Faberge Eggs Treasures of the World
© Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
◦ Mementos of a Doomed Dynasty
◦ Nicholas and Romanov Russia
◦ Nicholas and Alexandra
◦ The tragic events that followed the coronation of Nicholas II
◦ Bloody Sunday
◦ Signs of revolution
◦ The inventive young Faberge
◦ Faberge's growing fame
◦ The Faberge Imperial Easter eggs featured in the Series
◦ The House of Faberge
◦ The workshops and workmasters
◦ Faberge the man
◦ Outrageous opulence
◦ Fragile remembrances
◦ The fate of the eggs ◦
The Faberge Imperial Easter eggs featured in the Series
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The centuries old tradition of bringing
hand-dyed eggs to church to be blessed during the Easter midnight service,
and then presenting them to family and friends, eventually evolved into
the exchange of valuable Easter gifts among members of St. Petersburg
society. At the command of Czar Alexander III, Peter Carl Faberge would
produce an Imperial Easter egg for Maria Fedorovna - and later also
one for Czarina Alexandra - almost every year, until the fall of the
Romanov dynasty.
Most of the eggs are between three and six inches tall; a few, such
as the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Bay Tree eggs, are much larger
- ten and eleven inches respectively. They are enameled and decorated
with a variety of precious stones and materials including gold, silver,
platinum, jade, lapis lazuli, ivory, diamonds, rubies and pearls. Much
of the detail is infused with symbolism important to Russian culture
in general and to Maria and Alexandra in particular.
Faberge was given carte blanche, the only requirement being that each
egg must be unique and each must contain a surprise. Concealing his
plans - even from the Czar - Faberge would spend nearly a year meticulously
designing and crafting appropriate surprises. "Your Majesty will
be pleased" was his only response to questions from his preeminent
client.
When an egg was complete, it was brought to the palace and presented
to the Czar in person by Faberge, while the anxious craftsmen remained
at their workstations, waiting until Faberge returned to assure them
of its safe delivery.
The First egg
The first Imperial Easter egg, also known as The Hen egg (1885), was
created in honor of the twentieth anniversary of the betrothal of Alexander
III and Maria Fedorovna, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark.
It is a variation on an egg from the Danish royal collection, which
Faberge was likely to have seen during his travels in Europe. Whether
it was Faberge's idea to create a souvenir of Marie's Danish homeland,
or a suggestion by Alexander, is unknown. But it was a wonderful and
touching gift for the Empress. The last two surprises, the ruby crown
and pendant, were lost when the egg was sold by the Bolsheviks in the
1920s.
The Danish Palaces egg
The Danish Palaces egg (1890) opens to reveal a ten-panel screen of
miniature paintings of royal residences and yachts. It must have be
quite a delight for the Empress Marie, who had grown up in Denmark,
to see all the wonderful places she lived in and loved during her childhood
as a Danish princess.
The Caucasus egg
When Nicholas' younger brother, Grand Duke Georgii Alexandrovich, was
stricken with tuberculosis, he took up residence in the Imperial hunting
lodge at Abastuman for his health. The Caucasus egg (1893) is decorated
with four ivory miniatures showing views of the lodge. Behind the hinged
cover at the top of the egg is a portrait of the Grand Duke in his naval
uniform.
The Renaissance egg
This egg was the last to be presented to Maria by Alexander before
his untimely death. The Renaissance egg (1894) was closely modeled after
an eighteenth century casket by Le Roy, now located in Dresden at the
Grune Gewolbe. The nature of the surprise it contained is unknown.
The Twelve Monograms and Rosebud
eggs
After the death of Alexander III, in the short time remaining before
the Easter holiday in 1895, Faberge had not only to rework the egg that
had originally been planned for Maria prior to her husband's death,
but also to create an appropriate egg for Alexandra. The Twelve Monograms
egg (1895) was the first Faberge egg given by Czar Nicholas to his mother.
Featuring in diamonds the royal insignia of Czar Alexander III set against
a deep blue enamel background, Faberge's understated creation was a
fitting tribute for the mourning Dowager Empress.
For the new Czarina, Faberge trimmed the strawberry red Rosebud Egg
(1895) with a diamond Cupid's arrow. The surprise inside was an enameled
golden yellow rosebud, another symbol of the couple's love for one another.
For the homesick young girl, the egg was also a reminder of her native
country of Germany, where the golden yellow rose is the most prized
color. Inside the rosebud was a tiny diamond-set Imperial crown, representing
Alexandra's new life as the Empress of Russia.
The Coronation egg
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.)
The Lilies of the Valley egg
Over the next years, Nicholas and Alexandra increasingly insulated
themselves from politics and the intrigues of the court. So Faberge
made a point of learning something of the private lives of his most
important clients. He knew that pink was the favorite color of the Empress,
and lilies of the valley her favorite flower. Every spring, Alexandra
had the rooms of the palaces filled with beautiful floral bouquets.
