Fabergé Friday

When I started writing these Fabergé Friday posts, I began by going through all the 43 surviving (of 50) Imperial Easter Eggs Fabergé created for the Russian Imperial Family. After the Russian Revolution, no more commissions for these eggs was made, for obvious reasons... But the jewel firm Fabergé still exists, and earlier this year they presented the first new Imperial Egg created in 99 years - the Fabergé Pearl Egg. It has been created to mark the 100th anniversary since the last Imperial Egg was commissioned, and Fabergé's spokeswoman, Alize Morand, says this is the first egg of several soon to be unveiled by Fabergé.

The Fabergé Pearl Egg has been hand crafted in the same manner as the original Fabergé eggs, and draws its inspiration from the formation of a pearl within an oyster. The egg is decorated with approximately 3,300 diamonds, 139 natural pearls, carved rock-crystal and mother-of-pearl set on white and yellow gold. Just like its forbearers, this egg also opens up to reveal a secret - a rare 12.17 carat grey pearl from the Arabian Gulf.

It took 20 highly-skilled craftsmen around 18 months to design, acquire the precious materials and build the egg. It was shown earlier this year at Baselworld, after which it went home to its new owner - Hussain Al-Fardan, chairman of the Alfardan Group, and founding director of Investcorp.

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Fabergé Friday

Here comes one of my favorite Imperial Easter Eggs, number forty-eight - the "Winter Egg", from 1913!

This egg has been thinly carved out of rock-crystal. On the interior it is finely engraved to simulate ice crystals. The outside has also been engraved, and in these channels rose-cut diamonds in platinum are set. On top sits a cabochon moonstone with the year "1913" painted on the reverse side. The egg can be removed from it's base - shaped as a block of melting ice. This base is also made from rock-crystal, with rivulets of platinum set rose-cut diamonds. 

The egg is hinged, with diamonds encircling the whole opening. When opened it reveals the surprise - a double-handled platinum basket set with diamonds, hanging on a platinum hook. The basket is full of wood anemones, each carved - some open, some half-open or in a bud - from a single piece of white quartz, with a demantoid garnet in the center. The leaves are made of nephrite, and the flower's stems, and the moss they sit in, are gold wire. The base of the basket is engraved with "Fabergé 1913" in Roman letters.

With 1,660 diamonds on the egg, and 1,378 on the basket, the "Winter Egg" is the most expensive Imperial Easter Egg ever made. In 1913 the price was 24,700 rubles (752 USD today). In 2002 it sold at an auction at Christie's in New York City for 9.6 million USD. The buyer was the Emir of Qatar.