As Easter approaches, it reminds me of one of my favourite dreams: being asked to go through the boxes of a client’s attic to see if anything emerges that might be worth selling and coming across a Fabergé egg.
These jewels are among the most famous luxury items ever produced.
The first of several dozen of these jewel-encrusted eggs (around 70 are thought to have been made of which 61 are known to have survived) was commissioned as an Easter gift for the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna by her husband, Tsar Alexander III, in 1885.
The House of Fabergé was established in St Peterburg in 1842, the celebrated eggs being the invention of Peter Carl Fabergé. The first, known as the Hen Egg, is an enamel shell surrounded by a gold band that opens to reveal a golden yolk. That opens too and is found to conceal a golden hen perched on golden straw. Rather like the Russian Babushka dolls, the hen itself then opens to reveal a miniature replica of a diamond Imperial crown and a ruby pendant.
Unfortunately, the crown and ruby pendant have since been lost, but the egg must have created quite a stir when first presented. We know this because such was the Tsarina’s delight that within weeks Fabergé had been awarded a royal warrant.
To make the following orders even more of a surprise, it is thought that Fabergé gave no clue even to the Tsar as to what the eggs would look like. Fabergé himself would oversee the design before handing the creation of the eggs over to a team of craftsmen, whose names have passed down through history as a result.
When Alexander’s son Nicholas II ascended the throne, he continued the tradition of presenting eggs as Easter gifts, both to his own wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, and his mother, the Dowager Empress. In all, they received fifty eggs between them, inspiring further commissions for Fabergé eggs from the Rothschild family and the Duchess of Marlborough, among others.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 put an end to the St Petersburg workshop, with the Fabergé family leaving Russia. More than a century on, the eggs sit at the centre of an impressive output of stunning silver, gold and jewelled pieces that continue to change hands at auction for stupendous sums.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed next time I’m asked to rummage through a few old boxes.
