Frédéric Zaavy (9 October 1964 – 15 September 2011) was a Parisian

jeweller A bench jeweler is an artisan who uses a combination of skills to make and repair jewelry. Some of the more common skills that a bench jeweler might employ include antique restoration, silversmithing, goldsmithing, stone setting, engraving, ...

. He created his most famous pieces for the Fabergé brand.

Biography

Frédéric Zaavy was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

on October 9, 1964. He was the third generation of a family of diamond merchants. After a classic French education during which he undertook courses at several

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on practice and related theory in the visual arts and design. This includes fine art – especially illustration, painting, contemporary art, sculpture, and graphic design. T ...

s including the

École des Arts Appliqués École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

and the

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

, he decided not to enter the family business. He traveled to Canada, Québec in 1981, living the poet life. Married Aline Beaupré, a visual artist living in the country side and had 3 children from her: Jérôme Zaavy, Iris Léa Zaavy and Raphaël Zaavy. He later on, studied gemology in California. After travelling the world and becoming a gemstone dealer in 1994 he decided to turn towards high-class

jewellery design Jewellery design is the art or profession of designing and creating jewellery. It is one of civilization's earliest forms of adornment, decoration, dating back at least 7,000 years to the oldest-known human societies in Indus Valley Civilization ...

. Together with his Taiwanese partner Lisa Chen, they formed the ''Daring jewellery company'' based out of the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

. Later he relocated back to Paris permanently, where he employed several other jewellers and stonesetters in his

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or vi ...

, splitting from Chen. In May 2007

Phillips de Pury & Company Phillips, formerly known as Phillips the Auctioneers and briefly as Phillips de Pury, is a British auction house. It was founded in London in 1796, and has head offices in London and in New York City. In 2022 it was owned by the Mercury Group, ...

announced that it would stage Zaavy’s first major exhibition of his work in the US, titled ''Nymphéas''. The exhibition featured thirty pieces of jewellery with highlights being previewed from 10 to 25 May in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and the main exhibition in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

being held from October 22 through to November 2, 2007. In January 2007 Pallinghurst Resources announced it had acquired

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

’s entire global portfolio of trademarks, licenses and associated rights relating to the Fabergé brand name. Later it announced the reunification of the Fabergé name with the family.

Tatiana Tatiana (or Tatianna, also romanized as Tatyana, Tatjana, Tatijana, etc.) is a female name of Sabine-Roman origin that became widespread in Eastern Europe. Origin Tatiana is a feminine, diminutive derivative of the Sabine—and later Latin� ...

and

Sarah Fabergé Sarah Josephine Fabergé (born July 1958) is the only daughter of Theo Fabergé. She is a founding member of the Fabergé Heritage Council and Director of Special Projects for Fabergé. Biography Sarah Fabergé is a great-granddaughter of Pete ...

, both great-granddaughters of

Peter Carl Fabergé Peter Carl Gustavovich Fabergé (; – 24 September 1920; also known as Charles Fabergé) was a Russian goldsmith and jeweller. He is best known for creating Fabergé eggs made in the style of genuine Easter eggs, but using precious metals and ...

, had become founder members of the Fabergé Heritage Council that was to counsel the unified Fabergé in its pursuit of excellence and creativity. Frédéric Zaavy became the exclusive jeweller for Fabergé on April 22, 2008. He was appointed the first ''Fabergé work master'' since the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

. Fabergé secured the copyright to 45 of Zaavy’s existing pieces as well as the 55 further pieces it commissioned from him. The 100 pieces in the Fabergé relaunch collection ranged from USD 40,000 to USD 7 million. Later that year he had to be treated for

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. But in 2011 the cancer returned. Zaavy died on 15 September 2011.

References

External links

Frédéric Zaavy Official Website

Site dedicated to Frédéric Zaavy
on www.faberge.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Zaavy, Frederic French jewellers 1964 births Fabergé workmasters 2011 deaths