Peter Carl Fabergé

One thing I've seen speckled throughout the history of the Romanovs are the famous 'Imperial' Fabergé Eggs. The tradition first started with Tsar Aledander III, and continued to Nicholas II.

Each Easter Nicholas would order two eggs, each equally special and beautiful. One he would send to his mother, Maria Feodorovna, and the other he would present to his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna. Each egg would have a hidden button, and when pressed the egg would then open to reveal a secret compartment with a surprise inside.

The House of Fabergé made roughly 50 eggs total, though only 43 of them survived. There were two more planned for the Easter of 1918, but due to the Russian Revolution, were never made nor delivered.

First let's talk about the Mosaic Egg, one of my personal favorites. Under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé, Albert Holmström built the Mosaic Egg, which Tsar Nicholas II presented to his wife the Easter of 1914. The floral tapestry pattern was designed by Alma Theresia Pihl, who I read was inspired by needlework fire screens found in aristocratic sitting rooms of the time. The egg, pictured above, is 9 cm tall and was created using a variation of gold, platinum, diamonds, rose-cut diamonds, ruby, emerald, topaz, sapphire, garnet, half-pearls, moonstone, white enamel, and opaque enamel.

The surprise inside is a removable miniature frame with profiles of the Tsar's children (Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) in a cameo brooch style. The back of the frame is enameled with a sepia basket of flowers; the basket is bordered with the year 1914 and the names of each of the Romanov children. The current owner of the Mosaic Egg is Elizabeth II.


In Easter, 1915, Nicholas presented the Imperial Red Cross Egg to his mother Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna. Also under the supervision of Peter Carl, Henrik Wigström created this egg. It's made of silver, with the shell covered by bands, edged in gold. Each band has a different guilloche pattern, a decorative engraving technique, and is covered in white enamel. The two red crosses are made of enamel and are on either side of the egg. One includes the date "1914" as can be seen in the picture on the right, and the other "1915." Inscribed on the outside of the egg are the words, "Greater Love hath no man than this, to lay down his life for his friends." The monogram of the Dowager Empress is displayed on the top of the shell.


This egg's surprise is a folding screen of five miniature portraits, all women from the House of Romanov. Each is wearing their Red Cross nurse uniform, as possibly painted by Vasily Ivanovich Zuiev (active with Fabergé from 1903-1918). The portraits are of the Grand Duchess Olga Aledandrovna of Russia, Nicholas II's sister, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia, his eldest daughter, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia, the Tsar's second daughter, and the Granch Duchess Maria Pavlovna, the Tsar's first cousin.

Each portrait is painted on ivory, and is situated in a mother-of-pearl and gold screen that folds to fit inside the egg, which is lined in velvet to protect and secure the folded frame. On the back of each portrait is a golden monogram of the sitter.

Lastly for today we have the Constellation Egg, which is one of two designed under the supervision of Peter Carl in 1917 for the last Tsar of Russia. It was the last Fabergé egg designed. It remains unfinished.

The egg was ordered for Alexandra Feodorovna, but of course never got the change to be presented to her. As known from a 1917 document, the Constellation Egg was made of blue glass with a crystal base, and the Leo sign of the zodiac is engraved on the glass (Alexei Nikolaevich was a Leo). There are stars that are marked by diamonds; inside is a clock mechanism.

Apparently in 2001, a similar item was discovered in the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow, and experts believe it to be an unfinished egg made by Fabergé. It's an unfinished item, without diamonds. The inspiration for the egg, a clock by Augustin Pajou, the Parisian Neoclassical sculptor, has been identified by Kieran McCarthy of Wartski, London.

Meanwhile Russian millionaire Alexander Ivanoc claims that he owns the original (and finished) egg. In 2003-2004 he said that he acquired this egg in the late 1990's and affirms that "the Fersman Museum erroneously continues to claim that it has the original egg. Experts and their research clearly supports the Alexander Ivanov's egg as genuine." Russian museum authorities considered this as nonsense and fake. His egg is now in the Faberge Museum in Baden-Baden, which houses part of his Fabergé collection.