From Russia with Love | Fabergé
Tracing its dynastic beginnings right up to its dramatic reinvention, we explore the remarkable history of Fabergé.
As romantic gestures go, it was a triumph of historic proportions. During the 1885 Easter celebrations, and after months of secretive collaborations between Tsar Alexander III and goldsmith-artist Peter Carl Fabergé, the results were presented to the Tsar's wife of 20 years, Empress Maria Feodorovna.
In the Orthodox Christian culture of late 19th century Imperial Russia, Easter was celebrated as Christmas is here today. It was local tradition to bring painted eggs to church for an Easter blessing before offering them as gifts to family members, and the upper echelons of Russian society had begun elevating this humble practice into a ritual of elaborate gift-giving.
At a first glance, Tsar's gift appeared extremely simple in its extravagance: a smooth 'hen egg' of gold encased in an opaque white enamelled 'shell'. But a simple manoeuvre cracked the egg in two to reveal a surprise in the form of a matter, yellow gold yolk. Within this first interior was another surprise: a multi-coloured, superbly chased gold hen, which in turn opened to reveal yet another delight - a tiny and intricate diamond replica of the Imperial Crown. From this hung the final in this series of gifts from Tsar to his Empress: a small ruby egg to be worn as a pendant around her Imperial neck.
The Empress must have been duly delighted because the Fabergé Imperial Easter Egg became an annual tradition in the Romanov family. It was carried on by Alexander's son Nicolas II until 1916, the year before his forced abdication as the last Emperor of Russia in March 1917. A year later, the House of Fabergé jewellery business was nationalised by the Bolsheviks, ending this legendary era of its output.
Fifty of these fabled Imperial Eggs were produced over three decades, with Nicolas commissioning two a year - one for his mother and the other for his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Each was as unique as it was intricate and took teams of craftspeople working under Carl Fabergé to complete in time for every Easter. The level of detail was extrordinary: one Imperial Egg contained a minute replica of the Coronation carriage as its hidden surprise; another, a heart-shaped frame on an easel depicting 11 minature portraits of Imperial family members.
Just 43 survive today, spread among much-coveted private collections and mursuems. These symbols of Imperial decadence have been chased by everyone from Bond villiain Kamal Khan in Octopussy and George Clooney as Danny Ocean in Ocean's Twelve to real-life Russian oil tycoons and American publishing moguls.
Perhaps the most famed of these masterpieces was the 1913 Winter Egg: hewn from carved rock crystal, embellished with engravings, and encrusted with diamonds and platinum, it encased a surpirse of a platinum basket of flowers crafted from white quartz, nephrite, gold and demantoid garnets on a bed of moss wrought from green gold.
"In 2007 the Rothschild Fabergé Egg set a new rold record for the highest price ever paid for a timepiece"
It was delivered by Fabergé to the last Tsar at a cost of 24,600 ruples, or the equivalent of over €2 million today - and auctioned for a cool $9.6 million at Christie's in New York in 2022.
But it isn't just these rare objets d'art that Fabergé collectors have sought out. Since its foundation in Saint Petersburg in 1842 by master goldsmith Gustav Fabergé - and subsequent status as 'goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial Crown' under the management of his son Peter Carl Fabergé - the House of Fabergé grew to become Russia's largest jewellery company, employing up to 500 craftsmen and designers. Their legendary creations included a full range of jewellery as well as ornamental objects and elaborate timepieces.
In 2007, one of those creations set a new world record by fetching the highest price tag ever paid for a timepiece when the Rothschild Fabergé Egg was auctioned at Christie's in London for £8.98 million. The jewelled egg doubles up as a clock with a most elaborate system for telling the time. On the hour, a diamond-set cockerel pops out to flap its wings, nod its head and crow repeatedly for 15 seconds before the strike of a bell indicates the hour.
The egg is one of 13 that were made for clients other than the Romanov family, in this case for Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild as a thoughtful little engagement gift for her soon-to-be sister-in-law Germaine Halphen.
That year of 2007, proved pivotal for the Fabergé name, which became reunited with the family that had made it famous when Fabergé Ltd reacquired all trademarks, licences and associated rights relating to its name.
Within two years, Fabergé was ready to reclaim its reputation as one of the world's most prestigious jewellery houses. At 9am on 9th September 2009 (09/09/09), the brand was relaunched was the Les Fabuleuses High Jewellery Collection, befitting of its illustrious past.
Fabergé has since developed an equally fabulous Heritage Collection inspired by the historic Imperial Eggs, and it is this colllection that Weir & Sons is proud to introduce Fabergé to Ireland.
The collection draws on the complex techniques that made Carl Fabergé's masterpieces such groundbreaking achievements, including the painstaking process of hot enamelling, the engine-turning craft of guilloché and the subtle art of hand-engraving. These techniques have been infused with an elegant contemporary sensibility to produce an opulent selection of bangles, pendants, earrings and charms that capture the intrigue and playfulness of the original bejewelled objets d'art.
At the heart of the Heritage Collection are locke pendants, destined to be future heirlooms. Set with white diamonds with opalescent hot enamel in elegant turquoise, forest green, rose pink or royal blue, the lustrous curves of these miniature eggs bear intricate openwork patterns reminiscent of gemstones.
And, just like the jewelled eggs they are inspired by, each pendant contains a hidden surprise: a diamond-set love heart perhaps, or a lucky four leaf clover. And for true romantics, there's 18k golden hen modelled after that most auspicious gesture - the Imperial Hen Egg that was gifted in 1885 and which has captured the world's imagination ever since.
Posts
- Jennifer Cullen
- Oct 11, 2024
- Jennifer Cullen
- Sep 18, 2024