Portrait model of 'Caesar', King Edward VII's wire-haired fox terrier, white chalcedony with cabochon ruby eyes, brown enamel and gold collar with a gold bell attached, inscribed "I BELONG TO THE KING".

The fox terrier Caesar was bred by the Duchess of Newcastle about 1895 and presented to King Edward VII soon after his favourite Irish terrier, Jack, had died in 1903. Caesar quickly became the King's favourite dog and accompanied him everywhere, often travelling abroad to France and Germany. On a visit to Marienbad in August 1907, Caesar was taken ill and Sir Frederick Ponsonby, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, recalled how he tried to persuade the King against the idea of sending for Sewell, a vet from London, at a cost of £200 per day, 'but His Majesty said that if his dog was ill he would get the very best man and he did not care what it cost'. In the event Caesar was cured by a vet from Vienna.

Fabergé's model in chalcedony with cabochon ruby eyes hints at the dog's mischievous personality and also his faithfulness to his master - adorned as it is with a gold and enamelled collar inscribed 'I BELONG TO THE KING', as the favourite's collar had been in real life. According to Bainbridge, Caesar accompanied the King on 8 December 1907 as he unveiled the animals modelled in wax by Fabergé's sculptors in the Dairy at Sandringham, where his own likeness was among those on view.

Caesar died in 1914 and is buried in the grounds of Marlborough House. He is immortalised in stone, sitting at the feet of the King on his tomb in St George’s Chapel, Windsor.

Text adapted from Fabergé's Animals: A Royal Farm in Miniature