When the last Tsar, Nicholas II, commissioned the Fabergé Goldsmiths to purchase an egg to congratulate his mother, Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, on Easter 1913, the famous Russian jeweler created a miniature work of art that would be transported to … Records of history for their accuracy and majesty. The piece, which belongs to the imperial collection of the Romanovs, was sold on Tuesday in London at Christie’s auction 26 million euros.
Prove the sale “A new world record for a Fabergé work”This was also highlighted by the statement of Margot Oganesyan, Head of the Russian Goldsmiths and Crafts Department in St. Petersburg at the auction house. The jewel, which aroused the interest of international collectors, was valued at approximately 23 million euros by Christie’s, which did not reveal the identity or nationality of the buyer.
The previous record for a similar piece was set in 2007 The so-called Rothschild egg: A work created in 1902 by Michael Berchin, a jeweler who worked under Fabergé. This piece, decorated with jewellery, a watch and a robotic rooster, was sold at the same auction house for about 10 million euros to a Russian collector.
More than 4,500 diamonds
Meticulously carved from rock crystal and delicately engraved on the inside with frost motifs, the egg is a masterpiece designed by Alma Theresa Biehl and crafted by Peter Carl Fabergé. From the outside, the piece has it Platinum snowflakes It is set with rose-cut diamonds, while the side hinge is hidden by two vertical edges also made of platinum and diamonds. All of this is topped with a moonstone cabochon dated 1913.
This oval shape is carved A rocky crystalline base formed in the form of a block of melted iceapplied with platinum chains studded with rose-cut diamonds with a pin in the middle to secure the piece. Opening the egg reveals the “surprise” hanging on a platinum hook: a basket of the same material with two handles and a net.
The basket is again set with diamonds and filled with white quartz wood anemones. Each flower has a golden wiry stem and stamensWhile the center offers demantoid garnet. The leaves are finely carved from nephrite and emerge from a layer of golden moss.
This piece is part of a collection of over 4,500 diamonds The 50 eggs made by the jeweler and jeweler Fabergé for the Russian Imperial Family on the occasion of the Easter holiday, before the fall of the regime in 1917. Of these creations, 43 have survived to this day.
“Winter Egg” Journey
After the fall of the Romanov family, the execution of Nicholas II in 1918 and the murder of Maria Fedorovna in Denmark, the “Winter Egg” was moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow in the 1920s, where It was sold by the Bolsheviks. There it was bought by a London jeweler, and in 1949 it was sold at auction again in the British capital.
“For two decades, we have been experts and specialists They’ve lost sight of him“Until it was discovered again in 1994 and sold at Christie’s auction in Geneva,” Oganesyan explained. Eight years later, in 2002, it was sold again, this time in New York.