Fabergé egg

The Moscow Kremlin egg, 1906.
Bouquet of Lilies Clock egg.

A Fabergé egg is any one of sixty-nine[1] jeweled eggs made by Peter Carl Fabergé and his assistants between 1885 and 1917.

Fifty Imperial Fabergé Easter eggs were made and presented to Czars Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia[2]. A further two eggs were planned but not delivered, the Constellation and Karelian Birch eggs of 1917.

Seven of the eggs were made for the Kelch family of Moscow.[3]

The eggs are made of precious metals or hard stones decorated with combinations of enamel and gem stones. The term "Fabergé egg" has become a synonym of luxury and the eggs are regarded as masterpieces of the jeweller's art.

Contents

History

Carl Fabergé and his goldsmiths designed and constructed the first egg in 1885. It was commissioned by Czar Alexander III of Russia as an Easter surprise for his wife Maria Fyodorovna.[4]

On the outside it looked like a simple egg of white enamelled gold, but it opened up to reveal a golden yolk. The yolk itself had a golden hen inside it, which in turn had a tiny crown with a ruby hanging inside, reminiscent of the matryoshka nesting dolls.

Empress Maria was so delighted by this gift that Alexander appointed Fabergé a "Court Supplier" and commissioned an Easter gift each year thereafter, stipulating only that it be unique and contain a surprise. His son, Nicholas II of Russia continued the tradition, annually presenting an egg each spring to his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna as well as his then-widowed mother.

From 1885, the eggs were produced almost every year. Once an initial design was approved, the work was carried out by an entire team of artisans under Peter Carl Fabergé, among them Michael Perkhin, Henrik Wigström and Erik August Kollin.

The Imperial eggs enjoyed such fame that Fabergé made some 15 known eggs for private clients. Among them is a series of 7 eggs made for the industrialist Alexander Kelch. In addition, 8 eggs were made. They are not as extravagant as the Imperial eggs, and are not as original, often repeating designs that originated with the Imperial eggs.

List of Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs

  • 1885 Hen
  • 1886 Hen with Sapphire Pendant†
  • 1887 Blue Serpent Clock
  • 1888 Cherub with Chariot†
  • 1889 Necessaire†
  • 1890 Danish Palaces
  • 1891 Memory of Azov
  • 1892 Diamond Trellis
  • 1893 Caucasus
  • 1894 Renaissance
  • 1895 Rosebud
  • 1895 Twelve Monograms
  • 1896 Revolving Miniatures
  • 1896 Alexander III Portraits†
  • 1897 Coronation
  • 1897 Doweger (or Pelican)
  • 1898 Lilies of the Valley
  • 1898 Mauve†
  • 1899 Bouquet of Lilies Clock
  • 1899 Pansy
  • 1900 Trans-Siberian Railway
  • 1900 Cockerel
  • 1901 Basket of Wild Flowers
  • 1901 Gatchina Palace
  • 1902 Clover Leaf
  • 1902 Empire Nephrite†
  • 1903 Peter the Great
  • 1903 Royal Danish†
  • 1904 No eggs known
  • 1905 No eggs known
  • 1906 Moscow Kremlin
  • 1906 Swan
  • 1907 Rose Trellis
  • 1907 Cradle with Garlands
  • 1908 Alexander Palace
  • 1908 Peacock
  • 1909 Standart Yacht
  • 1909 Alexander III Commemorative†
  • 1910 Colonnade
  • 1910 Alexander III Equestrian
  • 1911 Fifteenth Anniversary
  • 1911 Bay Tree
  • 1912 Czarevich
  • 1912 Napoleonic
  • 1913 Romanov Tercentenary
  • 1913 Winter
  • 1914 Mosaic
  • 1914 Grisaille
  • 1915 Red Cross with Triptych
  • 1915 Red Cross with Imperial Portraits
  • 1916 Steel Military
  • 1916 Order of St. George
  • 1917 Karelian Birch
  • 1917 Constellation
† Indicates missing egg

Other Imperial eggs

List of Fabergé Kelch eggs

Other Fabergé eggs

Location of eggs

Location of the Fabergé eggs Number
Imperial: 54
Viktor Vekselberg collection, (Russia) (formerly Forbes) 11
Kremlin Armory Museum, (Moscow, Russia) 10
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, (Richmond, Virginia, USA) 5
New Orleans Museum of Art, (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA) 3
Royal Collection, (London, UK) 3
Edouard and Maurice Sandoz Foundation, (Switzerland) 2
Hillwood Museum, (Washington, D.C, USA) 2
Walters Art Museum, (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) 2
Cleveland Museum of Art, (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) 1
Albert II of Monaco collection, (Monte-Carlo, Monaco) 1
Russian National Museum, (Moscow, Russia) 1
Fersman Mineralogical Institute, (Moscow, Russia) 1
Private Collection 4
Location Unknown 8
Kelch: 7
Viktor Vekselberg collection, (Russia) (formerly Forbes) 2
Royal Collection, (London, UK) 1
Private Collection 4
Others: 8
Viktor Vekselberg collection, (Russia) (formerly Forbes) 2
Cleveland Museum of Art, (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) 1
Edouard and Maurice Sandoz Foundation, (Switzerland) 1
Russian National Museum, (Moscow, Russia) 1
Private Collection 3

Of the sixty-nine known Fabergé eggs, only sixty-one have survived to the present day. The vast majority of them are stored in public museums, with the greatest number, thirty, in Russia. There are fifty-four known Imperial eggs, only forty-six of which have survived.

Of the lost eight Imperial eggs, photographs only exist of two,[5] the 1903 Royal Danish, and the 1909 Alexander III Commemorative eggs.

Only one, 1916's Order of St. George egg, left Bolshevik Russia with its original recipient, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.[6] The rest remained in Petrograd.

Following the Russian Revolution, the House of Fabergé was nationalized by the Bolsheviks, and the Fabergé family fled to Switzerland, where Peter Carl Fabergé died in 1920.[7] The Romanov palaces were ransacked and their treasures moved on order of Vladimir Lenin to the Kremlin Armoury.[8]

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 fourteen 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 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. Totalling nine eggs, and approximately 180 other Fabergé objects, the collection was put up for auction at Sotheby's in February 2004 by Forbes' heirs. Before the auction even began the collection was purchased in its entirety by the oligarch Victor Vekselberg for a sum estimated between $90 and $120 million. [9]

In November 2007, a Fabergé clock, named by Christie's auction house as the Rothschild egg sold at auction for £8.9 million (including commission).[10] The price achieved set two records for auction: it is the most expensive timepiece ever sold at auction and the most expensive Russian object, including previous Faberge Eggs, ever sold at auction, surpassing the $9.6 million sale of the 1913 Winter egg in 2002.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.mieks.com/Faberge2/Eggs.htm List of Fabergé eggs from mieks.com
  2. ↑ The Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs,by Fabergé, Skurlov, Proler, London, 1997, page 90. ISBN 0-90343-248-X
  3. ↑ http://www.mieks.com/Faberge2/Kelch-Eggs/Kelch-Eggs.htm Story of the Kelch eggs from mieks.com
  4. ↑ http://www.mieks.com/Faberge2/1885-Hen-Egg.htm Article on the first Hen egg
  5. ↑ Egg Hunting, Pro Division - Forbes.com
  6. ↑ Faberge - Treasures of Imperial Russia
  7. ↑ Faberge Eggs - the fate of the eggs
  8. ↑ Faberge Eggs - the fate of the eggs
  9. ↑ Energy Tribune
  10. ↑ The clock was previously documented and had been published in 1964 in L'Objet 1900 by Maurice Rheims, plate 29

External links