Fabergé Fabulous 2/3: Out of Romanov Hands

How did the czars get the eggs?

Alexander III was truly just looking for a really nice Easter gift for his wife.  The aristocracy favored jeweled eggs for the occasion, and his Danish wife had fond memories of such baubles in her homeland.  Alexander III decided an egg would be perfect, and turned to a recently honored jeweler for the job.

Portrait of Alexander III, made sometime during his reign, held by the Hillwood Estate in conjunction with two imperial eggs.  Although Alexander III encouraged Russian industrialization, he also took repressive steps to consolidate imperial power.  Many suspect his autocratic leanings were a reaction to his father's assassination.  Neither he nor his son and successor, Nicholas II, were well educated.  Though Alexander III took it as a point of pride to be like the average man, Nicholas II would feel his education's shortcomings in lethal revolution.

The best jeweler and goldsmith in Russia, Peter Carl Fabergé, was known to Alexander III through his stellar presentation at a national exhibition.  Fabergé had made a name for himself by bucking the gaudy, ostentatious trend of Russian jewelry and focusing instead on delicate, intricate designs.

This French bulldog--photo source Wartski--was made by Peter Carl Fabergé and sold in London during 1916.  Once Fabergé became the court jeweler, his success led him to build five workshops, including one in London.  This French bulldog is carved from petrified wood, with a gold enameled collar studded with rose diamonds.  The eyes are also diamonds.  Peter Fabergé found the shifting hues of petrified wood made for a good representation of fur.

The Hen egg, the first imperial egg, so impressed Maria Feodorovna that the eggs became a yearly Easter tradition in the imperial household.  Fabergé, by extension, became the imperial jeweler.  The Hen egg was made with periodic input from Alexander III, but the eggs that followed were made in special secrecy.  Even the emperor himself was kept in the dark until the egg was ready, but that didn't stop the imperial court from teasing the recalcitrant Fabergé for details.

One of the Fabergé workshops, photo credit PBS Treasures of the World.  Each workshop was headed by a master craftsman who supervised a team.  At their height, Fabergé's workshops employed five hundred skilled craftsmen.

In 1894, Alexander III succumbed to kidney disease.  His family was shocked, and Alexander's son, Nicholas II, was greatly distraught.  He had never been instructed in government affairs, and he was intimidated by his new post as emperor.  Nicholas II decided the safest strategy would be to keep everything going just as his father had left it, including the tradition of the Fabergé eggs.  From 1895 on, Fabergé would make two eggs each year: one for the dowager empress and one for Alexandra, Nicholas' wife.

 

From left to right, clockwise: Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, Princess Consort Alexandra, and Emperor Nicholas II.  Picture credits to Museum Syndicate, GeneBase, and Encyclopedia Brittanica respectively.  Alexandra had a much more aggressive personality than her husband, and when he failed to live up to his title, she encouraged a host of self-serving advisors--including Rasputin--to take her husband's place in government.  Nicholas was a peerless father to his five children, but his refusal to take the reigns of government ultimately led to a bloody revolution.

Picking up on Nicholas' love of family life, Peter Fabergé and his workshops began focusing their efforts around family portraits and tributes.  Today, many photos survive of Nicholas II, Alexandra, and their five children.

Nicholas II and Alexandra with their four daughters and infant son.  The picture was taken in 1905 and is held by the Granger Collection in New York.

The 15th Anniversary egg, given to Alexandra in 1911, currently belongs to the Russian Vekselberg.  The egg features painted scenes of the Romanov family, royal events, and palaces.  Nicholas, Alexandra, and all five of their children are featured individually on separate panels of the egg.

It sounds like the Romanovs were headed for trouble.  How did the Russian Revolution affect Fabergé's work?

The Russian Revolution put a complete stop to Peter Fabergé and his workshops, although his ruin was not without warning.  World War I was a constant drain on resources, and even the elite felt its effects.  As money flowed to the front lines, it flowed away from luxury goods.  Following the 1914 Mosaic egg, Nicholas II asked Fabergé for more conservative eggs.

The 1916 Order of St. George egg was the last egg received by the imperial family (picture source).  Currently, it is part of Vekselberg's collection.  The egg celebrates a military honor bestowed on Nicholas II and his son.  Portraits of the two are hidden by small panels painted with the order's insignia.  Pressing a button at the top of the egg lifts the panels to display the portraits.  An egg made for Marie Feodorovna, she managed to escape with it before Nicholas II and his family were captured.