The Lilies of the Valley egg (1898) is a translucent pink-enameled
treasure covered with gold-stemmed flowers made of pearls, diamonds
and rubies. One flower, when turned, releases a geared mechanism inside
to raise the fan of tiny miniatures from the top - portraits of the
Czar and his first two daughters, Olga and Tatiana.
Gatchina Palace Egg
Continuing a practice initiated by his father, Alexander III, Czar
Nicholas II (1868-1918) presented this egg to his mother, Maria Feodorovna,
on Easter Day in 1901. Faberge's revival of 18th-century techniques,
including the application of multiple layers of translucent enamel over
guilloche or mechanically engraved gold, is demonstrated in the shell
of the egg. When opened, the egg reveals a miniature replica of the
Gatchina Palace, the Dowager Empress's principle residence outside St.
Petersburg. So meticulously did Faberge's workmaster, Mikhail Perkhin,
execute the palace that one can discern such details as cannons, a flag,
a statue of Paul I (1754-1801), and elements of the landscape, including
parterres and trees.
Although objects from the Faberge workshop are prized for their meticulous
workmanship and beautiful effect, the materials of manufacture are not
always as precious as they seem. This can lead to cleaning and restoration
problems. As with many Faberge objects, the variety of gold tones on
the Gatchina Palace Egg is not created with solid gold, but is actually
the result of washing various compositions of gold over another metal,
perhaps silver. When the Egg was brought to the conservation labs, the
gold palace was covered in tarnish due to corrosion of the underlying
metal. In order to remove the tarnish without removing the delicate
gold washes, the conservators used a chemical reagent, rather than an
abrasive technique, painstakingly to restore the Gatchina Palace Egg
to its original beauty.
copyright © 2001 The Walters
Art Museum
The Alexander Palace and Standart
eggs
As the family grew, paintings of the children became a recurring theme,
and the best loved surprises were souvenirs of family memories. "Faberge
knew that miniatures were always going to be a crowd pleaser,"
says Faberge collector Christopher Forbes. "The family was very
sentimental and very close and they loved pictures of each other. And
what better place to put them than in a little trefoil frame hidden
inside an egg, or literally decorating the whole shell of an egg. So
portrait miniatures are probably - in terms of the whole history of
the eggs - the single most popular surprise."
The jade Alexander Palace egg (1908) contains a perfect replica of
their favorite royal residence in the country - only two and one half
inches long. And sailing on a clear rock crystal sea, reproduced to
the last detail, is their royal yacht, the Standart egg (1909),
where many happy days were spent together.
The Czarevich egg
Faberge knew both the joys and sorrows of the Romanovs. According to
Proler, "It wasn't very well known, of course - the Imperial family
kept it very quiet - that the Czarevich had hemophilia. He was dying;
he was very close to death, so close that the Imperial Court had already
written out his death notice. But Alexei survived, and Faberge designed
a special tribute. The Czarevich egg (1912) was Alexandra's most cherished.
The Trans-Siberian Railway egg
In 1900, the railway that would link European Russia with the Pacific
coast was near completion, an accomplishment that brought Nicholas great
satisfaction and the support of his country. Faberge devised an ingenious
offering to celebrate the event.
Etched on a belt of silver encircling the Trans-Siberian Railway egg
(1900) is a map of the railway line, the stations marked in precious
stones. And inside is a little train just one foot long.
"It's made out of gold and platinum, and its headlights are diamonds,
and its rear lights are rubies, and the coaches are individually labeled
for gentlemen, for smoking, for ladies. There was a restaurant car,
and at the end there was the traveling church, which was appended to
the Imperial train. It winds up, and I've tried it myself," says
author Geza von Habsburg. "The mechanism is a bit rusty, and it
moves slowly but it's like a sort of old 'dinky toy.'"
The Cockerel and Bay Tree eggs
With every egg, Faberge outdid himself in technique, detail or complex
mechanics. Some of the world's best examples of handcrafted automata
are hidden in the jeweled shells of the Imperial eggs. At the stroke
of the hour, a ruby-eyed rooster emerges crowing and flapping its wings
from the top of the elaborately designed Cockerel egg (1900). Faberge
was known to have worked on the mechanism of the Peacock Clock in the
Winter Palace, and his familiarity with that famous automaton no doubt
inspired the creation of this egg.
"Faberge, who had traveled a lot, had absorbed all the currents,
the various artistic currents, in Paris, in Florence, in Dresden, in
London," says Von Habsburg. "He could go back to this memory
bank and select objects from it. For instance, the Bay Tree egg in the
Forbes Magazine Collection is based on an 18th century mechanical orange
tree, a French automaton, which was a fairly well-known object which
Faberge must have seen during his travels. Other eggs that Faberge made
were based on objects he saw in the imperial treasury and used as prototypes
for his first eggs."
