Henrik Wigström	August Holmström

Fabergé's Workmasters

The Finnish Workmasters
Courtesy Dr. Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm - Fabergé ja hänen suomalaiset mestarinsa (Fabergé and His Finnish Workmasters) 2008, 404-5.

The names of the Finnish Fabergé workmasters should be cited as their names are spelled on their birth certificates, with the understanding that the birth certificate lists all the person's names. Only the names the workmasters themselves used in their marks should be cited with Fabergé objects.

Viktor Aarne (not Victor Aarne) - workmaster marks J.V.A and BA

Hjalmar Armfelt (not Karl Armfeldt) - workmaster mark ЯА

August Hollming - workmaster mark A*H

Väinö Hollming - August's son, continued using his father's mark A*H

August Holmström (not Holstrom or Holmstrom) - workmaster mark AH

Albert Holmström - The former's son, continued using his father's mark AH

Erik Kollin (not August Erik) - workmaster mark EK

Anders Mickelsson - workmaster mark AM

Antti Nevalainen (not Anders Nevalainen) - workmaster marks A N and AN
Anders is the Swedish speaking version of the name, but Nevalainen was a purely Finnish speaking person. There are two official languages in Finland, Finnish and Swedish. The clergymen in the old days were almost all Swedish speakers and therefore, on their own initiative wrongly marked Swedish versions of names into church registers when they added confirmation dates, marriage dates, etc.

Gabriel Nykänen (not Gabriel Niukkanen) - workmaster mark GN
Niukkanen is an old misunderstanding which came about because Nykänen, when he as a young apprentice arrived in St. Petersburg, had to have his name transliterated into Russian. When the name was transliterated back to Latin script it went wrong. Both Nykänen and Niukkanen are usual Finnish names, no one has noticed the error before now.

Hiskias Pendin - His birth certificate says Hesekil Pöntinen, but he never used that name in St. Petersburg. He and his children officially changed the name to Pendin and announced this in the official papers - workmaster mark (?) HP.

Oscar Pihl - 1860-1897 Senior, Fabergé's workmaster in Moscow - workmaster mark OP

Oskar Pihl - (Born in Moscow, first name spelled with "k") 1890-1959 Junior, the former's son, trained with his uncle Albert Holmström, worked as a designer at A. Tillander in Helsinki. Neither Oskar nor his sister Alma had marks of their own.

Alma Pihl (not Anna Pihl or Phil) - The former's sister. Her married name was Alma Klee.

Stefan Väkevä (not Stephan Wäkeva) - workmaster marks S·W and S.W
Stefan Väkevä was a member of the St. Maria Lutheran congregation in St. Petersburg. The clergymen in this congregation were originally Germans and therefore kept the church registers in the German language. The letter V in the German language is pronounced as an F, Väkevä's last name was changed by the clergyman, for the purpose of the church register only to W. But the family used their regular spelling Väkevä, meaning "strong". The family comes from the village of Väkevälä in Finland, it is an ancient place, originally inhabited by a strong man whom we can trace to the 16th century. There are still today members of the Väkevä family farming the land of the village Väkevälä near the border to Russia.

Stefan Väkevä, his son and daughter-in-law used the version S·W, K.W., A.W, and J.W. in their masters' marks, probably because the version W sounds more exotic to a Finnish ear. That is (according to the descendants) the reason Stefan decided to use the W in his masters' mark. The offspring modeled their marks on their father's mark.

Konstantin Väkevä - 1860-1902 Stefan's older son, brother of Alexander - workmaster mark K.W.

Alexander Väkevä (not Alexander Wäkeva) - workmaster mark A.W

Jenny Väkevä - Konstantin's wife. Having become a widow in 1902, she had the right to mark one part of the Väkevä workshop's production with her own mark - J.W.

Henrik Wigström (not Henrik Immanuel) - workmaster mark H.W.