World War I killed over a million Russians and wounded many more by 1917.  Nicholas II continued to rule spinelessly, while his wife relayed the feverish demands of Rasputin.  Russia decided she was finished with the Romanovs, and Nicholas was forced to abdicate in March 1917.  He and his family were escorted by a hostile police force to the Ural Mountains, far from their Saint Petersburg home.  Although 2 eggs were made for the 1917 year, neither were ever seen by the imperial family.

The 1917 Karelian Birch egg, currently owned by a private museum in Baden-Baden, Germany.  Karelian birch is unique to Russia, and the now-absent surprise of this egg was an ivory wind-up elephant.  This egg was apparently delivered to the Saint Petersburg palace in April 1917, but the imperial family had already been removed by the time it arrived.  Peter Fabergé was accustomed to billing his eggs to the 'Czar of all the Russias,' but the bill for this egg is simply made out to 'Mr. Romanov.'

The second egg of that year was never finished, but it exists today in a museum in either the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow or the Baded-Baden Fabergé museum.  Both museums claim their egg is the authentic one.

Left to right: Original artist's sketch (Wartski), Russia's Constellation, and Baden-Baden's Constellation.  Baden-Baden claims to possess the real egg, totally finished, but Russia has a stronger claim to authenticity.  When Fabergé's workshop was raided in 1918, the loot was put into storage.  Russia found their unfinished Constellation egg in an area that was known to house Fabergé's plundered materials, whereas the Baden-Baden egg seemed to simply appear.  The Russian egg is made of blue glass, and it was to be etched with a starry sky as well as hold a clock.  The base is of rock crystal.

In 1918, the Romanovs lost their lives and Fabergés narrowly escaped with theirs.  The jeweler's famous workshops were nationalized and looted, their treasures confiscated.  When Fabergé left Russia, he brought with him only his family.  He was ill-prepared in spirit and resources to start anew in Western Europe.  Stricken by the murder of the Czar, Peter Fabergé removed to Switzerland, where he died in 1920.

The Fabergé trademark (source)

Meanwhile in Russia, Lenin had stored the imperial eggs in basements, but when Stalin came to power, he emptied the basements and sold nearly everything.  Bundles of priceless Russian art flooded the United States, but the Great Depression kept prices shockingly low.  Even the eggs, sold piecemeal to department stores, returned very little currency to the newly communist Russia.  The eggs passed into private families, foreign royalty, or remained locked in Soviet strongholds.  Over the next century, they trickled more and more into museums and exhibitions, moving from the darkness into the light.

Note

I pulled from many sources, mostly news or history sites, in building this series.  I've credited many of them here.  Some pictures may be uncredited because I could not identify their origin.

Next up: A Great Fall for Fabergé

Sources

• PBS Treasures of the World: Fabergé Eggs
• PBS Treasures of the World: House of Fabergé
• PBS Treasures of the World: Young Fabergé
• PBS Treasures of the World: Early Eggs
• infoplease: Alexander III
• About.com: 1880 to 1890
• Fabergé: Imperial Eggs
• Fabergé: Peter Carl Fabergé
• infoplease: Alexander III
• CNN: Scrap Metal
• The Link of Times: Fabergé Collection
• moscow.info: Kremlin Armory Museum
• Daily Mail: Perfection, Down to a Tea
• VMFA: Fabergé Revealed
• Metropolitan Museum of Art: Faberge from Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation
• Hillwood Museum: Russian Collection
• Mieks: Eggs
• Walters Museum of Art: Fabergé
• Forbes: Egg Collection Up for Auction
• NYTimes: Russian Industrialist Buys Forbes' Fabergé Eggs
• ArtDaily: Fabergé Museum in Moscow
• petersburgtrip.com: Fabergé Museum Visit
• Guide-Guru: Faberge Egg Museum
• Telegraph: Scandal of the Sheikh
• Independent: Sheikh who Shook up the Art World
• Christie's: Winter egg
• Fabergé: Houston Highlights
• TamuTimes: Dorothy and Artie McFerrin
• Mieks Fabergé
• Encyclopedia Brittanica: Alexander III
• PBS Treasures of the World: Fabergé the Man
• Hillwood Estate: Portrait of Tsar Alexander III
• Wartski: Faberge French Bulldog
• History Learning Site: Nicholas and Alexandra
• BBC History: Nicholas II
• PBS Treasures of the World: Fate of the Eggs
• Rough & Polished: Sarah Fabergé Interview
• Biography: Nicholas II
• JCK: Faberge Returns to Russia