai Nikolaievich Pustynnikov, who was a personal Cossack bodyguard to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. With sapphires for eyes, gold trim and gold braid and elaborately inlayed and enameled double-headed imperial eagles, the figure is finely detailed. ![]() | ![]() ![]() |
![]() Russian Imperial family (between circa 1913 and 1914) | It remained in the Davis family until the Stair Galleries auction in Hudson, New York. The pre-sale auction estimate was $500k-$800k for the authenticated figure. Bidding began at $500k and when the gavel fell, London-based jeweler, Wartski, won the auction with a phone bid of $5.2 million.![]() | ![]() |