Fabergé egg

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 Feodorovna received 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 Peter Carl Fabergé to create the jeweled egg.[4] The inspiration for the egg is believed to come from 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 then opened to revealed 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 creation's cost was then 4,151 rubles.[2] Just 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 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 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.

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, 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 was also commissioned to make twelve eggs for the industrialist Alexander Kelch, though only seven appear to have been completed.

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. 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.[10]

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[22] 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.[15] The previously lost Third Imperial Easter Egg of 1887 has since been found in the US and bought by Wartski for a private collector.[23]

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.[24] The imperial family's palaces were ransacked and their treasures moved to the Kremlin Armoury on order of Vladimir Lenin.[24]

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.[25] In a 2013 BBC Four documentary, Vekselberg revealed he had spent just over $100 million purchasing the nine Fabergé eggs.[26] 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,[26] which was built as a private Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia on 19 November 2013.[note 2][27]

In November 2007, a Fabergé clock, named by Christie's auction house the Rothschild Egg, sold at auction for £8.9 million (including commission).[28] 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.[29][30]

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.[31] 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]

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), 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), Thick as Thieves (2009), a 2010 episode of the TV series Leverage (TV series) (“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),[32] Person of Interest episode "Search and Destroy" (2015), Imperial Eight (2015),[33] the British crime drama series Peaky Blinders ("Lilies of the Valley" egg, season 3, episode 6, 2016), Hooten & the Lady episode "Moscow" (2016),[34] Game Night (2018), Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019), and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020).

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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fabergé eggs.

• Egg decorating
• Guilloché
• Argyle Library Egg

• 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