I was looking at this is a photo of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia the other and the thought occurred to me that she might be holding a faberge fan gifted to her on her wedding. This photo was taken in 1906 on the occasion of the opening of the Russian Duma.(though signed an dated later) She wears her mothers jewels here. The impressive diamond necklace no longer exists and is thought to have been broken up for sale in the 1920s. The brooch, also her mothers and worn by earlier Russian empresses has also vanished.

She also carries the Faberge fan in this photo that she was gifted at her wedding in 1901. You can clearly see the jewelled guardstick matches the one in photos of the fan.


There are no known photos of Olga dressed for this first wedding, which was done with imperial pomp. There is a photoshop image floating around online of Olga in a wedding dress but it is a modern mock up.
This unconsummated marriage to Peter of Oldenburg ended in divorce for Olga in 1916. She married the love of her life Nikolai Kulikovsky on 16 November 1916 in Kiev where Olga was working as a nurse.

I think this the only photo I've actually seen of a faberge fan being used as it was intended to be.

This fan is today in the collection of the Metropolitan museum of art in New York:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/238689

Maker:House of Carl Fabergé
Maker: Workmaster: Mikhail Evlampievich Perkhin (Russian, 1860–1903)