Cryptic Mysteries

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Gotta Bugatti?

The road from San Francisco to Humboldt County is beautiful and varied. Ocean-edged freeways slip into acres of grapevines and miles of redwoods.

Pic from Google Maps

The thing is, it's a long trip: about six or seven hours on the speed limit, and of course a nice drive deserves a nice car. What if you had a faster car and, you know, maybe didn't worry so much about the speed limit? Just think how those towering ruddy redwoods would look from the driver's seat of a Bugatti Veyron, whizzing past at hundreds of miles per hour.

You should get a Bugatti.

Currently available from the racing giant: the Grand Sport Vitesse, vitesse being French for velocity.

The boy in blue knows what's up. He never really gets more than three inches from the car. For a short time, he even seems to vanish into the car itself. This video was taken by a humble admirer in Geneva, 2014.

But buying a Bugatti isn't like buying a Ford, Mercedes, or even a Rolls. If you scan Bugatti's list of 'authorized' dealers--which are themselves few and far between--not manyy stock the brand. Los Gatos Luxury Cars can demo Rolls Royce and Bentley for days, but not a ghost of a Bugatti can be found in the inventory. Same, ironically, with Bugatti Scottsdale. Miami, at least, has a Veyron 16.4, though they are vague on the details of the model.

I googled around this block several times and couldn't find any dealer Bugatti. Pic from Google Street View.

Well, we don't have to stand for this. Let's say we gas up the jet and boogie on over to Qatar. The Middle East isn't an obvious destination, but is a reputable one. The gas barons' Al Wajba Motors were able to order up a golden Bentley, so they ought to give us a Bugatti Veyron.

Damn that Doha traffic. You can hardly see the road for all those preppy Lamborghini.
Photo credit: Action Global Communications

If Al Wajba lets us down, we'll have to content ourselves with some old masters from the local art galleries and just order the darn car for delivery to our estate back home.

You could have a look around for this while you're in the neighborhood. It should be floating around Qatar somewhere. Photo credit Mieks.

Wired.com gives a good idea of how Bugattis are shipped. Your record-breaking baby, assembled in France, will be swathed in protective packing for its trip across the pond. Upon arrival in the States, your dealer will unpack the beast and examine it thoroughly before sending it your way. The car will be carried to you in a dedicated box truck, with only a little left to unwrap.

A San Diego dealer unloads a newly-arrived Bugatti.
Photo credit: Wired

Now you have a Bugatti! Currently, the factory is shipping Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse. The car's special power is its speed, and you can expect 254 mph from this model. Sixteen cylinders, 1200 hp, and 1106 foot-pounds of torque star in that speedy show.

Vitesse World Record Edition, a peek inside the hood.
Photo credit: Luxurious Automotive

Let's put some of those numbers into context. The Vitesse does zero to sixty in two and half seconds. For those couple seconds, the car will press you into the seat very similar to the way a jet does during takeoff.

But if the Vitesse hits the freeway like a jet hits the sky, it is mainly due to its 1200 horsepower with the sustained torque to match it. In comparison, the Mustang has about 300 hp, and it is no slouch. My old Mercedes C240 has 168. Focus: 160, Camry: 180 or 270, depending on package.

While it is easy to compare horsepower across models, there is more to a fast car than that number alone. Horsepower is calculated from specific values of torque and rpm, so as your engine rpm rises and falls, horsepower fluctuates. In reporting a single number for horsepower, manufacturers mask this variance, which may be significant.

Graph of F-350 engine output: horsepower and torque on y-axis, rpm on x-axis. Green and blue show horsepower variation, while red and purple chart torque. We can see that horsepower and torque change dramatically as rpm increases. Source

Not so with Bugatti. In addition to a 0-60 mph acceleration surpassing Earth's gravitational pull, the Bugatti serves you well at higher speeds, supplying a consistent eleven hundred foot-pounds of torque for a range of rpm two thousand wide.

Gray is torque, red is horsepower (hp), and the x-axis is rpm. Note the consistent plateau of torque between rpm 2200 and 5500. It is this that keeps the horsepower rising so consistently. Source

However, in the words of Spiderman's uncle, with great power comes great responsibility. In this case, that means a fat wallet. The car will probably cost about $2.5 million, plus $40k for shipping. Your top speed is limited to 233 until you release it with a special key, but unleashing the hurricane will slurp down a full 26 gallon tank in just twelve minutes.

At speed, that amounts to a really cool twelve minutes and forty miles. The key, of course, is not intended to impose sensible driving or limit your fuel consumption, which is 15 mpg at best. No, the key is necessary because at such tremendous speed a spoiler will deploy, smashing the car to the ground with 770 pounds of force. The key is present to remind you put on better tires, because if the spoiler deploys without them, the tires could explode, thus cutting short an otherwise lovely outing.

