Fabergé_egg

The Moscow Kremlin egg, 1906.
A Fabergé egg is considered to be any one of the sixty-nine[1] jeweled eggs made by Peter Carl Fabergé and his assistants between 1885 and 1917. Fifty of those eggs—known as the Imperial Fabergé Easter eggs—were made and presented to Czars Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia,[2] initially as gifts for their wives, the Tsarinas. At that time, a tradition was started within the royal Russian family that included making a jeweled egg to commemorate Holy Days and special celebrations.
Each Fabergé egg is custom made of precious metals or hard stones decorated with combinations of enamel and gemstones. Every egg is unique and the designs, at least initially, included a surprise inside.

Contents

1 History
2 The Eggs

2.1 List of Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs
2.2 Other Imperial eggs
2.3 List of Fabergé Kelch eggs
2.4 Other Fabergé eggs


3 Locations of the eggs
4 Gallery
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
8 Credits



The name Fabergé Egg has become synonymous with luxury and opulence. Today they are valued not only as masterpieces of decorative art, but the original Imperial eggs are also regarded as part of the legacy and historical record connected to the last days of the Romanov Dynasty.

 Bouquet of Lilies Clock egg.
History
In 1885, under the commission of Czar Alexander III of Russia, Carl Fabergé and his goldsmiths designed and constructed the first Imperial egg. It was presented as an Easter gift for the Tsar's wife Maria Fyodorovna.[3]
On the outside it looked like a simple egg of white enameled gold, but upon opening, it revealed 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 "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 on a nearly annual basis. Once an initial design was approved, the work was carried out by an entire team of artisans under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé. Among the designers were Michael Perkhin, Henrik Wigström and Erik August Kollin. At the peak of his production Faberge employed hundreds of craftsmen in his St. Petersburg studio, however, it was his own ingenuity and inventiveness that drove the success of his business.
The Imperial eggs soon garnered international fame, as members of royalty in Europe became aware of them. Fabergé went on to make fifteen more (known) eggs for private clients. Among them were a series of twelve Easter eggs commissioned by Alexander Ferdinandovich Kelch, a Siberian gold mine industrialist. These eggs were not as extravagant as the Imperial eggs, and were not as unique in design; they often copied the originals.
Two additional eggs were planned and designed (but never delivered); they were the Constellation and Karelian Birch eggs of 1917. The Constellation Egg was the last Fabergé egg created. Due to the tumultuous events surrounding the Russian Revolution of 1917, the egg was never finished or presented to Tsar Nicholas' wife, the Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna.
At the time of the Bolshevik Revolution only one, the 1916 Order of St. George egg, managed to escape, along with its owner, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna to Europe.[4] The rest remained in Petrograd.
Following the Revolution, the House of Fabergé was nationalized by the Bolsheviks, and the Fabergé family fled to Switzerland, where Peter Carl Fabergé died in 1920. The Romanov palaces were ransacked and their treasures moved by order of Vladimir Lenin to the Kremlin Armoury. In the process of being sequestered away some were destroyed or lost.[5]
In 1927, in a bid to acquire more foreign currency, Joseph Stalin had many of the eggs sold after having them 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.

