Gustav Fabergé founded the jewellery firm of Fabergé in 1842. The Fabergé family was originally from north eastern France and were Huguenots. The family first fled to eastern Germany, then settled in the Russian province of Lovinia, now part of Estonia.
Gustav’s father Peter enjoyed the patronage of Catherine the Great. Gustav was apprenticed to Andreas Spiegel and after his apprenticeship joined the firm Keibel, and is recorded as ‘Master Goldsmith’ in 1841.
He opened his first shop in St Petersburg. His son, Carl, took over the family business in 1870. The production of the famous imperial Fabergé eggs started with Carl, and they became a favourite of the Russian Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II. The Fabergé company continued to prosper both locally and internationally throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Source: http://stpetersburgcollection.com/history-of-faberge