Fabergé Friday

The ones of you who have followed my blog for a long time, know that I started these Fabergé Friday posts by going through all the Imperial Easter Eggs Fabergé created for Russias Tsar family. Of the fifty Easter eggs Fabergé created for the Imperial Family, eight of these are sadly lost though... Well, until recently at least. Now only seven remain hidden from the world, as one of these treasures has finally been found! Here it is! It was created by workmaster August Holmström, sometime between 1886 and 1887!

The egg is made of ridged gold, and stands on a tripod pedestal with lion paw feet. The pedestal is decorated with flower swags in colored gold, hanging from cabochon blue sapphires. A big diamond push-piece is also attached to the egg.

All of these Imperial Easter Eggs contained a little surprise, and the surprise in this egg is a lady's watch by Vacheron Constantin. It has a white enamel dial and openwork diamond set gold hands. The watch has a hinged stand inside the egg, permitting it to stand up.

The egg was given by Tzar Alexander III to Tsaritsa Maria Feodorovna for Easter 1887. It is 3.2 '' (8.2 cm) high, and it will be on display at Wartski, 14 Grafton Street, London, from 14th to 17th April 2014, between 11am and 5pm. This will be the first time in over 112 years this egg will be seen in public! But how was it found? Here comes the fun part...

An American scrap-dealer from the Midwest found the egg at a shop and bought it for 14,000 USD, thinking he could make a profit by selling the gold and the jewels on it. After finding the clock inside the egg, he googled the name of the clock maker, and so stumbled on the story about the missing Fabergé egg, described as the one he now had in his possession. He then contacted antiques expert and Fabergé specialist Kieran McCarthy, who immediately recognized the egg, and flew from Great Britain to the US to verify the authenticity of the egg. The egg turned out to be the real deal, and McCarthy said this find was like when Indiana Jones discovered the Lost Ark. He also valued the egg to 33 million USD - which of course made the profit for the scrap-dealer a "little" bit bigger than he first had counted on... It was sold to a private buyer through Wartski, the antiques firm specializing in Russian artwork that McCarthy works for.

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Fabergé Friday

Well. Since it's Easter, let's take a look at another Fabergé egg this Friday! This little egg pendant was made sometime between the years 1908 and 1917!

The egg is enameled with a royal blue zig zag pattern on a pearl white ground.

On both ends the pattern turns into six-pointed stars.

The hight of the egg is 5/8'' (1,6 cm), and the workmaster behind the pendant is Anders Nevalainen.

Happy Easter!!!

Picture source

Fabergé Friday

The next of the fifty-two Imperial Fabergé eggs - the egg of 1888 - is, yet again, a missing one. It's name is the "Cherub with Chariot Egg" or "Angel with Egg in Chariot". It's described to be made up of an angel pulling a chariot with an egg on it. The surprise inside would have been a clock. No clear picture of this egg exists...

The fifth egg - from 1889 - is also missing. It's called the "Nécessaire Egg", was designed as an etui, and probably contained the surprise of a set of thirteen diamond-encrusted woman's manicure set. this is not certain though, since no pictures of the egg or it's contents exist...

Then, finally, I can show you a picture of an egg that hasn't been lost: The "Danish Palaces Egg" from 1890!

The outside of the egg is divided into twelve sections of enameled gold, divided by lines of rose-cut diamonds. Wherever the lines meet there's an emerald, and the whole thing is crowned by a medallion of radiating leaves and a cabochon star sapphire! When the egg is opened the surprise unfolds as a row of little watercolor pictures - signed by Konstantin Krijitski - painted on tiny panels made of mother of pearl. 

The Tsar's wife - Maria Feodorovna - was born in Denmark, so all the little paintings depict yachts and mansions owned by her family in her land of birth:

The Imperial yacht "Polar Star"

Bernstorff Palace

The emperor's villa in Fredensborg park

Fredensborg Palace

Amalienborg Palace

Kronborg Castle

The Cottage Palace

The Cottage Palace from another view

Gatchina Palace

The imperial yacht "Tsarevna"

Fabergé Friday

When I studied art history at the University of Stockholm, I wrote my C-essay (for a BA) about Carl Fabergé's Imperial easter eggs. The more I read about this man and his company, the more treasures I found. From the middle of the 19th century, to the beginning of the 20th century his jewelry makers created things other people in the same business were incapable of. Eventually Fabergé became jeweler to the Tsar himself!

Peter Carl Fabergé

It was tradition to give each other decorated eggs for Easter in Russia, and in 1885 Tsar Alexander III wanted to give his wife, Maria Feodorovna, a special egg, since they celebrated their 20th engagement aniversary at Easter that year. Maria had a certain affection for Fabergé's jewelry, so Alexander decided to give him the job to create this egg. The tradition of the Imperial easter eggs by Fabergé had begun...

Tsar Alexander III

Maria Feodorovna with her son, future Nicholas II

The Tsar gave Fabergé free hands when it came to the design of the eggs. The only rule was that each egg had to be unique, and contain a little surprise! With this in mind Carl used the Tsar family itself as inspiration for each egg - starting with the "Hen Egg" in 1885.

This is the "simplest" of all the Imperial eggs. On the outside it looks like a normal, white egg. But when you open it, you realize the whole inside has been gilded. The surprise inside this egg is a little hen à quatre couleurs (gold in four different shades) - inside which was a tiny copy of the imperial crown - inside which was a ruby pendant. The crown and the pendant has been lost though...

Next Friday - next egg!