Ivan Savelevich Britzin

[Succhy]

Hi

Ive recently seen number of peices of work by Britzin and am really interested in his. His style reminds me of Faberge. I was wondering if anyone knew anymore on the subject or where i could find further reading? I know very little about Russian jewlers at the turn of the 20th century but i think their handiwork is beautiful.

Thanks for any help.

Mark

[Bolin]

I do not know of a specific monograph or article on Britzin. He is often mentioned and discussed in the mongraphs/catalogues on Faberge. Some scholars think he worked for Faberge at one time before 1903.
He was born in the Moscow provence of peasant stock in 1870 and made his way to St. Petersburg where he apprenticed to be a goldsmith (perhaps at the Faberge firm). He opened his own workshop circa 1903 and was active until the revolution of 1917. He supplied objects in the Faberge style to an English firm in London - Noble & Co. and to the Marshak firm in Kiev. After the revolution he worked in several jewelers'artels and died in Russia in 1952. He produced many cigarette cases, picture frames, clocks and bellpushes in the Faberge style. His work is of very high quality and until recently most of his work was reasonably priced at auctions and antique shops but the prices are increasing due to the rise in Faberge prices,etc.

[Forum Admin]

There is only a small mention of Britzin in the standard work "Russian Gold and Silverwork, 17th-19th Century" by Alexander von Solodkoff (Rizzoli, 1981).
pg. 116:
Between 1870 and 1917 Ivan Britzin had a workshop which exported articles to Western Europe and America.  It specialized in guilloche enamel and produced in particular picture frames, clocks and watches, cigarette-cases, and powder boxes, mostly mounted in silver.  Very few examples of gold work by Britzin are known.  His palette in enamel was simpler than that of Faberge, being confined mostly to pastel shales of light blue, violet, and grey, with white also.  It has been suggested but not proved that Britzin was apprenticed to Faberge or worked for him.  While Britzin seems to have been Faberge's leading competitor in quantity of production, in quality it was the jeweller Hahn.