Fabergé Friday and Full Moon

The moon is full, and what better way to celebrate than with the last Imperial Easter Egg - number fifty-six: the "Blue Tsarevich Constellation Egg", from 1917!

Due to everything that happened to Russia, and the Imperial family during WWI, this egg was never completely finished. It is made of dark blue glass, engraved with the star constellation of the day of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich's birth - the Leo sign. The stars are marked by rose-cut diamonds, and the cloud-shaped base is made out of opaque rock crystal. 

Inside the egg was a clock mechanism. The clockwork and the dial - which was to be placed around the egg like a ring around a planet - are missing though, together with most of the diamond stars.

The "Constellation Egg" was long thought to be missing, but was found in 2001 at the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow.

Fabergé Friday

When the Easter of 1917 arrived, the February Revolution had already taken place, and Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated. But as usual Fabergé had still prepared two Easter eggs - one for the Dowager Empress, and one for Tsarina Alexandra - which were to be the last two Imperial Easter Eggs ever to be made...The next to last - number fifty-five - is called the "Birch Egg", or the "Karelian Birch Egg".

WWI had not been good to the Russian fortune, and the revolutionary mood of the people made it very impolitic for the royals to spend money on lavish things. This egg then, was created from Karelian birch panels set in a gold frame, and so makes it the only Imperial Easter Egg to be made out of organic material. The egg was sent to Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovitch, who was then supposed to give it to the Dowager Empress, but he fled from his palace before it was delivered. The gift remained, abandoned, in the palace, before it was looted during the October Revolution later that year.

The surprise is long gone. But what was once hidden inside the seemingly simple egg, was a very expensive little treasure; a mechanical elephant decorated with eight large diamonds, 61 small diamonds, and a diamond-studded key engraved "MF" (Maria Feodorovna). Since it was also stolen during the Revolution, it is probably still out there somewhere. The problem is that the owner probably has no idea of what a treasure that pretty little elephant really is...

In 2001 the "Birch Egg" publicly reappeared when a private collector from the UK - a descendant of Russian emigrants - sold it to Alexander Ivanov, who owns a Fabergé Museum in Baden Baden. When Ivanov bought the egg he also got the case that contained it, the wind-up key for the surprise, Fabergé's original invoice to Nicholas II, and a letter from Fabergé to Alexander Kerensky, complaining about not being paid and asking that the egg be delivered. 

On April 25, 1917, Fabergé had sent the Tsar the invoice for the egg. The difference in this invoice, from previous years, was that he had addressed it not to Nicholas II as "Tsar of all the Russias", but simply as "Mr. Romanov, Nikolai Aleksandrovich".

Fabergé Friday

And Imperial Easter Egg number fifty-four is: the "Order of St. George Egg", from 1916!

This egg is covered in mat opalescent white enamel, under which is painted an enamel trellis pattern of green garlands - which frames tiny St. George crosses in in white and red enamel. 

As this is yet another egg created during WWI, it keeps to the demure look of the previous "war-eggs". The Order of St. George was awarded for military bravery, and a ribbon in the Order's two colors - black and orange - encircles the whole egg, framing two medals;

One mounted with the Order of the Cross of St. George, and on the other side one in silver, chased with the portrait of Tsar Nicholas II. The egg is topped by the silver crowned monogram of the Dowager Empress.

The surprise of this egg is that the two medals can be lifted to reveal portraits of Tsarevitch Alexis - as seen here - and of Tsar Nicholas - as can be seen in the topmost picture.

The receiver of this egg was the Dowager Empress Maria, and she wrote to her son;

"I kiss you three times and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your dear postcards and the delightful egg with the miniatures that dear Fabergé himself came with. Amazingly beautiful. It is so sad not to be together. I wish you, my dear Nicky with all my heart, all the best things and success in everything. Your warmly loving, old Mama."

The "Order of St. George Egg" was one of nine Imperial Easter Eggs bought by Viktor Vekselberg, for almost 100 million USD, in 2004.

Fabergé Friday

There aren't so many Imperial Easter Eggs left now. But we still have a few! Like number fifty-three for example: the "Steel Military Egg", from 1916!

This egg is made of steel, around which sits gold decorations in the form of the Russian double-headed eagle, Tsarina Alexandra's monogram, and an image of George the Conqueror. The egg is resting on the points of four miniature artillery shells, which - in their turn - stands on a base of nephrite. The whole piece is also topped with a gold crown.

The simple look of this egg is - yet again - caused by the ongoing WWI. All Fabergé's craftsmen were out fighting in the war, which led to the closing of his workshops. Gold and silver was not allowed to be used by jewelers, who instead turned to steel, brass and copper. In a time like this it was also bad for the Imperial family to publicly be seen ordering expensive things.

The surprise inside the egg is a miniature painting, made by Vassily Zuiev. Painted on ivory is a depiction of Tsar Nicholas II and his son, consulting with officers at the front. The miniature is surrounded by a frame of gold and white enamel, held up by a small easel. 

The "Steel Military Egg" is one of ten Imperial Easter Eggs that was never sold, and can now be found in the Kremlin armory.