Pratt, Lillian Thomas (SC-07) Finding Aids to Special Collections in the VMFA Archives | Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers SC-07 Special Collection 07 (SC-07)

Finding Aids to Special Collections in the VMFA Archives | Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers SC-07

Special Collection 07 (SC-07)


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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives

Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman Library
200 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard
Richmond, VA 23220-4007
Business Number: 804-340-1495
library@vmfa.museum
URL: https://vmfa.museum/library/special-collections-archives/

Courtney Yevich Tkacz, VMFA Archivist

Repository
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Archives
Identification
SC-07
Title
Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07) 1901-1947
URL:
https://archives.vmfa.museum/repositories/2/resources/8
Quantity
1.5 Linear Feet, 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder, 723 items
Creator
Pratt, Lillian Thomas, 1876?
Creator
Schaffer, Alexander S.
Creator
Schaffer, Ray
Creator
Schaffer Collection
Creator
A La Vieille Russie (Firm)
Creator
Hammer Galleries
Creator
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Language
English .
Abstract
The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.

Administrative Information

Publication

The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Digitized content is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . The only exception are the letters written by Alexander and Ray Schaffer, in which the Schaffer family retains copyright ownership. Transmission or reproduction of other materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.

Access

The collection is open for research.

Digitization of the collection has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The digital collection can be accessed through the VMFA Collections Search website .

Provenance

The collection was transferred over time to the VMFA Library in the 2000s by museum staff members Dr. David Park Curry, Curator of the Fabergé collection, David Bradley, Foundation Director, and Richard Woodward, Deputy Director for Architecture and Design. The estate tax information was given to Woodward from the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. in the 1970s. The bulk of the collection was accessioned into the VMFA Archives' collection in February 2011. In January 2015, an additional collection of original documents were transferred from the Curatorial files to the Pratt collection.

Preferred Citation

Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07). VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.

Processing Note

A large number of publications (almost entirely sales and exhibition catalogs) were interfiled into this collection over the years. None of the publications indicated that they were actually Pratt's personal copies, and almost all had been stamped by the VMFA Library or other departments. Therefore, all of the publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings during processing. A complete list of these publications is available from the Archivist.

Biographical Note

Two months after Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in June 1947, her stunning and expansive collection of Fabergé artworks were unexpectedly bequeathed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Thought to have been born in 1876 in Philadelphia, details of Pratt's life still remain sketchy and limited. By 1900, she was working as a stenographer at the Puget Sound Flouring Mill, and in 1917, married her second husband, John Lee Pratt, a self-made millionaire engineer and businessman with General Motors. By 1931, they had settled at Chatham Manor in John's native Virginia, and Pratt spent over a decade amassing a collection of over 500 items, eighty percent of which is Russian decorative art, mainly Fabergé.

Pratt began collecting while accompanying her husband on business trips to New York City, shopping in her spare time, and possibly becoming enchanted with the Hammer Galleries' "Russian Imperial Exhibit" at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s. While the total amount she spent during that time is unknown, she spent $100,000 alone at New York City's Schaffer Collection. She simultaneously purchased items, including four of her five imperial Easter eggs, from the Hammer Galleries. Her collection includes not only the finest imperial eggs, but also miniature eggs, jewelry, framed photographs, boxes, handles, flowers, and animal figures, among many other types of objects. Whatever her collecting may have been (besides simply furnishing her new home), her fascination with Russian royalty was enduring, and has been shared with museum visitors for over 60 years.

Source: Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Scope and Content Note

The collection's inclusive dates are 1901-1947, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1945. The collection is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels, estate tax information and inventories, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into five series, and items are generally arranged chronologically within each series. Price tags are arranged numerically by item number. Items with no date are placed at the end at each series.

Series 1
Schaffer Collection, 1934-1947, undated
Series 2
Hammer Galleries, 1933-1945, undated
Series 3
Estate, 1932-1947, undated
Series 4
Clippings, 1932-1937, undated
Series 5
Museum Records, 1936-1947, undated

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Related Materials - VMFA Library: Pratt's Personal Library

The Fall of the Romanoffs: How the Ex-Empress & Rasputine Caused the Russian Revolution, 1917
Confessions of the Czarina, 1918
Mother Dear: The Empress Marie of Russia and Her Times, 1926
The Tragic Bride: The Story of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, 1927
The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, 1928
The Intimate Life of the Last Tzarina, 1928
The Real Romanovs, as Revealed by the Late Czar's Physician and His Son, 1931
Russia - My Home: An Intimate Record of Personal Experiences Before, During and After the Bolshevist Revolution, 1931
Education of a Princess: A Memoir, 1931
A Princess in Exile, 1932
Twice Seven, 1937
Russian Imperial Treasures: Collection of Lillian T. Pratt, undated

Related Materials - VMFA Library: Catalogs

Imperial Russian Easter Eggs Presented by Tsar Nikolai II, 1940
Handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection: Russian Imperial Jewels, 1960
Fabergé: A Catalog of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Russian Imperial Jewels, 1976
Fabergé: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1995
Fabergé Revealed: At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2011

Related Materials - VMFA Library: Video

Lillian Thomas Pratt's Fabergé: Shopping, Collecting, Remembering, 1996

Related Materials - VMFA Library: Exhibition Files

Selections from the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1947
12th Anniversary Exhibition: The Pratt Collection of Jewels, 1948
Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1949
Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1950
Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1951
Imperial Russian Easter Eggs, 1952
Jewelry by Fabergé, 1953
Jewels by Fabergé, 1954
Fabergé in America and the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé, 1996
Fabergé Revealed, 2011

