Posed standing, almost to attention, heels together and hands at his side.
The sculpture is a three-dimensional jigsaw, each of the differently coloured hardstones is cut to slot seamlessly into the next and they are invisibly secured with shellac. Fabergé’s mastery of his materials is evident in his choice of stones for the Cossack. His woollen winter coat is carved from dark green nephrite. Fabergé’s craftsmen have transformed this unyielding stone into a fabric that overlaps, billows at the hem and rumples up on the arms and chest. The Cossack’s coats were trimmed with otter fur and this is represented in speckled brown jasper. It is edged with a delicate yellow gold border embroidered with black enamel Imperial Eagles between translucent red enamel stitching. The medals and badges he wears are similarly worked in gold and enamel. The trousers, boots and fur hat are carved from black onyx. The small bag suspended from his hat and his belt are made from purpurine (a lead oxide glass), corresponding to the red livery of Empress Alexandra. His face and hands are worked from cacholong; also known as Kalmuck agate, it is an unusual form of opal named after the River Cach in the Bukhara province of Uzbekistan where it is found. The stone’s relative softness and pale milky white colour make it ideal for portraying Slavic skin and Fabergé’s craftsmen used it perfectly to depict the Cossack’s proud features. His striking full flowing beard is carved from grey Kalgan jasper and his alert eyes are set with bright blue cabochon sapphires.
The heels of his boots are inscribed, ‘FABERGÉ’ in Cyrillic capitals on one, and, ‘1912’, on the other, the soles are further inscribed in Cyrillic, ‘N.N. PUSTYNNIKOV’, and ‘KAMERKAZAK since 1894’.
Contained in an original silk and velvet lined fitted Fabergé holly wood case, the silk lining stamped in Cyrillic ‘Fabergé, St. Petersburg, Moscow, London’, in Cyrillic beneath an Imperial double headed Eagle. The box is that of the matching figure of his brother Cossack Andrei Kudinov, guard of Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna held at Pavlovsk. St. Petersburg, 1912, height 7 inches (17.8cm)