Fabergé egg

The Imperial Coronation egg, one of the most famous and iconic of all the Fabergé eggs.

The Moscow Kremlin egg, 1906.

A Fabergé egg (Russian: яйцо Фаберже́, yaytso Faberzhe) is a jewelled egg created by the jewellery firm House of Fabergé, in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire. Possibly as many as 69 were created, of which 57 survive today. Virtually all were manufactured under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé between 1885 and 1917.^{[citation needed]} The most famous are his 52 "Imperial" eggs, 46 of which survive, made for the Russian Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II as Easter gifts for their wives and mothers.^[1]

History[]

The House of Fabergé was founded by Gustav Fabergé in 1842 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Fabergé egg was a later addition to the product line by his son, Peter Carl Fabergé.

Prior to 1885, Tsar Alexander III gave his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna jeweled Easter eggs.^[2] For Easter in 1883, before his coronation, Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna were given eggs, one of which contained a silver dagger and two skulls.^[3] The egg came with messages including "Christ is risen" and "You may crush us–but we Nihilists shall rise again!"^[3]

Before Easter 1885, Alexander III's brother Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich suggested that Peter Carl Fabergé create a jeweled egg.^[4] This type of egg is believed to have been inspired by an ivory hen egg made for the Danish Royal Collection in the 18th century.^[5] Known as the Hen Egg, it has a 2.5 inch outer enamel shell and a golden band around the middle.^[6] The egg opens to reveal a golden "yolk" within, which opened to reveal a golden hen sitting on golden straw.^[6] Inside the hen lay a miniature diamond replica of the Imperial crown and a ruby pendant,^[6] though these two elements have been lost.^[7] It was given to the tsarina on 1 May 1885.^[5] The egg cost 4,151 rubles.^[2] Six weeks later, the tsar made Fabergé the supplier to the Imperial Court.^[8]

Maria was so delighted by the gift that Alexander appointed Fabergé a "goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial Crown" and commissioned another egg the next year. After that, Peter Carl Fabergé was apparently given complete freedom to design future imperial Easter eggs, and their designs became more elaborate. According to Fabergé family lore, not even the Tsar knew what form they would take—the only requirements were that each contain a surprise, and that each be unique. Once Fabergé had approved an initial design, the work was carried out by a team of craftsmen, among them Michael Perkhin, Henrik Wigström, and Erik August Kollin.^{[citation needed]}

After Alexander III's death on 1 November 1894, his son, Nicholas II, presented a Fabergé egg to both his wife, Alexandra Fedorovna, and his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna. Records have shown that of the 50 imperial Easter eggs, 20 were given to the former and 30 to the latter. Eggs were made each year except 1904 and 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War.^[9]

The imperial eggs enjoyed great fame. Fabergé was commissioned to make similar eggs for a few private clients, including the Duchess of Marlborough, the Rothschild family, and the Yusupovs. Fabergé was also commissioned to make twelve eggs for the industrialist Alexander Kelch, though only seven appear to have been completed.^[10][11]

Following the revolution and the nationalization of the Fabergé workshop in St. Petersburg by the Bolsheviks in 1918, the Fabergé family left Russia. The Fabergé trademark has since been sold several times, and several companies have retailed egg-related merchandise using the Fabergé name. From 1998 to 2009, the Victor Mayer jewelry company produced limited edition, heirloom-quality Fabergé eggs authorized under Unilever's license. The trademark is now owned by Fabergé Limited, which makes egg-themed jewelry.^[12]

List of eggs[]

List of Fabergé imperial Easter eggs[]

Below is a chronology of the eggs made for the imperial family. The dating of the eggs has evolved. An earlier chronology dated the Blue Serpent Clock Egg to 1887 and identified the egg of 1895 as the Twelve Monograms Egg. The discovery of the previously lost Third Imperial Easter Egg confirms the chronology below.^[13]

