Gustav Fabergé, a Baltic German, was born in the city of Pernau (now Pärnu) in Livonia (present-day Estonia) on 18 February 1814.

His father, the artisan Pierre Favry (1768–1858; later Fabrier), moved to the Baltic province of Livonia, then part of the Russian Empire.

His family were Huguenots from Picardy living in Germany, having fled religious persecution in France at the end of the 17th century, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

In 1860, Gustav Fabergé retired and, together with his wife and son, moved to Dresden, leaving the business in the hands of Peter Hiskias Pending and V. A. Zaianchkovski.

He received tuition from respected goldsmiths in Germany, France and England, attended a course at Schloss’s Commercial College in Paris, and viewed the objects in the galleries of Europe’s leading museums.

He died on 3 January 1894, aged 79, and was cremated in Gotha with his ashes buried next to his wife’s remains at Trinitatisfriedhof (Trinity Cemetery) in Dresden.