Erik August Kollin (28 December 1836 – 1901) was born in

Pohja Pohja (; sv, Pojo) is a former municipality of Finland. It was consolidated with Ekenäs and Karis to form the new town of Raseborg in 2009. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Uusimaa region. The municipality ...

in SW

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. He studied as a journeyman with gold and silversmith Alexander Palmén in Ekenäs in 1858 before travelling to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. He qualified as workmaster in 1868 at August Holmström's workshop, and in 1870 opened his own workshop in St. Petersburg. Kollin worked for

August Holmström August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...

and for

Carl Fabergé Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

, and was soon put in charge of all Fabergé workshops, a post he held until 1886 when he was replaced by

Michael Perkhin Michael Evlampievich Perkhin (russian: Михаи́л Евла́мпиевич Пе́рхин) (1860-1903) was an Imperial Russian jeweler. Born in Okulovskaya in Olonets Governorate (now Republic of Karelia), he moved to St. Petersburg, he ...

. He was Fabergé's first chief jeweler. Specialized in gold and silver articles, most of them in an archaic style of the period. The artefacts produced by Kollin for Fabergé before his departure in 1886 generally bears his initials EK, together with Fabergé's hallmark and are frequently to be found in a Fabergé box. Evidently these pre-date the change of hallmarks in 1899. Objects bearing EK mark only and produced between 1885 and 1899 should be considered as the work of an independent operator, unless cased by Fabergé.

References

Finnish goldsmiths Finnish silversmiths Fabergé workmasters 1836 births 1901 deaths {{Finland-bio-stub