Fabergé egg

Rose Trellis egg

The Moscow Kremlin egg, 1906.

A Fabergé egg (Russian: Яйца Фаберже́; yaytsa faberzhe) is one of a limited number of jeweled eggs created by Peter Carl Fabergé and his company between 1885 and 1917. The most famous are those made for the Russian Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II as Easter gifts for their wives and mothers, often called the 'Imperial' Fabergé eggs. The House of Fabergé made about 50 eggs, of which 43 have survived. Two more were planned for Easter 1918, but were not delivered, due to the Russian Revolution.

After the revolution, the Fabergé family left Russia (see House of Fabergé). The Fabergé trademark has since been sold several times and several companies have retailed egg-related merchandise using the Fabergé name. The Victor Mayer jewelry company produced limited edition heirloom quality Fabergé eggs authorized under Unilever's license from 1998 to 2009. The trademark is now owned by Fabergé Limited, which makes egg-themed jewelry.

History

The first Fabergé egg was crafted for Tsar Alexander III, who had decided to give his wife, the Empress Maria Fedorovna, an Easter Egg in 1885, possibly to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their betrothal. It is believed that the Tsar’s inspiration for the piece was an egg owned by the Empress’s aunt, Princess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark, which had captivated Maria’s imagination in her childhood. Known as the Hen Egg, the first Fabergé egg is crafted from gold. Its opaque white enameled "shell" opens to reveal its first surprise, a matte yellow-gold yolk. This in turn opens to reveal a multicolored gold hen that also opens. The hen contained a minute diamond replica of the imperial crown from which a small ruby pendant was suspended, but these last two elements have been lost.

Empress 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 for the design of 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 requirement was that each contain a surprise. Once Peter Carl 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.

After Alexander III's death on November 1, 1894, his son Nicholas II presented a Fabergé egg to both his wife, Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, and his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna. Eggs were made each year except 1904 and 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War.

The Imperial eggs enjoyed great fame, and Fabergé was commissioned to make similar eggs for a few private clients, including the Duchess of Marlborough, the Rothschild family and the Yusupovs. Fabergé also made a series of seven eggs for the industrialist Alexander Kelch.

List of the eggs

List of Fabergé Tsar Imperial Easter eggs

Below is a chronology of the eggs made for the imperial family. The dating of the eggs has evolved over time. 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.

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 Peter Carl Fabergé's supervision. It was delivered to Tsar 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.	LOST
1887	Third Imperial Egg		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. In 2014, it was purchased by London-based jeweler Wartski on behalf of an unidentified private collector.	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	125px	Crafted and delivered to Alexander III, who presented it to his wife, Maria Feodorovna, on Easter 1889.	LOST
1890	Danish Palaces		Crafted and delivered to Alexander III, who presented it to his wife, Maria Feodorovna, on Easter 1890.	Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation and housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, planned to be till 2016.
1891	Memory of Azov			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1892	Diamond Trellis			Private Collection
1893	Caucasus			Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation. Displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York.
1894	Renaissance			Viktor Vekselberg
1895	Rosebud			Viktor Vekselberg
1895	Blue Serpent Clock		Before March 2014 mistaken for the third imperial egg	Albert II of Monaco collection, Monte-Carlo, Monaco
1896	Rock Crystal		Also known as Revolving Miniatures Egg	Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
1896	Twelve Monograms		Also known as the Alexander III Portraits Egg. Surprise is missing.	Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C., USA
1897	Imperial Coronation Egg			Viktor Vekselberg
1897	Mauve		Only the Egg's surprise has survived.	LOST Viktor Vekselberg
1898	Lilies-of-the-Valley		Made under the supervision of the Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé in 1898 by Fabergé ateliers. The supervising goldsmith was Michael Perchin. The egg is one of two in Art Nouveau style. It was presented on April 5 to Tsar Nicholas II, and was used as a gift to the tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna.	Viktor Vekselberg
1898	Pelican			Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA
1899	Bouquet of Lilies Clock			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1899	Pansy			Private Collection
1900	Trans-Siberian Railway			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1900	Cockerel			Viktor Vekselberg
1901	Basket of Wild Flowers			Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom
1901	Gatchina Palace			Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
1902	Clover Leaf			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1902	Empire Nephrite			LOST
1903	Peter the Great			Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA
1903	Royal Danish			LOST
1904	No eggs made
1905	No eggs made
1906	Moscow Kremlin			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1906	Swan			Edouard and Maurice Sandoz Foundation, Switzerland
1907	Rose Trellis			Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
1907	Love Trophies (also known as the 'Cradle with Garlands' egg)			Private Collection
1908	Alexander Palace			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1908	Peacock			Edouard and Maurice Sandoz Foundation, 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	Czarevich or Tsarevich			Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA
1912	Napoleonic			Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation. Displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
1913	Romanov Tercentenary			Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia
1913	Winter			The State of Qatar
1914	Mosaic			Royal Collection, London, UK
1914	Grisaille (also known as the Catherine the Great Egg)		The egg was made by Henrik Wigström, "Fabergé's last head workmaster". It was given to Maria Fedrovna by her son Nicholas II. Its surprise (now lost) was "a mechanical sedan chair, carried by two blackamoors, with Catherine the Great seated inside".	Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C., USA
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, USA
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. The Order of St. George egg and its counterpart the Steel Military egg were given a modest design in keeping with the austerity of World War I, and Fabergé billed 13,347 rubles for the two. The Order of St. George egg left Bolshevik Russia with its original recipient, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.	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. But before the egg could be delivered, the February Revolution took place and Nicholas II was forced to abdicate on March 15. On April 25, 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 looted in the wake of the October Revolution later that year.	Alexander Ivanov. Displayed at Ivanov's Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden, Germany.
1917	Constellation (unfinished)		Because of the Russian Revolution of 1917, this egg was never finished or presented to Tsar Nicholas's wife, the Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna. Two eggs have claims to be the Constellation egg: one held at Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow and the other in the possession of Alexander Ivanov and displayed at Ivanov's Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden, Germany.	Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Moscow or the Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden.