The eleven-inch Bay Tree egg (1911), laden with gemstone fruits set
among carved jade leaves, conceals tiny bellows to produce the sweet
song of a feathered bird. "When you turn one of the little precious
fruits, these jade leaves part and a small bird appears and sings and
then disappears back into this little tree which is all of about 11
inches high!" (Forbes)
The Peter the Great, Napoleonic
and Tercentenary eggs
As if to bolster the Czar's self-image during his most trying times,
Faberge presented Nicholas with a series of eggs commemorating achievements
of the Romanovs. In lavish Rococo style, the Peter the Great egg (1903)
celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the founding St. Petersburg;
the Napoleonic egg (1912) honored the Motherland's victory over the
French general and his armies.
In 1913, the three-hundred-year rule of Russia under the House of Romanov
was recorded in the portraits encircling the Tercentenary egg (1913)
- from the founder, Mikhail Fedorovich, to Catherine the Great, and
Nicholas himself. The white enameled shell of this egg is nearly obscured
by over eleven hundred diamonds and golden symbols of royal order. Inside,
a globe of burnished steel inlaid in gold displays the frontiers of
Russia in 1613 and the vastly extended borders of Russia under Nicholas
II.
The Grisaille and Winter eggs
Two Eggs presented to the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna - the Winter
egg (1913) and the Grisaille egg (1914) - may best represent the height
of Faberge's career, expressions in miniature of the life of Imperial
privilege. Both were kept at Maria's favorite Anichkov Palace: one inspired
by the serene surroundings in winter; the other by the opulent embellishments
of the palace interior, where many of the ceilings are painted en grisaille.
The Fifteenth Anniversary egg
But all the elements of the Romanov story come together most elegantly
in the Fifteenth Anniversary egg (1911), a family album just over five-inches-tall.
Exquisitely detailed paintings depict the most notable events of the
reign of Nicholas II and each of the family members. "Not only
is it a staggering tour-de-force of the jeweler's art," says Forbes,
"but probably more than any other egg, it is the one most intimately
associated with the whole tragedy of Nicholas and Alexandra and that
incredibly beautiful family. There are these five children - all these
sort of glamorous events surrounding their lives - and there they are
looking out at us happily unknowing what was going to happen to them
just a few years later."
The Red Cross egg
When World War I broke out in 1914, the trouble that had loomed at
the edge of the Romanov's awareness began to penetrate the protective
shell of imperial privilege. In response to the suffering of their people
and an attempt to present an image of patriotism and concerned involvement,
Alexandra enrolled herself and her older daughters in nurses' training
and had the Winter Palace converted into a provisional hospital to care
for the increasing number of wounded.
At that time, there was great hope that Russia would yet prevail in
the war, and Faberge was asked to continue the tradition of Imperial
Easter eggs. But to match the solemn mood of the nation and reflect
the noble efforts of the family, Faberge wisely altered the tone of
the Easter gifts that year. Inside the Red Cross egg (1915) given to
the Dowager Empress Maria are portraits of the Romanov women dressed
as Sisters of Mercy. Inscribed inside are the words, "Greater Love
hath no man than this, to lay down his life for his friends."
The Steel Military and Order
of St. George eggs
In 1915, the Czar appointed himself "Supreme Commander of the
Army," displacing one of the top generals. For this act, he was
awarded the Order of St. George, given for outstanding military bravery
or achievement. Believing as many did that now the Czar would overcome
the difficulties, Faberge designed two eggs to applaud the event.
For the Czarina, he painted an image of Nicholas consulting with his
officers at the front. Resting on the points of four miniature artillery
shells, the Steel Military egg (1916) makes up in sober significance
what it lacks in ornamentation.
According to Von Habsburg: "He had to close down his workshops
because his craftsman were all at the front. He was unable to continue
to make these objects of art. He had no more precious materials. Gold
and silver were no longer allowed to be handled by jewelers at that
time so it was steel and brass and copper that they were using. And
the imperial family could also not be seen ordering expensive things
from Faberge at a time when Russia was bleeding to death."
The simple Order of St. George egg (1916), given to the Dowager Empress
Maria that year, was another gesture to wartime austerity. Away from
St. Petersburg supervising Red Cross activities in the south, she wrote
to her son: "I thank you with all my heart for your lovely Egg,
which dear old Faberge brought himself. It is beautiful. I wish you,
my darling Nickya, all the best things and success in everything. Your
fondly loving old Mama."
The Order of St. George Egg had been delivered to Maria in the Crimea.
She never returned to St. Petersburg, and when she was finally evacuated
on a British cruiser, she carried it with her. It was the egg she held
most dear.
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