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Posted Mar 17, 2008, 07:39:48 am |
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Worth hunting for, the ultimate Easter eggs
By Roya Nikkhah
Last Updated: 2:39am GMT 16/03/2008
They were the ultimate Easter eggs - extravagant ornamental gifts which reflected the decadence of the final years of the Russian empire.
Between 1885 and 1916, the jeweller Carl Fabergé made 50 spectacular eggs for the final two tsars to present to their wives on Easter Sunday, the holiest day in the Russian Orthodox calendar.
Dripping with gemstones, and each containing a "surprise", the eggs have become the best-known surviving symbols of the Romanov empire, reflecting the characters of the empresses for whom they were created and the vulgar indulgence of a court on the brink of revolution.
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A new book, Fabergé's Eggs, published on Friday, tells their complete history. Many were confiscated from the ill-fated Romanovs and disappeared into Kremlin storerooms after the 1917 revolutions, only to emerge 10 years later when a cash-strapped Stalin smuggled them to the West to be sold. Some ended up with wealthy British and American collectors.
Each egg has a fascinating history. They have been smuggled past border guards, used to repay favours and stolen from exhibitions. Eight are missing.
Tony Faber, the book's author, said: "Each one is a genuinely unique work of art and provides us with a window into the lives of the Romanovs.
"Most tantalising of all, perhaps, are the eggs for which there is no history, those which disappeared in the Revolution or soon afterwards.
"They raise the possibility, however remote, of eventual discovery - the classic attic treasure trove."
1885 Hen Egg
The first Fabergé egg. Tsar Alexander III came to the throne at a turbulent time following his father's assassination in 1881, and had to leave St Petersburg for security reasons.
He and his wife, Marie Fedorovna, moved to the outskirts of the city, where the fun-loving Tsarina pined for the banquets and balls of court life.
Letters in the Kremlin archive show that Alexander sought out a 20th wedding anniversary gift that would lift her spirits and remind her of Denmark, her homeland. Presented at Easter 1885, the egg resembles an ornament in the Danish Royal Collection.
Made of gold, rubies and opaque white enamel to resemble an egg shell, the two halves open to reveal a gold yolk, containing a hen. The surprise, a ruby pendant egg and diamond crown, were lost after the Kremlin sold the egg in the 1920s. Viktor Vekselberg, an oligarch and ally of President Vladimir Putin, bought it in 2004 to return the egg to Russia.
1903 Royal Danish Egg
After Alexander's death in 1894 his son, Tsar Nicholas II, continued the tradition - giving both his wife, Alexandra, and his mother, now the Dowager Empress Marie, a Fabergé egg each Easter. Nine inches tall, the Royal Danish Egg was made from pale enamel with gold ornaments and precious stones, crowned by an elephant.
The surprise was a screen bearing miniatures of Marie's parents, King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark.
Presented to Marie in Denmark in 1903, the egg is one of the missing eight. Its existence is known only from a single photograph and its fate is shrouded in mystery.
1913 Winter Egg
Another gift from Nicholas to his mother, the Winter Egg was the most expensive created at 25,000 rubles, the equivalent of about £6,500. It showed Fabergé at the peak of his creativity and has been described as his greatest masterpiece.
Inspired by ice patterns, the egg was made from rock crystal studded with 1,660 diamonds and is on a mount so highly polished that it seems to be melting. The surprise, a basket of quartz flowers on a bed of gold moss, boasts a further 1,378 diamonds.
The egg was sold by Stalin in the 1920s to Emanuel Snowman, then head of the London jeweller Wartski.
It was bought in 1949 by Bryan Ledbook, a collector, who allegedly kept it in a garage.
After his death in 1975 the egg disappeared for nearly 20 years, before re-emerging mysteriously in a London safe.
In 2002, the Emir of Qatar bought it at auction at Christie's for a record £6.4 million.
1916 Steel Military Egg
The last egg received by Alexandra, it was produced under war conditions and was less opulent in design than its predecessors. Fabergé's workshop was busy making military equipment and had less time for eggs.
In 1916, Nicholas, stationed at a military headquarters near the front with Germany, spent Easter apart from Alexandra for the first time. Their young son, the Tsarevitch Alexis, was with him.
The egg stands on steel shell casings on a jade mount. According to the invoice, it was originally in blackened steel, for a sombre wartime tone, but it is thought to have been polished accidentally following its confiscation during the 1917 Russian Revolution.
The surprise is a miniature painting on a gold and steel easel by the artist Vassily Zuiev, depicting Nicholas and Alexis consulting maps before battle. It is one of 10 Imperial Eggs never sold by the Russian government.
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