Peter
Carl Fabergé, legendary artist-jeweller and a goldsmith to the
Russian Imperial Court, was born in 1846 in a family of goldsmiths.
He was educated in St Petersburg and Dresden. After doing his
apprenticeship with his goldsmith father, he went to Paris, where he
received expert tuition from goldsmiths in France, Germany and
England. Because of his superb talents, creative imagination and
business instincts, he became the jeweller and goldsmith to the
great Russian Imperial Court of Tsar Alexander III and then his son,
Tsar Nicholas II and his Empress Alexandra. In those years, he
created some of the most exquisite jewels and objets d'art. He soon
acquired worldwide reputation, which attracted royalty, nobility,
tycoons, industrialists and the artistic intelligentsia of Paris.
The
Russian Revolution of 1917, not only brought a violent end to the
Romanov dynasty but also brought full closure to the business house
of Fabergé. The Bolsheviks seized the Fabergé workshops and their
treasures, all production was closed down and Peter Carl Fabergé and
his family fled from Russia. In spite of this, the noble Fabergé
name, still retains its mystique, charisma and awe-inspiring romance.
Many of the iconic Fabergé works of art were lost in the revolution
and there whereabouts still remain a mystery.
Between
1885 and 1916, Peter Carl Fabergé created 50 pieces of objets d'art,
that are considered as the artist-goldsmith’s greatest and most
enduring achievements. These are popularly known as jewelled Easter
eggs. According to Russian Orthodox Church, Easter was considered as
the most important occasion every year. There was a centuries old
tradition in Russia that at the time of Easter, hand coloured eggs
were brought to the Church to be blessed and then presented to
friends and family. This tradition led to a custom amongst Russia's
noblemen, wherein they gave valuably bejewelled Easter eggs made from
gold as presents. In 1885, Tsar Alexander III decided to give a
jewelled Easter egg to his wife Empress Marie Fedorovna, possibly to
celebrate the 20th anniversary of their betrothal and entrusted the
job to Peter Carl Fabergé.
The
house of Faberge,
which claims the legacy to Peter Carl Fabergé today was
re-established in 2009. Their web site describes these Easter eggs in
following words and I quote:
“Each
egg, an artistic tour de force, took a year or more to make,
involving a team of highly skilled craftsmen, who worked in the
greatest secrecy. Fabergé was given complete freedom in the design
and execution, with the only prerequisite being that there had to be
surprise within each creation.
Alexander
III presented an egg each year to his wife the Empress Marie
Fedorovna and the tradition was continued, from 1895, by his son
Nicholas II who presented an egg annually to both his wife the
Empress Alexandra Fedorovna and to his mother the Dowager Empress
Marie Fedorovna. However, there were no presentations during 1904 and
1905 because of political unrest and the Russo-Japanese War.
The
most expensive was the 1913 Winter Egg, which was invoiced at 24,600
roubles (then £2,460). Prior to the Great War, a room at Claridges
was 10 shillings (50 pence) a night compared to approximately £380
today. Using this yardstick, the egg would have cost £1.87 million
in today’s money.
The
Winter Egg, designed by Alma Pihl, famed for her series of diamond
snowflakes, is made of carved rock crystal as thin as glass. This is
embellished with engraving, and ornamented with platinum and
diamonds, to resemble frost. The egg rests on a rock-crystal base
designed as a block of melting ice. Its surprise is a magnificent and
platinum basket of exuberant wood anemones. The flowers are made from
white quartz, nephrite, gold and demantoid garnets and they emerge
from moss made of green gold. Its overall height is 14.2cm. It is set
with 3,246 diamonds. The egg sold at Christie’s in New York in 2002
for US$9.6 million.”
I am
sure that readers by now must have got a fair idea about the present
market value of these Easter eggs. Apparently out of the 50 eggs
Fabergé made for the Imperial family from 1885 through to 1916, only
42 have survived and no trace of the balance 8 was ever found.
Last
week, news media broke a story of an unidentified scrap metal dealer
from U.S. Midwest, who bought an egg shaped golden ornament for
US$14000, while searching for scrap gold. Hoping to make a small
profit by selling it to gold dealers, who bought scrap gold for
melting, he was thoroughly disappointed when there were no takers as
everyone felt that he had overestimated the value of the objet d'art,
which had a watch on top and gems tucked inside the egg.
In
desperation, the man searched the internet and realised that he may
have in his hand the egg that Russian Tsar Alexander III had given
to his wife, Maria Feodorovna, for Easter in 1887. After making
discreet inquiries, the man was directed to London's Wartski
antiques dealer, who after seeing a photograph of the ornament,
instantly realised that it had to be original. Wartski acquired the
egg for an unidentified private collector. The new owner remains
unidentified but the price is believed to be around US$ 20 million.
The
story appears like that of fiction and just unbelievable, but Wartski
people say, it happens to be true.
24th
March 2014
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