Related Materials - VMFA Library: Subject Files

VMFA Collections: Decorative Arts: Metalwork: Fabergé
VMFA Donors: Pratt, John Lee and Lillian Thomas
VMFA Gallery Design: Fabergé

Related Materials - Library of Virginia

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Director's Correspondence, 1936-1976 (Coll. No. 33863 and 44067)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Files, 1936-1992 (Coll No. 31633, 32958, 33041, 33160, 34679, 36342, 36957 and 37636)

Significant Persons Associated With the Collection

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Significant Places Associated With the Collection

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Container List

SC-07-01
Series 1: Schaffer Collection
Schaffer, Alexander S.Schaffer, RaySchaffer CollectionA La Vieille Russie (Firm)
370 items Box 1 (6 Folders and 1 Binder)
1934-1947, undated
Scope and Contents

This series is comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and item descriptions that detail the purchases Pratt made from the Schaffer collection in the 1930s and 1940s. Correspondence between Alexander S. Schaffer, his wife Ray Schaffer, and Pratt discuss sales, payments, display cabinets, family matters, and books and articles he sent to Pratt about Russian history, war, and family matters. After 1944, some of the correspondence, invoices and item descriptions came from A La Vieille Russie, where Schaffer continued to deal in Russian art and antiquities after closing his own shop.

The invoices are often annotated with check numbers as balances were paid off, and dates given often refer to the handwritten notes on the invoice detailing payment history. Similarly, price tags were often annotated with price reductions or alterations in the item's description. Item descriptions are extremely detailed, and include the item number and often the date purchased. Many of the Schaffer descriptions are not dated, and while most of them can be cross-referenced with dates on the invoices, Schaffer often invoiced Pratt much later than the original purchase date, and in some cases, many years later. Finally, most of the item descriptions were annotated by museum staff at some point with VMFA accession numbers.

The series is divided into five subseries: Series 1.1: Alexander Schaffer Correspondence, 1934-1947; Series 1.2: Ray Schaffer Correspondence, 1937-1947; Series 1.3: Invoices, 1934-1945, undated; Series 1.4: Price Tags, undated; Series 1.5: Item Descriptions, 1934-1945, undated.

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SC-07-02
Series 2: Hammer Galleries
Hammer Galleries
220 items Box 1 (5 Folders, 1 Oversize Item and 1 Binder)
1933-1945, undated
Scope and Contents

This series is comprised of invoices, price tags, item descriptions, exhibition labels and correspondence that document the purchases Pratt made from the Hammer Galleries in the 1930s and 1940s. The Lord and Taylor invoices are undated, but the item numbers match up with Hammer Galleries price tags, and the Galleries did present and sell their collection at Lord and Taylor in the early 1930s (probably 1934 based upon letterhead from the item descriptions).

Price tags were often annotated with price reductions or alterations in the item's description. Item descriptions are extremely detailed, and include the item number and the date purchased. Most of the item descriptions were annotated by museum staff at some point with VMFA accession numbers. A note in Pratt's hand is written on the item description for a traveling clock (item number 5253, purchased June 16, 1933) and says "Given to H.R.H. Princess Margaret Rose of England May 1939." She received a letter of acknowledgment and appreciation back from Lady Constance Harriet Stuart Gaskell, a Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary.

Finally, the few exhibition labels were used in the Hammer Collection's "Russian Imperial Exhibit" at Lord and Taylor. Four are still mounted on the original gold colored panels.

The series is divided into five subseries: Series 2.1: Lord and Taylor Invoices, [1933]; Series 2.2: Price Tags, undated; Series 2.3: Item Descriptions, 1933-1945, undated; Series 2.4: Exhibition Labels, 1933-1934, undated; Series 2.5: Correspondence, 1939.

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SC-07-03
Series 3: Estate
96 items Box 2 (3 Folders and 1 Binder)
1932-1947, undated
Scope and Contents

This series is comprised of information about Pratt's estate after her death on July 21, 1947. The estate tax return outlines the extent of her entire estate, including the varied philanthropic bequests and funds she had arranged. Detailed inventories of the estate list her belongings by category. One of the paintings lists was annotated by a local appraiser, Virginia Clarke Taylor, denoting which paintings were "antiques" or not. Finally, there are many price tags from other non-Faberge purchases she made over the years. Most are from the New York department store B. Altman and Company, and detail her acquisitions of silver, lamps, fabric, vases, paintings, and other decorative items.

The series is divided into three subseries: Series 3.1: Tax Information, 1947; Series 3.2: Inventory, 1947, undated; Series 3.3: Other Furnishings, 1932, undated.

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SC-07-04
Series 4: Clippings
6 items Box 2 (1 Folder)
1932-1937, undated
Scope and Contents

This series is comprised of the few clippings that were found in the collection. As none of these particular clippings were mentioned in the correspondence directly, it's possible that they did not originally belong to Pratt. The photographic copies of some of the articles were obviously made much later, but were retained as they may have been copies of articles Pratt once kept.

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SC-07-05
Series 5: Museum Records
19 items Box 2 (1 Folder)
1901-1947, undated
Scope and Contents

This series is comprised of items related to the Pratt collection that were transferred from the Curatorial department. Items found in the object records include early photographs of items from both Hammer Galleries and the Schaffer Collection, photographs of the Russian imperial family, as well as a statement of account from Hammer and the first complete list of the collection after its arrival at the museum in 1947.

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