A wild boar, seated, carved in pale silver-grey to pinkish-brown chalcedony with cabochon ruby eyes.

King George V purchased numerous Fabergé animals, including this wild boar that he bought in December 1909 (when Prince of Wales), for £31. The pose is reminiscent of the famous bronze boar in the Medici collection in Florence, with which Fabergé and his sculptors were likely to have been familiar. The sculptor Boris Frödman-Cluzel, who worked for Fabergé, recalled how he saw a statue of a wild boar in Geneva during his training.

Text adapted from Fabergé in the Royal Collection