The precise origin of these figures, which appear to be copies of – or models for – the well-known Fabergé hardstone figures of the Kamer-Kazak guards of the Empresses, is something of a mystery.

Commissioned by Emperor Nicholas II in 1912, the hardstone figures were portraits from life, the guards visiting the studio of Fabergé’s sculptor Boris Frödman-Cluzel to pose for the artist, who modelled them in wax. The final works were both at Pavlovsk in 1925, when the figure of Pustynnikov was sold to Armand Hammer, who subsequently sold it in 1934. The whereabouts of that figure remained unknown until 2013, when it was sold at Stair Galleries of Hudson, New York, by a descendant of Hammer’s buyer; its discovery and the sale result of $5.2 million garnered international headlines. 

The figure of Kudinov remains at the State Pavlovsk Museum (inv. TsKh-822-VII). These bronze figures may have been produced as further models, in addition to those in wax, perhaps so that the colour palette could be settled upon, bronze being easier to paint than wax. 

Fabergé’s close affiliation with the Woerffel lapidary and bronze foundry would have easily facilitated this extra step in the process. The price paid by the Emperor of 2300 rubles for each, far more than the next most expensive figure (the boyar, at 950 rubles, which sold, Sotheby’s New York, 21 April 2005, lot 44), suggests that their creation was inordinately time-consuming and laborious for the House of Fabergé.