Fabergé egg

The House of Fabergé was founded by Gustav Fabergé in 1842 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Fabergé egg was a later addition to the product line by his son, Peter Carl Fabergé. Prior to 1885, Emperor Alexander III gave his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna jewelled Easter eggs. For Easter in 1883, before his coronation, Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna were given eggs, one of which contained a silver dagger and two skulls. The egg came with messages, including "Christ is risen" and "You may crush us—but we Nihilists shall rise again!" Before Easter 1885, Alexander III's brother Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich suggested that Peter Carl Fabergé create a jewelled egg. This type of egg is believed to have been inspired by an ivory hen egg made for the Danish Royal Collection in the 18th century. Known as the Hen Egg, it has a outer enamel shell and a golden band around the middle. The egg opens to reveal a golden "yolk" within, which in turn opens to expose a golden hen sitting on golden straw. Inside the hen lies a miniature diamond replica of the imperial crown and a ruby pendant, though these two elements have been lost. It was given to the tsarina on 1 May 1885. The egg cost 4,151 rubles. Six weeks later, the emperor made Fabergé the supplier to the imperial court, following which, the egg designs became more elaborate. Once Fabergé had approved an initial design, the work was carried out by a team of craftsmen, among them Michael Perkhin, Henrik Wigström, and Erik August Kollin. After Alexander III's death on 1 November 1894, his son, Nicholas II, presented a Fabergé egg to both his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, and his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Records have shown that of the 50 Imperial Easter eggs, 20 were given to the former and 30 to the latter. Eggs were made each year except 1904 and 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War. The imperial eggs enjoyed great fame. Fabergé was commissioned to make similar eggs for a few private clients, including the Duchess of Marlborough, the Rothschild family, and the Yusupovs. He was also commissioned to make twelve eggs for the industrialist Alexander Kelch, though only seven appear to have been completed. Another notable patron was the oil baron Emanuel Nobel, nephew of Alfred Nobel. In 1913, he commissioned an 'Ice Egg' from Fabergé. Following the revolution and the nationalisation of the Fabergé workshop in Saint Petersburg by the Bolsheviks in 1918, the Fabergé family left Russia. Their trademark has since been sold several times, and different companies have retailed egg-related merchandise using the Fabergé name. From 1998 to 2009, the Victor Mayer jewellery company produced limited-edition Fabergé eggs authorised under Unilever's license. The trademark is now owned by Fabergé Limited, which makes egg-themed jewellery. In December 2023, Fabergé debuted Journey in Jewels on the Seven Seas Grandeur, a luxury cruise ship from Regent Seven Seas Cruises. The egg will remain on the ship, making it the first-ever Fabergé to live at sea. ==List of eggs==

List of Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs Below is a chronology of the 52 eggs made for the imperial family. The dating of the eggs has evolved. An earlier chronology dated the Blue Serpent Clock Egg to 1887 and identified the 1895 egg as the Twelve Monograms Egg. The discovery of the previously lost Third Imperial Easter Egg confirms the chronology below. List of Kelch eggs Fabergé was also commissioned to make eggs for Alexander Ferdinandovich Kelch, a Siberian gold mine industrialist, as gifts for his wife Barbara (Varvara) Kelch-Bazanova. Though still "Fabergé eggs" by virtue of having been produced by his workshop, these seven eggs were not as elaborate as the imperial eggs and were not unique in design. Most are copies of other eggs. Other Fabergé eggs ==Location of eggs==

Of the 52 known Fabergé eggs, 46 have survived to the present day. Ten of the imperial Easter eggs are displayed at Moscow's Kremlin Armory Museum. Of the 50 delivered imperial eggs, 44 have survived, and there are photographs of three of the six lost eggs: the 1903 Royal Danish Egg, the 1909 Alexander III Commemorative Egg, and the Nécessaire Egg of 1889. All six of the missing Imperial Eggs belonged to Maria Feodorovna. After the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks nationalised the House of Fabergé, and the Fabergé family fled to Switzerland, where Peter Carl Fabergé died in 1920. In a 2013 BBC Four documentary, Vekselberg revealed he had spent just over purchasing the nine Fabergé eggs. He claims never to have displayed them in his home, saying he bought them as they are important to Russian history and culture, and he believed them to be the best jewellery art in the world. In the same BBC documentary, Vekselberg revealed his plan to open a museum that would display the eggs in his collection, In November 2007, a Fabergé clock, named by Christie's auction house as the Rothschild Egg, sold at auction for £8.9 million () (including commission). The price achieved by the egg set three auction records: it is the most expensive timepiece, Russian object, and Fabergé object ever sold at auction, surpassing the sale of the 1913 Winter Egg in 2002. On 2 December 2025, the Winter Egg was sold at Christie's for £23 million. In 1989, as part of the San Diego Arts Festival, 26 Fabergé eggs were loaned for display at the San Diego Museum of Art, the largest exhibition of Fabergé eggs anywhere since the Russian Revolution. The eggs included eight from the Kremlin, nine from the Forbes collection, three from the New Orleans Museum of Art, two from the Royal Collection, one from the Cleveland Museum of Art, and three from private collections. Location of the "Imperial" eggs Location of the Kelch eggs Location of other eggs ==In popular culture==

Fabergé eggs have acquired a cult status in the art world and popular culture, and they have been featured in exhibitions, films, TV series, documentaries, cartoons, publications, and the news. They have become symbols of the splendour, power, and wealth of the Romanov dynasty and the Russian Empire. As such, they have been part of the plot of several films and television series, including Octopussy (1983), Mr. Belvedere ("Strike" episode, 1985), Love Among Thieves (1987), Murder She Wrote ("An Egg to Die For" episode, 1994), The Simpsons ("'Round Springfield" episode, 1995), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), Case Closed: The Last Wizard of the Century (1999), The Order (2001), Relic Hunter ("M.I.A." episode, 2001), ''Ocean's Twelve (2004), The Simpsons ("The Last of the Red Hat Mamas" episode, 2005), SpongeBob SquarePants ("What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?" episode, 2008), Thick as Thieves (2009), multiple episodes of White Collar (2009–2014), Leverage ("The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" episode, 2010), American Dad! ("A Jones for a Smith" episode, 2010), The Intouchables (2011), Hustle ("Eat Yourself Slender" episode, 2012), Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated ("The House of the Nightmare Witch" episode, 2012), An Easter Bunny Puppy (2013), Person of Interest ("Search and Destroy" episode, 2015), Imperial Eight (2015), Peaky Blinders ("Lilies of the Valley" egg, season 3, episode 6, 2016), Hooten & the Lady ("Moscow" episode, 2016), Game Night (2018), Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019), Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020), Lupin (2021), Bhamakalapam (2022), and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog'' (2023). In Danielle Steele's 1987 novel Zoya, a Fabergé egg is a keepsake of the last two remaining members of a noble family. The 2011 digital card game Cabals: Magic & Battle Cards features a Fabergé egg as a collectible card. In 2017, visual artist Jonathan Monaghan exhibited a series of digital prints reinterpreting Fabergé eggs in humorous and surreal ways at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. ==See also==