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Imperial Treasures: Faberge from the Forbes Collection



 
 
 
   


Сотби - Аукционы
Императорские сокровища: Фаберже из коллекции Форбса

Другие статьи по теме сенсационной покупки | Other articles on a theme of sensational purchase

Sotheby's - Auctions - Imperial Treasures: Faberge from the Forbes Collection
Сотби - Аукционы - Императорские сокровища: Фаберже из коллекции Форбса

The Coronation Egg
A Faberge Imperial Easter Egg presented by Tsar Nicholas II to his wife the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna at Easter 1897. Nicholas loved the pomp and ritual of military life and Imperial ceremony, which required him only to look good and say little. On May 9, 1896, Nicholas and Alexandra were crowned in the Uspenski Cathedral in Moscow in one of the most magnificent pageants in Russian history. Attended by over seven thousand guests from around the world, including most of Europe's royalty, the celebrations lasted for two weeks. To commemorate the event, Faberge's Coronation egg (1897) was larger and more lavish than any before. The surface was enameled primrose yellow in a field of starbursts. Trellised with bands of laurel made of gold, each intersection was marked by Imperial eagles bearing tiny diamonds on their chests. But the surprise inside was an even greater achievement: a precise reproduction - under four inches long - of the eighteenth-century coach that carried Alexandra to her coronation. According to author Lynette Proler, "It was all done by hand and crafted by hand in such minute detail - every detail from the state carriage was included - from the little crown on the top of it in diamonds to the windows in rock crystal. And the little steps... when the Empress would alight from the carriage onto the steps, they would fall out of the carriage, and in the little miniature they do the same. It took approximately fifteen months to craft this carriage by hand working all day and well into the night, seven days a week, and it was barely finished just in time to be presented to the Empress." The original carriage was designed for Nicholas' great-great-great-grandmother, Catherine the Great in 1793. During the time it took to complete, master craftsman George Stein made numerous clandestine visits to the imperial stables in order to perfectly match his work to the original. The model mimics every moving part of its prototype, right down to a working suspension. (Ironically, when the Hermitage recently undertook to refurbish the original, Margaret Kelly, Director of the Forbes Magazine Collection, provided them with detailed photos of the Coronation egg from which to work.)

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© 2004 Mr. Victor Vekselberg's FoundationSotheby's - Auctions - Imperial Treasures: Faberge from the Forbes Collection


Был объявлен аукцион: Sale N07981 April 20-21, 2004. Но аукционному дому Сотби сделали предложение, от которого он не мог отказаться. О сенсационной продаже-покупке было объявлено 4 февраля 2004 года.

Теперь всем нам предоставляется возможность полюбоваться этой красотой. Надеюсь не только на фотографиях, но и в живую. Обещают показать даже в Ижевске. Now the opportunity to admire is granted all of us this beauty. I hope not only in photos, but also in alive. Promise to show even in Izhevsk.

Remaining 8 Faberge Imperial Easter eggs / Остальные 8 Императорских пасхальных яйц Фаберже

The Coronation Egg. A Faberge Imperial Easter Egg presented by Tsar Nicholas II to his wife the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna at Easter 1897.

The Coronation Egg The Coronation Egg The Coronation Egg



К разделу "Фаберже, Императорские пасхальные яйца и Гатчина / Faberge, Imperial easter eggs and Gatchina"
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