Spoiler alert. Source

After a speedy jaunt like that, you have to do a couple of things. First you have to change the tires, so keep the 'ole checkbook handy for that $40k expense. Good luck refueling, as the supercar's required 93 to 100 octane is a bit difficult to find. Fortunately, your tank of gas shouldn't top $200, but you might also need new wheels, mandatory every 10k miles or after really hitting the gas. Don't forget the yearly maintenance checkup, and of course you can't forget insurance. All told, annual Bugatti upkeep can run $300k, according to the Examiner.

With that kind of money, you could buy a garden of Lotus, a pair of Aston Martin, or even a Rolls Royce AND a Lotus. But then, none of those cars can touch the Bugatti for speed (although their tires probably last longer). If you want to cruise around like the Queen of England and visit the wineries in a Bentley, that's fine, but if you want to go so fast that the wind is literally punching your car in the face, feebly attempting to hinder your very own four-wheeled lighting strike, then the Vitesse has all the finesse you need.

Bug Out to these links for more info!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

That's a Moray!

Today's post is inspired by this YouTube video: a woman 'befriending' a moray eel.

The footage is amazing. The eel is longer than she is, yet she is able to pet it, even scratch its head. In turn, the eel winds around her, brushing against her suit with seeming affection. Valerie Taylor, the diver in the clip, has named her undersea fan 'Honey.'

Valerie claims to be 'great friends' with Honey, a spotted moray eel dwelling in a reef of Indonesia. Could that be true? As a large predator, the moray eel must be capable of considerable intelligence. But friendship? This episode of Cryptic Mysteries...

Just instinct, or is that amore?

For a tricky question like this, Dean Martin is a good start but more may be necessary. In this case, we must decide what constitutes a friend, specifically a friend who is an animal. I'll dip into a few facets, covering the life and habits of spotted morays along the way, and at the end of the post I'll lump in some more things and compare the common perception of friendship with whatever Valerie and Honey seem to have going on.

Let's start with one of the most important aspects of friendship, the unwillingness to cause harm.

Hurt the ones you love?

The idea is simple: friends are not supposed to brutally maim each other. There are many cases of lions, tigers, bears, sharks, and alligators behaving violently with humans, so I would not try to cuddle up to one of these species if I found it in the wild. Other people feel differently.

But realistically, the difference between Kevin rolling around with his lions and me playing with my roommate's cat is this: if my cat gets a bit too excited, I could be bitten, and would probably wind up at the doctor's office to keep off infection. If Kevin gets bitten, he might have to go to a doctor, and the doctor might refer him to the coroner. A house cat makes a good friend (although a self-centered, saucy friend) partly because that species is not known for its ability to kill humans, either on purpose or on accident.

So how likely is Valerie to be seriously injured by Honey the moray eel?

Pic from MarineBio

Moray Mouth: The Thumbcracker

At first glance, it's hard to believe that this watchful, soft-faced eel has a second set of extendable jaws and needles for teeth. Offer it a bite of fish or nibble of hot dog, and both facts might become painfully obvious. Here's the sad story of a man who just couldn't get the hot dogs out of the plastic bag fast enough. Attack footage included. It's a bit graphic, but I still give it a thumb up.

The diver wasn't bitten once, but twice by his friend Emma. In 2007, researchers discovered that moray eels pack a double bite. The first bite is from the needling teeth that pierce the flesh and lock the eel on. The second bite is from second pair of jaws that are ejected from the lower throat into the mouth. These second jaws grab the prey item and pull it into the eel's throat. Here's what that looks like:

Oops. I mean:

Photo credit Waiving Entropy and Nature

That's still not a whole lot better, right? Moray eels are big animals with spring-loaded double mouths. Investing in a bare-fingered relationship with these animals requires either the ignorance of an amateur or a willingness to accept that you may leave the ocean bleeding substantially more than when you entered it. Conservatively speaking, moray eels are not the best species to get chummy with.

Hanging Out

Let's say you were born with twelve fingers and don't mind the risk. Well, another important part of friendship is hanging out, also called chillin' or goofing off. You can play ball with a dog or balance fruit on your cat, but it's hard to do any of that with nothing but a gulping face in a craggy reef. Fortunately, spotted moray eels are curious and approachable. John Liddiard gives an excellent account of the food-poor, boundary-rich relationship a colleague had with a local giant moray, which would swim up to meet him when he called it.