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

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
1885-1889 Resurrection
1899-1903 Spring Flowers
List of Fabergé Kelch eggs
1898 Kelch Hen
1899 Twelve Panel
1900 Pine Cone
1901 Apple Blossom
1902 Rocaille
1903 Kelch Bonbonnière
1904 Kelch Chanticleer
Other Fabergé eggs
1885-1891 Blue Enamel Ribbed
1899-1903 Scandinavian
1902 Duchess of Marlborough
1902 Rothschild
1907 Youssoupov
1914 Nobel Ice
1917 Night
Unknown date Lapis Lazuli
Locations of the eggs
The largest gathering of Fabergé eggs, after the Kremlin Armoury's, was assembled by Malcolm Forbes, and displayed in New York City. The collection, totaling nine eggs, and including approximately 180 other Faberge objects d'art, was put up for auction at Sotheby's in February 2004 by Forbes' heirs. Before the auction even began the Forbes collection was purchased in its entirety by the oligarch Victor Vekselberg for a sum estimated between $90 and $120 million. The imperial eggs in the collection included the first egg, the Hen Egg and the famed Coronation Egg (featured in the 2004 film Ocean's 12.)[6]
In 2001 the Constellation was found at the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow, where it is currently on display. The egg is made of dark blue glass and is studded with diamonds. It is engraved with the star constellation of the day of Nicholas II's birth. It rests on a base made of quartz. The egg was supposed to have a silver rim around it, but lacks the original rim, clockwork motion and dial, as well as the larger part of the diamond stars, since it remained unfinished.[7]
The Karelian Birch egg was the second to last Fabergé egg made, before the Constellation. It was considered lost until 2001, when a private collector who had owned it since 1927 sold it to the State Historical Museum in Moscow.
With the advent of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the eggs were ultimately scattered throughout the world; some were lost or destroyed; others were later rediscovered and purchased by collectors.
The Karelian egg is made from birch panels set in a gold frame. The departure in design from previous eggs, which were far more ornate and gilded, was due to rising discontent with the monarchy and declining fortunes as a result of World War I. Its surprise was a miniature mechanical elephant, which could be wound with a small jewel-encrusted key.
In November 2007, a Fabergé clock, named by Christie's auction house as the 'Rothschild Egg' sold at auction for £8.9 million ($17.4 million), including commission.[8] The sale price set two records for auction: first, for being the most expensive timepiece ever sold at auction and, the second, being the most expensive Russian object—including previous Faberge Eggs—ever sold at auction; even surpassing the 2002 $9.6 million sale of the 1913 Winter egg.
Of the eight lost Imperial eggs, photographs only exist of two[9]—the 1903 Royal Danish, and the 1909 Alexander III Commemorative eggs.



Location of the Fabergé eggs

Number


Imperial:

54


Kremlin Armory Museum, (Moscow, Russia)

10


Viktor Vekselberg collection, (Russia) (formerly Forbes)

9


Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, (Richmond, Virginia, USA)

5


Royal Collection, (London, UK)

3


Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation. Displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (New York City, United States)

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


Alexander Ivanov. Displayed at Ivanov's Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden, Germany.

1


The State of Qatar

1


Private Collections

4


Location Unknown

8


Kelch:

7


Viktor Vekselberg collection, (Russia) (formerly Forbes)

2


Royal Collection, (London, UK)

1


Private Collections

4


Others:

8


Viktor Vekselberg collection, (Russia) (formerly Forbes)

4


Edouard and Maurice Sandoz Foundation, (Switzerland)

1


Hermitage Museum, (Saint Petersburg, Russia)

1


Private Collections

2



Gallery




'Alexander III Equestrian' Egg.






The Memory of Azov Egg.






The Peter The Great Egg.






The Imperial Coronation Egg.






Romanov Tercentenary Egg.






Faberge Train Egg.






Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II presented this Clover egg as an Easter gift to his wife, Alexandra Fyodorovna.






Basket of Flowers Egg.






Twelve Monogram Egg.






Gatchina Palace Egg.




Notes

↑ List of Fabergé eggs Mieks. Retrieved August 5, 2019.

↑ Tatiana Faberge, Lynette G. Proler, and Valentin V. Skurlov, The Faberge Imperial Easter Eggs (Christie, Manson, & Woods Intl Inc., 1997, ISBN 090343248X), 90.

↑ The first Hen egg Mieks. Retrieved August 8, 2019.

↑ 1916 Order of Saint George Egg/Cross of Saint George Egg Mieks. Retrieved August 8, 2019.

↑ Faberge Eggs - the fate of the eggs PBS.org. Retrieved August 8, 2019.

↑ Carol Vogel, Russian Industrialist Buys Fabled Forbes Fabergé Eggs The New York Times, February 4, 2004. Retrieved August 8, 2019.

↑ 1917 Blue Tsarevich Constellation Egg Mieks. Retrieved August 8, 2019.

↑ The clock was previously documented and had been published in 1964 in L'Objet 1900 by Maurice Rheims, plate 29.

↑ Alan Farnham, Egg Hunting, Pro Division Forbes.com, April 12, 2004. Retrieved August 8, 2019.


ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Faber, Toby. Fabergé's eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces that Outlived an Empire. London: Macmillan, 2008. ISBN 140006550X
Faberge, Tatiana, Lynette G. Proler, and Valentin V. Skurlov. The Faberge Imperial Easter Eggs. Christie, Manson, & Woods Intl Inc., 1997. ISBN 090343248X
Lowes, Will, and Christel Ludewig McCanless. Faberge eggs. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow, 2001. ISBN 0810839466
Solodkoff, A. von, and Christopher Forbes. Masterpieces from the House of Fabergé. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1984. ISBN 0810909335
External links
All links retrieved August 3, 2019.

Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs
Faberge egg sold for record £8.9m 

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