A Fabergé egg (Russian: Яйца Фаберже; Yaĭtsa Faberzhe) is any one of the thousands of jeweled eggs made by the House of Fabergé from 1885 to 1917. Most were miniature eggs that were popular gifts at Eastertide. They were worn on a neck chain either singly or in groups.
The most famous eggs produced by the House were the larger ones made for Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia; these are often referred to as the 'Imperial' Fabergé eggs. Of the 50 made, 42 have survived.[1] A further two eggs, the Constellation and Karelian Birch eggs, were planned for 1918 but not delivered, as Nicholas II and his family were assassinated that year, and Nicholas had abdicated the crown the year before.
Seven large eggs were made for the Kelch family of Moscow.[2]
The eggs are made of precious metals or hard stones decorated with combinations of enamel and gem stones. The Fabergé egg has become a symbol of luxury, and the eggs are regarded as masterpieces of the jeweler's art.
'Fabergé egg' typically refers to products made by the company before the 1917 Revolution, but use of the Fabergé name has occasionally been disputed, and the trademark has been sold several times since the Fabergé family left Russia after 1917 (see House of Fabergé), so several companies have subsequently retailed egg-related merchandise using the Fabergé name. The trademark is currently owned by Fabergé Limited, which also makes egg-themed jewellery[3].
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The first Fabergé egg was crafted for Tsar Alexander III, who 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 Wilhelmine Marie of Denmark, which had captivated Maria’s imagination in her childhood. Known as the Hen Egg, it 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 multi-coloured gold hen that also opens. It contains a minute diamond replica of the Imperial Crown from which a small ruby pendant was suspended. Unfortunately, these last two surprises have been lost.[4]
Empress Maria was so delighted by this gift that Alexander appointed Fabergé a ‘goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial Crown’. He commissioned another egg the following year. After that, Peter Carl Fabergé, who headed the House, was apparently given complete freedom for future Imperial Easter Eggs, as from this date their designs become more elaborate. According to the Fabergé family tradition, not even the Tsar knew what form they would take: the only requirement was that each one should contain a surprise. Following the death of Alexander III on November 1, 1894, his son presented a Fabergé egg to both his wife, the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, and to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna.
No eggs were made for 1904 and 1905 because of the Russo-Japanese War. Once an initial design had been approved by Peter Carl Fabergé, the work was carried out by an entire team of craftsmen, among them Michael Perkhin, Henrik Wigström and Erik August Kollin.
The Imperial eggs enjoyed great fame, and Fabergé made some other large eggs for a few select private clients, such as the Duchess of Marlborough, the Nobels, the Rothschilds and the Yusupovs. A series of seven eggs was made for the industrialist Alexander Kelch.
In the 1983 James Bond movie Octopussy, a Faberge egg is the object of a bidding war between James Bond and Kamal Khan. Bond replaces the real egg with a dummy egg that contains a recording device.
Below there is given a chronology of the eggs made for the imperal family, though there has been dispute about the dates of some eggs. An alternative chronology dates the Blue Serpent Clock Egg as made in 1895, and states that the Twelve Monograms egg is in fact the supposedly lost Alexander III Portraits egg, made in 1896. Thus, according to this chronology, the 1887 "Gold egg with clock" would be in fact lost.
Of the 65 known large Fabergé eggs,[5] only 57 have survived to the present day. Ten of the Imperial Easter Eggs are displayed at the Kremlin Armoury Museum, Moscow in Russia. Of the 50 known Imperial eggs, 42 have survived.
Of the eight lost Imperial eggs, photographs exist of only two,[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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, 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 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 the Rothschild egg, sold at auction for £8.9 million (including commission).[10] 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.[11][12]
| Location of the Fabergé eggs | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| Imperial: | 42 | |
| Viktor Vekselberg collection, Russia (formerly Forbes) | 9 | |
| Kremlin Armoury, Moscow, Russia | 10 | |
| Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA | 5 | |
| Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee, 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 | |
| The State of Qatar | 1 | |
| Private Collections, USA | 3 | |
| 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 |
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