What do you give to the Tsarina who has everything? This was the problem faced by the unimaginably wealthy Russian Tsar Alexander III in the spring of 1885.
With Easter looming, not to mention his 25th wedding anniversary, Alexander turned to the young Carl Fabergé who proposed the creation of a traditional Easter egg. This exquisitely ornamented and ingeniously constructed composition contained a golden yolk, wherein lay a golden chick clutching a tiny diamond replica of the royal crown and a ruby egg. It so delighted the Tsarina that Fabergé was asked to devise a further surprise egg the next year. In all, Fabergé created 49 of these fabled artefacts and they have proved to be his most enduring legacy.
When the eggs were first shown publicly in Paris in 1900 the reaction was extraordinary. The Goldsmiths of France immediately declared Fabergé ‘maître orfèvre’ and his reputation spread like wildfire among the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people. The House of Fabergé employed the finest enamellers, painters and jewellers available to create luxury items that continue to be treasured today.
The value of Fabergé pieces is often enhanced by a grand Provenance, such as a dedication to a historical figure or workman’s marks relating to a master like August Hollming or Feodor Afanasiev. Cigarette cases, belt buckles, traditional Russian drinking cups, or kovsch (above), and all manner of sumptuous novelties occasionally appear at good decorative arts auctions – try Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh or Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury. Prices start at around £4,000 ($8,000) and rise to £50,000 ($100,000) and often much, much more. One of Carl Fabergé’s original eggs, for example, might cost you a cool $20 million.
