Fabergé Easter Eggs

The family tradition to commission Easter Eggs made of precious materials and complete with ‘surprises’ had been initiated back in 1885 by the Emperor Alexander III. Carl Fabergé was the creator of these Easter presents. Between 1885 and 1916  50 Easter Eggs were created. 7 of them disappeared without trace in the 1920s and 1930s, while the remaining 43 eggs are now in some of the world’s major museum collections and also private ones.

Giſt of the Emperor Alexander III to his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna, for Easter of 1885. She praised the work of the “young but already fully mature, first-class jeweler” three years earlier at the All-Russia Industrial and Art Exhibition in Moscow.  Fabergé turned for inspiration to a French Easter egg dating from the early-18th century in the collection of the Danish royal family. 

Giſt of the Emperor Alexander III to his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna, for the Easter of 1894. She was presented with an Egg in the Renaissance style made of agate and in a gold enamelled frame complete with a  scattering of precious stones. 

After the death of Alexander III, during the reign of his son – Nicholas II, the craftsmen of the House of Fabergé would make two Easter Eggs each year – one for the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna and one for the wife of Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. For Fabergé the task was now infinitely more complicated: he would have to create two completely different, but equally magnificent Easter Eggs – one for the mother and the other for the wife of Nicholas II, between whom, according to accounts from contemporary witnesses there was no “real closeness” or particular affinity. 

Giſt from the Emperor Nicholas II to his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, for Easter of 1897. Carl Fabergé got the idea for the shell from the gold brocade mantles worn by the emperor and empress during the rite of Holy Coronation. The precious shell of the egg is covered with translucent yellow guilloché enamel of carved beams, which has the sparkle and iridescence of gold brocade. On top, without the slightest gaps, there is attached a lattice of black enamel eagles with diamonds, connected by green gold leaves.

The unique model of the carriage, a masterpiece of jewelry and carriage art, was carried out by the young master Georg Stein, who regularly visited the court stables in St. Petersburg so that all the parts of the model would accurately repeat the parts of the carriage, such as its turntable. The miniature gold carriage with red enamel and diamonds turns and rolls in accordance with all the rules of its life-size version, on a spring suspension. Both doors open with a turn of tiny gold handles, and folding steps come out the doors from inside.

For Easter 1900, Nicholas II gave his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, a clockwork egg. It has a round clock face, covered in iridescent white guilloché enamel, with diamond Arabic numerals and filigree gold arrows. It is topped with a laurel garland of green gold with pearls and diamonds, and below it is framed as if by a lambrequin ornament, typical of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. A rather broad trellis with tassels is complemented by hanging garlands of fruits and berries; the central one used to have a small egg-shaped pearl pendant (now lost). The eggshell is covered with purple guilloché enamel, and the flat four-cornered columns supporting it are covered with oyster- white enamel.

Giſt from the Emperor Nicholas II to his mother, dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, for Easter of 1911. The thick glossy leaves of the crown, trimmed to the shape of an egg, are made of Sayan nephrite, which has a saturated spinach-green color. It is decorated with a mechanical bird of paradise with natural multicolored feathers. 

The last egg given to Maria Feodorovna by Nicholas II in 1916, during World War I, was decorated by watercolor portraits of the emperor and his son, the tsesarevich Alexei. They are covered by hinged tops with the insignias of the Order of St. George and a silver medal—the awards of the emperor and the heir. They are joined by the St. George black-and-orange ribbons in enamel in the colors of “gunpowder and flames”, which stand out clearly against the gentle background of opaque enamel, “scattered” with St. George crosses, seemingly drowning in haze. 

Upon getting the egg, the dowager empress wrote to Nicholas II: “I kiss you thrice and thank you with all my heart for your sweet cards and charming egg with miniatures, kind Fabergé brought it himself. It’s amazing beautiful. It’s very sad not being together.” The 1916 Eggs complete the set of Imperial Easter masterpieces given to the royals. With the fall of the Russian Empire and the Romanov,s dynasty the brilliant epoch of Fabergé was to disappear. But these Easter Eggs are the exquisite symbols of the past beauty.