Faberge imperial eggs
Faberge story starts with the jewellery House of Faberge, founded in 1842, Saint Petersburg, Russia by Gustav Faberge, while his sons expanded the business.
The prestigious jewellery house involves Carl Faberge (son of Gustav) and restoring items of great importance at the Hermitage Museum.
It is because of the elegance, luxury status and attention to detail, that Tsar Alexander III commissions the House of Faberge, in 1885, to make an easter egg that he would give as a gift to his wife, the Tzarina Maria Feodorovna. The eggshell was enamelled on gold, inside a gold yolk opened to reveal a gold chicken opening to the Imperial Crown, from which a miniature ruby egg was suspended. His wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna appreciated the crafts of this extraordinary piece of jewellery that Faberge was appointed goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial crown.
The legacy of gold made, engraved, and filled with precious stones carried on even after the death of Tsar Alexander III and the coming of his son, Nicholas II. The jewelled imperial eggs were given as gifts and increased the prestige of the jewellery house.
Following the nationalization of factories, and the come to power of the Bolsheviks, the Faberge family left Russia in 1918 for Switzerland.
57 of the eggs have survived, out of the 69 known Faberge eggs, and they are present in multiple museum collections and private collections. The original imperial eggs and Kelch have been produced between 1885 and 1917 which gives them even more value to today’s market.
Today the Faberge eggs do not represent just a marvellous piece of jewellery combining multiple rare metals and precious stones, it is about the precision in attention to details, the small crafts in manufacturing them, but even more so each and every egg carries a story and represents a piece of history: “Order of St. George”, “Red cross with imperial portraits”, “Catherine the Great”, “Colonnade”, “Moscow Kremlin”, “Twelve Monograms”, “Memory of Azov” and all the other have a story behind them.