Date	Egg	Image	Description	Owner
1885	Hen		Also known as the Jeweled Hen Egg, it was the first in a series of 54 jeweled eggs made for the Russian Imperial family under Fabergé's supervision. It was delivered to Alexander III in 1885. The Tsarina and the Tsar enjoyed the egg so much that Alexander III ordered a new egg from Fabergé for his wife every Easter thereafter.	Viktor Vekselberg
1886	Hen with Sapphire Pendant		Also known as the Egg with Hen in Basket, it was made in 1886 for Alexander III, who presented it to his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna.This 1902 photograph shows Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs belonging to the dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. It is possible that Hen with Sapphire Pendant (Fabergé egg) is among the Fabergé eggs in this picture.	Lost
1887	Third Imperial		A jewelled and ridged yellow-gold egg with Vacheron & Constantin watch stands on its original tripod pedestal, which has chased lion paw feet and is encircled by coloured gold garlands suspended from cabochon blue sapphires topped with rose diamond set bows. After being discovered in an American flea market, in 2014 it was purchased by London-based jeweler Wartski on behalf of an unidentified private collector.[14]	Private collection
1888	Cherub with Chariot		Also known as the Angel with Egg in Chariot, crafted and delivered in 1888 to Alexander III. This is one of the lost imperial eggs, so few details are known about it.	Lost
1889	Nécessaire		Crafted and delivered to Alexander III, who presented it to his wife, Maria Feodorovna, on Easter 1889.	Lost
1890	Danish Palaces		Alexander III presented it to his wife, Maria Feodorovna, on Easter 1890.	Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, until 2021[15]
1891	Memory of Azov			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1892	Diamond Trellis		The surprise, an elephant automaton thought to have been lost for many years, was identified in 2015 as being in the collection of the British Royal Collection Trust.	Dorothy and Artie McFerrin collection, US
1893	Caucasus			Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation, displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
1894	Renaissance		One theory is that the surprise is another Fabergé egg, the Resurrection, which perfectly fits the curvature of the Renaissance egg's shell and has a similar decoration in enamel on the base.	Viktor Vekselberg
1895	Rosebud			Viktor Vekselberg
1895	Blue Serpent Clock		Before March 2014, it was mistaken for the Third Imperial egg.	Albert II of Monaco collection, Monte-Carlo, Monaco
1896	Rock Crystal		Also known as the Revolving Miniatures Egg	Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
1896	Twelve Monograms		Also known as the Alexander III Portraits egg.[16] Surprise is missing.	Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C., US
1897	Imperial Coronation			Viktor Vekselberg
1897	Mauve		Only the egg's surprise (pictured) has been found.	Lost Viktor Vekselberg
1898	Lilies of the Valley		Made under the supervision of Fabergé in 1898 by Fabergé ateliers. The supervising goldsmith was Michael Perchin. The egg is one of two in the Art Nouveau style. It was presented on 5 April to Tsar Nicholas II and given to the tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna.	Viktor Vekselberg
1898	Pelican			Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, US
1899	Bouquet of Lilies Clock			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1899	Pansy		The egg's surprise	Matilda Gray Stream, US
1900	Trans-Siberian Railway			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1900	Cockerel			Viktor Vekselberg
1901	Basket of Flowers			Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom
1901	Gatchina Palace			Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, US
1902	Clover Leaf			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1902	Empire Nephrite		The surprise is a miniature portrait of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia and Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg (original lost).	Private collection, New York City[17]
1903	Peter the Great			Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, US
1903	Royal Danish			Lost
1904	No eggs made.
1905	No eggs made.
1906	Moscow Kremlin			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1906	Swan			, Switzerland
1907	Rose Trellis			Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, US
1907	Cradle with Garlands		Also known as the "Love Trophies" egg	Private collection Robert M. Lee, US
1908	Alexander Palace			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1908	Peacock			, Switzerland
1909	Standart Yacht			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1909	Alexander III Commemorative			Lost
1910	Colonnade			Royal Collection, London, UK
1910	Alexander III Equestrian			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1911	Fifteenth Anniversary			Viktor Vekselberg
1911	Bay Tree		Also known as the Orange Tree egg	Viktor Vekselberg
1912	Tsarevich			Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, US
1912	Napoleonic			Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation. Displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
1913	Romanov Tercentenary			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1913	Winter		Designed by Alma Pihl, the only female and one of the best known Fabergé workmasters, as a gift to Maria Feodorovna by her son Nicholas II. The exterior of the egg resembles frost and ice crystals formed on clear glass. It is studded with 1,660 diamonds and is made from quartz, platinum, and orthoclase. The surprise is a miniature flower basket studded with 1,378 diamonds and is made from platinum and gold, while the flowers are made of white quartz and the leaves of demantoid. The flowers lie in gold moss. The egg is 102 millimeters high.	It was reported that the buyer was Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar.[18]
1914	Mosaic			Royal Collection, London, UK
1914	Catherine the Great		Also known as the "Grisaille". The egg was made by Henrik Wigström, "Fabergé's last head workmaster". It was given to Maria Feodorovna by her son Nicholas II. Its surprise (now lost) was "a mechanical sedan chair, carried by two blackamoors, with Catherine the Great seated inside".[19]	Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C., US
1915	Red Cross with Triptych			Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
1915	Red Cross with Imperial Portraits			Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, US
1916	Steel Military			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1916	Order of St. George		Made during World War I, the Order of St. George egg commemorates the Order of St. George that was awarded to Emperor Nicholas and his son, the Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaievich.[20] The Order of St. George Egg and its counterpart, the Steel Military Egg, were of modest design, in keeping with the austerity of World War I,[21] and Fabergé billed 13,347 rubles for the two.[20] The Order of St. George egg left Bolshevik Russia with its original recipient, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.[22]	Viktor Vekselberg
1917	Karelian Birch		Created in 1917, the egg was due to be completed and delivered to the Tsar that Easter, as a present for his mother, the Empress Maria Feodorovna. Before the egg could be delivered, the February Revolution took place and Nicholas II was forced to abdicate on 15 March. On 25 April, Fabergé sent the Tsar an invoice for the egg, addressing Nicholas II not as "Tsar of all the Russians" but as "Mr. Romanov, Nikolai Aleksandrovich". Nicholas paid 12,500 rubles, and the egg was sent to Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich at his palace for presentation to the empress, but the duke fled before it arrived. The egg remained in the palace until it was stolen in the wake of the October Revolution later that year.	Alexander Ivanov. Displayed at Ivanov's Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden, Germany.
1917	Constellation		Because of the 1917 February Revolution and subsequent events, this egg was never finished or presented to Nicholas's wife, the Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna.	Fersman Mineralogical Museum

