Jewel__A_Celebration_of_Earth_s_Treasures

FABERGÉ EASTER EGGS 279

Key dates

1793–2013

1800

1900

1910

1925

1950

2000

2015

1793 Catherine the

Great commissions the

coach that appears in

1885 Carl Fabergé the Coronation Egg

produces his first Easter

egg – the Hen Egg –

for a Russian Emperor

2013 Viktor Vekselberg,

owner of the single largest

collection of Fabergé eggs

in the world, opens Fabergé

Museum in St Petersburg

Bolshevik poster from

the Russian Revolution

Monsieur

Fa bergé’s

work reaches

the limits of

perfection

Review

Paris Exposition Universelle, 1900

Fabergé Easter eggs

Carl Fabergé’s workshop in St Petersburg, Russia,

pictured around 1910, after Carl and his brother Agathon

expanded their business to increase capacity

△ Coronation Egg, which contained a replica of Tsarina Alexandra’s coronation coach

Tsarina Alexandra,

Empress of Russia

1918 Nicholas and

Alexandra are murdered by

Bolsheviks in the aftermath

of the Russian Revolution

1897 At Easter, Nicholas

presents the Coronation

Egg to Tsarina Alexandra

2007 The Fabergé

family are reunified with

the Fabergé brand,

having lost their rights

to the name in 1920

I

n the Russian Orthodox Church,

Easter has always been the

most important date in the

calendar. After fasting for

weeks during Lent, the faithful

could look forward to the climax

of the celebrations on Easter

Sunday, when eggs – one of

the prohibited foods – would

be exchanged. These ranged

from real, hand-painted eggs

to artificial ones, produced as

presents for ladies. The most

sumptuous of all were the

jewelled eggs created by Carl Fabergé

for the tsarinas (empresses) of Russia.

Fabergé designed his first imperial egg

in 1885, when Alexander III commissioned

one as a gift for his wife. From the outset,

Carl was determined to do more than

simply create an aesthetic arrangement

of valuable gems. Instead, he hoped to

delight his royal client by placing a surprise

within a surprise. Inside his plain, enamelled

Hen Egg, there was a golden yolk,

containing a tiny golden hen. This in

turn could be opened up to

reveal two further surprises:

a miniature, diamond crown

and a ruby pendant.

The Hen Egg proved a

huge success and Fabergé

was engaged to create a similar

gift each year. This became

something of a royal tradition,

lasting for over 30 years, until

the outbreak of the Revolution.

The most exquisite example,

perhaps, is the Coronation Egg,

which was ordered as a gift for

the newly crowned empress, Alexandra.

The “surprise” was a perfect, miniature

replica of the coach that was used in the

ceremony, while the colour scheme of

the egg-shell echoed the design of her

dress. A decade later, in April 1907, the

Tsarina received the Rose Trellis Egg to

commemorate the birth of her first and only

son, Alexei. Decorated with pink enamel

roses and a lattice of rose-cut diamonds,

the egg contained a diamond necklace

and a portrait of the young Tsarevich Alexei.

Lily of the Valley Egg, a gift

from Nicholas to Alexandra

featuring Art Nouveau styling

1927 Joseph Stalin

sells several of the eggs

to enable him to acquire

foreign currency. Many

are taken to the West

1896 The coronation of Tsar

Nicholas II and Alexandra

takes place in Moscow

1907 Nicholas presents

the Rose Trellis Egg to

Alexandra to mark the

birth of Tsarevich Alexei

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