The production of flower studies by Fabergé is thought to have begun in the 1880s. The collaborative process involved many skilled artists and goldsmiths of the firm. It began with designs which, according to H.C. Bainbridge, were often executed by Carl Fabergé himself. The work was then carried out in stages: setting the precious stones, enamelling the flowers, adding the gold stalks and grasses, and finally assembling the flowers.

Fabergé's elegant creations were often placed in rock-crystal vases, carved in trompe l'oeil technique from a single piece of rock crystal to give the illusion of water. The shaped golden stems were delicately engraved with fine lines, and the flowers or berries were often executed in enamelled gold.

The present rare study of a violet shows the extraodinary skill of the enameller in imitating the matt surface of the flowers. Only a few other studies of violets are known. Models of single violet flowers in a vase are in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art (see M. Swezey, Fabergé Flowers, New York, 2004, pp. 76-77), and in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (see G. von Habsburg, Fabergé Revealed, New York, 2011, p. 216, no. 109). For a third spray of violets with enamelled leaves, which was purchased by Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna in 1902, see I. Collins, Fabergé: from St Petersburg to Sandringham, Norwich, 2017, p. 18.