The Fabergé Egg: a collector's ultimate object of desire

And you thought you were skilled at decorating your Easter eggs?

Wait until you lay your eyes on a Fabergé Egg, the most opulent and captivating Easter gift the world has ever seen. They only occasionally appear on the market, which in combination with their rarity, makes the Faberge egg a collector's ultimate object of desire.

It all began in 1885, when the House of Fabergé created a bejewelled egg as an Easter gift for the Russian Imperial family. 

_{The Fabergé eggs in the display cabinets at the Czar's palace.}

Easter was, and still is, one of the most important holidays in Russia, in which exchanging gifts plays an important part. These gifts often consist of nicely decorated eggs due to their symbolic value of fertility.

_{The First Hen Egg, the first Fabergé Egg made in 1885, nowadays current owner Viktor Vekselberg. The egg opens to reveal a gold yolk. Inside the yolk is a gold hen which opened to reveal a diamond and gold crown which contained a ruby pendant. The crown and pendant are now missing.}

In 1885, Tsar Alexander III ordered his jeweller, Fabergé, to make an Easter egg for his wife Czarina Maria Fjodorovna, and that’s how the first Fabergé Egg was born: the ‘First Hen Egg or Jewelled Egg’, beautiful in its simplicity.

The Czarina was so delighted by this intriguing gift, with its hidden and bejewelled surprises, that the Tsar decided to gift her an egg every year from then on, until 1917.

_{Coronation Egg, 1897}

Fabergé was given complete artistic freedom in the execution of the eggs, the only prerequisite was to use a different theme each year and to always include an element of surprise, leaving the Tsar himself also with a sense of wonderment. 

If the Tsar informed about the progress of the egg during the fabrication process, Fabergé would answer consistently: ‘Your majesty, you will be satisfied’. It took the skilful craftsmen of the House of Fabergé more than a year to create each extravagant egg.

_{Order of St George}

And that's how a tradition of bringing humbly hand-coloured eggs to Church to be blessed inspired the creation of the world's most precious, exclusive and sought after eggs. For more Fabergé eggs we recommend you to visit the Fabergé Museum in St-Petersburg Russia or visit their website

For more inspiration and for buying fine art, please have a look at our online gallery, Gallerease!