Fabergé's Imperial Easter Eggs
Eggs Fit For A Tsar
How one Easter gift became fifty jewelled eggs, then vanished, then resurfaced.
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A Tsar's Easter Surprise
In 1885 Tsar Alexander III asked jeweller Carl Fabergé for an Easter gift for his wife. The first Imperial egg looked plain outside, but opened to reveal a gold yolk, a gold hen inside that, and a tiny diamond crown inside the hen.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
A Surprise Inside Every Shell
Each egg opened to reveal a hidden treasure: a miniature portrait, a model train, a jewelled swan. The surprise inside became the whole point of the gift.
Source: Science Museum Blog
Fifty Eggs Over Three Decades
Fabergé's workshop made fifty Imperial eggs between 1885 and 1917, almost one every Easter. Tsar Nicholas II kept the custom, giving two a year: one to his wife, one to his mother.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
War Made The Eggs Plainer
During the First World War the eggs turned simple: steel, with no jewels. It would have looked wrong for the family to commission luxury while the country was at war.
Source: Science Museum Blog
Revolution Scattered The Collection
The 1917 Russian Revolution ended the tradition. The Tsar's family was overthrown, Fabergé fled the country, and Bolshevik officials seized many of the eggs from the palace.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
Missing Egg Found At A Market
Around 2004 a scrap dealer paid about fourteen thousand dollars for a gold trinket at a bric-a-brac market, planning to melt it down. Years later, in 2014, experts confirmed it was a missing 1887 Imperial egg, worth millions.
Source: CNN
Some eggs took a year to craft. Yours just needs a good crack and a hot pan this Multan morning.
References
- Smithsonian Magazine smithsonianmag.com
- Science Museum Blog blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk
- Smithsonian Magazine smithsonianmag.com
- Science Museum Blog blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk
- Smithsonian Magazine smithsonianmag.com
- CNN cnn.com
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