Peter Carl Fabergé, original name Karl Gustavovich Fabergé, (born May 30, 1846, St. Petersburg, Russia, died September 24, 1920, Lausanne, Switzerland), one of the greatest goldsmiths, jewelers, and designers in Western decorative art and jeweler to the Russian imperial court.
Of Huguenot descent and a son of a St. Petersburg jeweler, Fabergé was trained in St. Petersburg, Frankfurt, and Dresden, and he absorbed influences across western Europe with travels to Paris and London. He inherited his father’s business in 1870 and continued to manufacture jewelry and decorative objects while expanding the firm’s concentration to include furniture, functional objects, and, famously, objects of fancy.
Much of his work was inspired by the decorative arts executed under King Louis XVI of France, but the firm also drew from influences that included the traditional arts of Russia and Renaissance Italy as well as from the Rococo style. Some later pieces reflected the emerging Art Nouveau style. Fabergé’s workshop soon became famous for expertly crafted works including flowers, figure groups, bibelots, animals, and, above all, the celebrated imperial Easter eggs. His works were displayed in Moscow’s Pan-Russian Exhibition (1882), where he was awarded a gold medal, that helped to establish his reputation among Russian nobility. In 1885 Fabergé was appointed jeweler and goldsmith to the Russian imperial court. In all, 50 eggs were produced for the imperial family, and each included an element of surprise.
Between 1885 and 1917, Peter Carl Fabergé created a limited number of exclusive jeweled eggs for the Russian Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II as gifts for their wives and mothers.
In the Christian faith, eggs symbolize the empty tomb and resurrection of Jesus—celebrating new life and new beginnings. The Hen Egg was an extravagant extension of the tradition of exchanging decorated eggs for Russian Orthodox Easter.
Welcome to one of the famous landmark of Saint Petersburg and a must-visit during your trip to Russia - Faberge Museum. Come along and learn the history of the famous eggs and see the inside of the museum.
Today, I would like to tell about my top 10 favorite Faberge Eggs.
The Imperial Coronation Fabergé egg
Made in 1897 to commemorate Tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, the Imperial Coronation Fabergé egg is made from gold with translucent lime yellow enamel on a guilloché starburst backdrop meant to represent the cloth-of-gold robe worn by the Tsarina at her Coronation.
The main trellis pattern from the Coronation robe of the Empress has bands of greenish gold laurel leaves with a gold Imperial double-headed eagle set with a rose diamond on its chest.
2. The Catherine the Great Fabergé egg
Made by Fabergé's master craftsman Henrik Wigström in 1914 for Nicholas II as an Easter gift for his mother, Maria Fedorovna.
Pink enamel panels feature miniatures of alegorical scenes in te style of French artist François Boucher.
Inside was a miniature of Catherine the Great being carried in a sedan chair which is now lost to history.
The egg itself is four-color engraved gold, encrusted with 937 tiny diamonds and 500 pearls.
3. The Renaissance Imperial Fabergé Egg
The Renaissance Fabergé egg was made for Alexander III in 1894 as a gift for his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna.
It was the last egg that Alexander gave to Maria.
In 1937, it was sold at auction to Henry Talbot DeVere Clifton and then in 1949 to the Swingline magnates Jack and Belle Linsky.
The Forbes Collection was sold in 2004 to Viktor Vekselberg for almost $100 million.
4. The Third Imperial Fabergé Egg
Tsaritsa Maria Fedorovna was given the Fabergé egg by her husband Tsar Alexander III.
Given to Empress Marie Feodorovna for Easter 1887 by Emperor Alexander III, the jewelled and ridged yellow gold Egg stands on a tripod pedestal of lions paws encircled by coloured gold garlands suspended from cabochon blue sapphires topped with rose diamond set bows.
Inside is a lady’s watch by Vacheron Constantin, with a white enamel dial and diamond set gold hands.
"One night in 2012", a scrap merchant in a mid-western US state went online to research the gold egg he had kept in his kitchen for years. Purchased in around 2002 for $13,302, you can imagine his excitement when he found an article saying it was worth $28m.
5. The Peter the Great Fabergé egg
The Rococo-styled Peter the Great Egg celebrated the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg's founding in 1703.
Red, green and yellow gold, platinum, rose-cut diamonds, rubies, enamel, and rock crystal surround miniature watercolor portraits on ivory.
Laurel leaves and bulrushes chased in 14-carat green gold symbolize the source of the "living waters".
The front painting is the Winter Palace and on the back is a painting of the log cabin believed to be built by Peter the Great 200 years prior on the banks of the Neva River in St Petersburg.
6. The Bouquet of Lilies Clock Fabergé egg
One of the larger Fabergé eggs, decorated with translucent enamel on a guilloché background.
The clock has twelve parts bordered by diamond-studded stripes. Around the perimeter of the egg is a belt of enameled white with twelve Roman numerals encrusted with diamonds. The diamond clock hour-hand is shaped like the head of an arrow in a drawn bow.
Decorated with rosettes and the date of its manufacture in 1899, the gold base itself is set in diamonds.
The gold key used to wind the mechanism is shown lying at the base.
7. The Rose Trellis Fabergé egg
April 22, 1907.
Tsar Nicholas II gave this egg to his wife, Alexandra Fedorovna, to commemorate the birth of the tsarevich, Alexei Nicholaievich, three years earlier.
Inside the egg was a surprise diamond necklace and an ivory miniature portrait of the tsarevich framed in diamonds.
8. The Diamond Trellis Fabergé egg
The jewelled enameled Diamond Trellis Easter egg was made for Alexander III of Russia as a gift for his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna.
The egg contained an automaton of an ivory elephant covered with precious stones.
Made of jadeite, gold, rose-cut diamonds, and lined with white satin, the egg is carved from pale green jadeite and enclosed in a rose-cut diamond lattice with gold mounts.
Originally supported on a jadeite base with three silver putti representing Alexander and Maria's three sons—the Grand Dukes Nicholas, George and Michael—a large diamond sits at the base of the hinged egg.
9. The Gatchina Palace Fabergé egg
Tsar Nicholas II gave this egg to his mother, the dowager empress Marie Fedorovna, on Easter 1901.
Translucent enamel is layered over "guilloché," with engraved gold.
Inside is a miniature replica of the Gatchina Palace, the Dowager Empress's main residence outside St. Petersburg, Russia.
Fabergé master craftsman Mikhail Perkhin's meticulous work shows details such as cannons, a flag, a statue of Paul I (1754-1801), and the flower beds and trees in the landscaped grounds.
10. The Rothschild Faberge Clock-Egg
In addition to the Imperial eggs, Fabergé also crafted an estimated 12 eggs for wealthy clients. The Rothschild (1902)—an engagement gift for Edouard de Rothschild’s fiancée, Germaine Halphen—was a pink egg that featured a clock face and an automaton bird. Also from 1902 was the Duchess of Marlborough.
Russian government bought the Rothschild clock for $18,5m and the president Vladimir Putin has presented St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum with a gift for 250th anniversary.
Of the 50 Imperial eggs, only 43 are known to have survived. Five are believed to have been destroyed, while the whereabouts of the remaining two is unknown. In 2014 the existence of the long-lost Third Imperial Egg was publicly announced.