List of the Kelch eggs

Eggs were ordered by Alexander Kelch who gave them to his wife Barbara (Varvara) Kelch-Bazanova.

Date	Egg	Image	Description	Owner
1898	Hen			Viktor Vekselberg
1899	Twelve Panel			Royal Collection, London, UK
1900	Pine Cone			Private Collection
1901	Apple Blossom			Private Collection
1902	Rocaille			Private Collection
1903	Bonbonnière			Private Collection
1904	Chanticleer			Viktor Vekselberg

Other Fabergé eggs

Date	Egg	Image	Description	Owner
1885–91	Blue Striped Enamel			Private Collection
1902	Duchess of Marlborough			Viktor Vekselberg
1902	Rothschild			Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
1907	Youssoupov			Edouard and Maurice Sandoz Foundation, Switzerland
1914	Nobel Ice			Private Collection
1885–89	Resurrection			Viktor Vekselberg
1899–1903	Spring Flowers			Viktor Vekselberg
1899–1903	Scandinavian			Viktor Vekselberg

Location of eggs

Of the 65 known Fabergé eggs, 57 have survived to the present day. Ten of the Imperial Easter eggs are displayed at Moscow's Kremlin Armory Museum. Of the 50 known Imperial eggs, 43 have survived, and there are photographs of three of the seven lost eggs: the 1903 Royal Danish egg, the 1909 Alexander III Commemorative egg, and the Nécessaire Egg of 1889. The previously lost Third Imperial Easter Egg of 1887 has since been found in the USA and bought by Wartski for a private collector.

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. The Imperial Family's palaces were ransacked and their treasures moved to the Kremlin Armoury on order of Vladimir Lenin.

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. In a 2013 BBC Four documentary, Vekselberg revealed he had spent just over $100 Million purchasing the nine Fabergé eggs. 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, which is built as a private museum Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia on November 19, 2013.

In November 2007, a Fabergé clock, named by Christie's auction house the Rothschild egg, sold at auction for £8.9 million (including commission). 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.

In 1989, as part of the San Diego Arts Festival, 26 Faberge eggs were loaned for display at the San Diego Museum of Art, the largest exhibition of Faberge eggs anywhere since the Russian Revolution. The eggs included eight from the Kremlin, nine from the Forbes collection, three from the New Orleans Museum of Art, two from the Royal Collection one from the Cleveland Museum of Art and three from private collections.

Location of the Imperial Eggs

Location/Owner	Image	Number of Eggs	Eggs in collection
Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia		10	Memory of Azov, Bouquet of Lilies Clock, Trans-Siberian Railway, Clover Leaf, Moscow Kremlin, Alexander Palace, Standart Yacht, Alexander III Equestrian, Romanov Tercentenary, Steel Military
Viktor Vekselberg's Link of Times foundation, Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia		9	Hen, Renaissance, Rosebud, Coronation, Lilies of the Valley, Cockerel, Fifteenth Anniversary, Bay Tree, Order of St. George
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA		5	Revolving Miniatures, Pelican, Peter the Great, Czarevich, Red Cross with Imperial Portraits
Royal Collection, London, UK		3	Basket of Wild Flowers, Colonnade, Mosaic
Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation. Displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA		3	Danish Palaces, Caucasus, Napoleonic
Edouard and Maurice Sandoz Foundation, Lausanne, Switzerland	125px	2	Swan, Peacock
Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C., USA		2	Alexander III Portraits, Grisaille
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, USA		2	Gatchina Palace, Rose Trellis
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA		1	Red Cross with Triptych
Albert II of Monaco collection, Monte-Carlo, Monaco		1	Blue Serpent Clock
Alexander Ivanov. Displayed at Ivanov's Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden, Germany.		1	Karelian Birch (the egg was never delivered to the Tsar due to the February Revolution)
The State of Qatar		1	Winter
Separate Private Collections		4	Diamond Trellis, Pansy, Love Trophies The Third Imperial Egg

Location of the Kelch Eggs

Location/Owner	Image	Number of Eggs	Eggs in collection
Viktor Vekselberg's Link of Times foundation, Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia		2	Kelch Hen, Chanticleer
Royal Collection, London, UK		1	Twelve Panel
Separate Private Collections		4	Pine Cone, Apple Blossom, Rocaille, Bonbonniére

Location of the Other Eggs

Location/Owner	Image	Number of Eggs	Eggs in collection
Viktor Vekselberg's Link of Times foundation, Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia		4	Duchess of Marlborough, Resurrection, Spring Flowers, Scandinavian
Edouard and Maurice Sandoz Foundation, Lausanne, Switzerland	125px	1	Youssoupov
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia		1	Rothschild
Separate Private Collections		2	Blue Striped Enamel, Nobel Ice

See also

• Egg decorating
• Guilloché
• Argyle Library Egg

References

Further reading

• Toby Faber. Faberge's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire (New York: Random House, 2008) ISBN 978-1-4000-6550-9
• Gerald Hill. Faberge and the Russian Master Goldsmiths (New York: Universe, 2007) ISBN 978-0-7893-9970-0

External links

• Mieks; website on pictures, history, whereabouts... of Fabergé eggs
• Fabergé Research Site by Christel Ludewig McCanless
• Details on each of the Fabergé Eggs
• BYU article on the eggs
• Fabergé Fine Jewellery
• Timeline of Fabergé Tsar Imperial Easter eggs