August Frederik Hollming
August Frederik Hollming (or Golming) was a Finnish and Russian silver- and goldsmith, and a Fabergé workmaster.
Life
Hollming was born in 1854 in Loppi, Finland, as a son of a bookkeeper, Anders Gustaf Hollming of Loviisa, and of Katarina Petterson. Hollming was apprenticed to the goldsmith Karl F. Ekholm in Helsinki at the beginning of the 1870s. In 1876, he settled in St.Petersburg and registered as a goldworker. In 1880, he qualified as a master and opened his workshop at 35 Kazanskaya Street; he was soon thereafter hired by Fabergé. He had three sons with Erika G. Abrahamsson. In 1900, the Hollming workshop moved to 24 Bolshaya Morskaya, under the same roof as Fabergé. In 1913, he ran the workshop with Otto Hanhinen, his father's assistant. He mainly produced cigarette cases in silver, gold, and enamel; miniature Easter Egg; and small gem-set, enameled jewels such as cuff-links, brooches, and pins. Many times he produced these objects for the House of Fabergé.
In popular culture
In 2016 his work figured prominently on the Antiques Roadshow when four buttons he made, that were at the bottom of a box someone bought for £2.26, were valued at £1,000 to £1,500.[1]