List of the Kelch eggs[]

Faberge was also commissioned to make eggs for Alexander Ferdinandovich Kelch, a Siberian gold mine industrialist, as gifts for his wife Barbara (Varvara) Kelch-Bazanova. Though still "Fabergé eggs" by virtue of having been produced by his workshop, these eggs were not as elaborate as the imperial eggs, and were not unique in design. Most are copies of other eggs.

Date	Egg	Image	Description	Owner
1898	Hen			Viktor Vekselberg
1899	Twelve Panel			Royal Collection, London, UK
1900	Pine Cone			Private collection
1901	Apple Blossom			Liechtenstein National Museum
1902	Rocaille			Dorothy and Artie McFerrin collection
1903	Bonbonnière			Estate of the late Kerry Packer
1904	Chanticleer			Viktor Vekselberg

Other Fabergé eggs[]

Date	Egg	Image	Description	Owner
1885–91				Private collection
1902	Duchess of Marlborough			Viktor Vekselberg
1902	Rothschild			Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
1907				, Switzerland
1914	Nobel Ice			Dorothy and Artie McFerrin collection
1885–89	Resurrection		possibly the surprise from the 1894 Renaissance Egg[23]	Viktor Vekselberg
1899–1903	Spring Flowers		Possibly inauthentic	Viktor Vekselberg
1899–1903	Scandinavian			Viktor Vekselberg

Location of eggs[]

Of the 69 known Fabergé eggs,^{[note 1]} 57 have survived to the present day. Ten of the imperial Easter eggs are displayed at Moscow's Kremlin Armory Museum. Of the 50 delivered^[24] imperial eggs, 44 have survived, and there are photographs of three of the six lost eggs: the 1903 Royal Danish Egg, the 1909 Alexander III Commemorative Egg, and the Nécessaire Egg of 1889.^[17] The previously lost Third Imperial Easter Egg of 1887 has since been found in the US and bought by Wartski for a private collector.^[25] All 6 of the missing Imperial Eggs belonged to Maria Feodorovna.^[26]

After the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks nationalized the House of Fabergé, and the Fabergé family fled to Switzerland, where Peter Carl Fabergé died in 1920.^[27] The imperial family's palaces were ransacked and their treasures moved to the Kremlin Armoury on order of Vladimir Lenin.^[27]

In a bid to acquire more foreign currency, Joseph Stalin had many of the eggs sold in 1927, after their value had been appraised by Agathon Fabergé. Between 1930 and 1933, 14 imperial eggs left Russia. Many of the eggs were sold to Armand Hammer (president of Occidental Petroleum and a personal friend of Lenin, whose father was founder of the United States Communist Party) and to Emanuel Snowman of the London antique dealers Wartski.

