Johan Victor Aarne, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJohan Victor Aarne
gold- and silversmith in Imperial Russia and Finland who worked for Fabergé
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Tampere, Finland
About Johan Victor Aarne
- Johan Viktor Aarne (until 1886 Lindström) was a Finnish gold- and silversmith in Imperial Russia and Finland who worked for Fabergé.
- Born 6 May in Tampere, Finland in 1863, he was the son of joiner carpenter, later church sexton Johan Lindström and Anna Lovisa Brask.
- Johan Aarne completed his apprenticeship with Johan Erik Hellsten, a goldsmith in Tampere, and became a journeyman in Hämeenlinna in 1880.
- For the next ten years, between 1880 and 1890, he most likely worked for Fabergé in August Wilhelm Holmström's and in Mihael Perkhin's workshops.
- In 1890 he returned to Tampere to obtain his title of Master; he then ran his own workshop there for a year.
- In 1891 Aarne moved to St.
- Petersburg to work exclusively for Fabergé until 1904.
- His workshop was at 58 Demidov pereulok / Jekatarinski Canal.
- His Cyrillic signature, BA, can be found on enameled gold and silver articles from this time period.
- Thermometers and desk photo frames were a specialty.
- After the turn of the century his workshop employed twenty journeymen and three apprentices.
- In 1904 Aarne sold his workshop to Hjalmar Armfelt and settled in Vyborg (Viipuri), Finland, where he ran a successful goldsmithing workshop for another thirty years.
- At that time his signature was J.V.A.
- Johan Aarne died 6 June in 1934 in Vyborg.
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