After the collection in the Kremlin Armoury, the largest gathering of Fabergé eggs was assembled by Malcolm Forbes, and displayed in New York City. Totaling nine eggs, and approximately 180 other Fabergé objects, the collection was to be put up for auction at Sotheby's in February 2004 by Forbes' heirs. However, before the auction began, the collection was purchased in its entirety by the oligarch Victor Vekselberg.^[28] In a 2013 BBC Four documentary, Vekselberg revealed he had spent just over $100 million purchasing the nine Fabergé eggs.^[29] He claims never to have displayed them in his home, saying he bought them as they are important to Russian history and culture, and he believed them to be the best jewelry art in the world. In the same BBC documentary, Vekselberg revealed he plans to open a museum that will display the eggs in his collection,^[29] which was built as a private Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia on 19 November 2013.^{[note 2][30]}

In November 2007, a Fabergé clock, named by Christie's auction house the Rothschild Egg, sold at auction for £8.9 million (including commission).^[31] The price achieved by the egg set three auction records: it is the most expensive timepiece, Russian object, and Fabergé object ever sold at auction, surpassing the $9.6 million sale of the 1913 Winter Egg in 2002.^[32][33]

In 1989, as part of the San Diego Arts Festival, 26 Fabergé eggs were loaned for display at the San Diego Museum of Art, the largest exhibition of Fabergé eggs anywhere since the Russian Revolution.^[34] The eggs included eight from the Kremlin,^{[note 3]} nine from the Forbes collection,^{[note 4]} three from the New Orleans Museum of Art,^{[note 5]} two from the Royal Collection^{[note 6]} one from the Cleveland Museum of Art^{[note 7]} and three from private collections.^{[note 8]}

Location of the "Imperial" eggs[]

Location of the Kelch eggs[]

Location of the other eggs[]

In popular culture[]

Fabergé eggs have acquired a cult status in the art world and popular culture. Featured in exhibitions, films, TV series, documentaries, cartoons, publications, and the news, they continue to intrigue. They have become symbols of the splendor, power and wealth of the Romanov dynasty and the Russian Empire, priceless treasures to hunt, steal, etc.

As such, they have been part of the plot in several films and television series, such as Octopussy (1983), Mr. Belvedere (1985), Love Among Thieves (1987), Murder She Wrote episode "An Egg to Die For" (1994), The Simpsons episode "'Round Springfield" (1995), Case Closed: The Last Wizard of the Century (1999), The Order (2001), Relic Hunter episode "M.I.A." (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004), The Simpsons episode "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas" (2005),Thick as Thieves (2009), a 2010 episode of the TV series Leverage ("The Zanzibar Marketplace Job"), the American Dad! episode "A Jones for a Smith" (2010), The Intouchables (2011), Hustle episode "Eat Yourself Slender" (2012), Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "The House of the Nightmare Witch" (2012),^[35] Person of Interest episode "Search and Destroy" (2015), Imperial Eight (2015),^[36] the British crime drama series Peaky Blinders ("Lilies of the Valley" egg, season 3, episode 6, 2016), Hooten & the Lady episode "Moscow" (2016),^[37] Game Night (2018), Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019), Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020), and Lupin (2021).

In Danielle Steele's 1988 novel Zoya, a Fabergé egg is a keepsake of the last two remaining members of a noble family. The 2011 digital card game Cabals: Magic & Battle Cards features Fabergé egg as a collectible card.

In M. J. Rose's 2021 novel The Last Tiara, the main character discovers a Fabergé tiara in her late mother's apartment. This discovery sets her off on a journey to discover how her the tiara came into her mother's possession and if her father, a Fabergé workman, was involved.

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fabergé eggs.

• Tatiana Fabergé
• Fauxbergé
• Egg decorating
• Guilloché
• Argyle Library Egg

References[]

Footnotes[]

Citations[]

Bibliography[]

Further reading[]

External links[]

• Fabergé Imperial Egg Chronology at Fabergé Research Site by Christel Ludewig McCanless
• Empress Marie Feodorovna's Missing Fabergé Easter Eggs, article by Annemiek Wintraecken and Christel Ludewing McCanless
• Playlist on Fabergé eggs; documentaries, lectures, etc.
• Details on each of the Fabergé Eggs
• BYU article on the eggs
• Site by Annemiek Wintraecken, details on each of the Fabergé Eggs
• BBC: Fabergé: The iconic maker of bespoke jewellery