Hugues Vitry is pictured here with a giant moray eel he's known 25+ years. Remarkably, he hasn't given the eel a silly name, and this may partway explain how Vitry has managed to keep all his fingers. He calls the eel with a distinctive grunt, making it swim from its own territory to meet him, theoretically making the interaction safer for the human.

Morays: It's not all about you

When they aren't biting off fingers or snuggling like golden retrievers, moray eels lead their own lives. The majority of morays dwell in the world's tropical, reefy waters. During the day they hide out in a convenient crevice, while at night they hunt down smaller fish and octopus. Unlike their food sources, moray eels breathe with an exaggerated gasping expression, which forces oxygen-rich water through their gills. At first glance, however, it looks as though they are practicing to bite you. Here is a honeycomb moray at home, breathing suspiciously at the camera:

Source

Moray eels don't like to share holes, but they will, if space is limited. This photo of two white eyed moray eels brough to you from UKDivers.

Despite what you might think from the moray's penchant for holes, they are not ambush predators. During the night they swim free, catching prey with hair-trigger double jaws. Reportedly, reef fishes will harass a roaming moray in the evening, even cozying up to the eel's mouth. Theoretically, the fish are trying to 'annoy' the eel into swimming off before it starts to snack on the reef dwellers. Realistically, it seems like a suicide strategy.

A moray cruising the reef. Pic from Bruce and Jackie's Dive Trips

In his National Geographic photo entry, Douglas Kahle captures a green moray with a prickly customer. Eventually, the moray conceded defeat, leaving the victorious puffer with an inflated sense of victory.

Like dogs and cats, morays eat, rest, and reproduce, but unlike those familiar pets, morays are not prudes when it come to physical sexual characteristics. Some morays start male and swap to female, while other species are happy to remain both sexes their entire lives. When mating, the male and female twist around each other. Occasionally, the male will bite the female's neck to keep her close. They release their gametes into the water, and the fertilized eggs eventually hatch into tiny larva.

The Birmingham aquarium encourages its happy couple.

A couple of zebra eels caught in the act. For viewers sensitive to sexual material, 'the act' is, in this case, very similar to tangling shoe laces.

Disregarded by their parents, the larva can float free for up to ten months, sometimes drifting hundreds of miles. Without this migration, the California coast would likely have no morays, since the Pacific ocean is too cold for the eels to reproduce. Morays found off California coastlines are actually mature larval migrants from Baja California, where the water is warm enough to mate. Once established, moray eels can live as long as thirty years. In human terms, that's long enough to drink, vote, drive, and make at least one serious life mistake.

Although their itinerant babies are quite the travelers, morays have other striking adaptations. You might have noticed that morays seem to have little tubes poking out of their nostrils. Basically, those little protrusions are super-nostrils.

Most fish get their sense of smell from four nostrils, properly called nares. They have two on each side of the face, but all four tend to be pretty close together. Moray eels have tubed nares that are farther apart than those of most fish, giving the moray an olfactory advantage over other fish.

A photo by Tim Laman captures the giant nares of the ribbon eel, a type of moray.

Moray Mores

Basically, morays are curious, intelligent, long-lived creatures that WILL take your finger off if they feel like it. It is easy to find stories cringe-worthy dismemberment, but there are also abundant stories of human-moray merry-making. Personally, I would never go as far as Valerie, naming an eel and wearing it like a feather boa, but if I were with an experienced diver who knew a mild-mannered eel, I might try to give it a pet. This scenario assumes that I am wearing mesh gloves and don't smell like hot dogs.

There are around two hundred species of moray in many colors and sizes. The giant moray would burst a bathtub at thirteen feet long, but a handful of the smaller species are kept by enthusiasts in saltwater aquariums. Here are a few species of eye-catching morays, with picture sources given in parentheses.

A giant moray eel at home (UKDivers.net)

Spotted Moray, max size around four feet (snorkelstj.com)

A green moray, max length eight feet (Baltimore National Aquarium)

Dragon eel for sale to hobbyists, retail price $900 per eel, max size thirty inches (alibaba.com)

Fangtooth Moray, max size four feet (Philippe Guillaume)

Snowflake Moray, max size twelve inches, retails for $30 (Steve Dunleavy)

In January 2014, moray eels bred in captivity for the first time. This is a larva from that clutch, laid by a black ribbon eel at the Zoo Vienna Schönbrunn in Austria. This larva is just one centimeter long. (zooborns.com)

The proud parents of the Austria larva, a couple of ribbon eels. They are the first moray eel couple to breed in captivity. In Austria, there's amore! (zooborns.com)

Sources and Additional Info

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Fabergé Fabulous 3/3: Fate of the Goldsmith

Is the Fabergé jeweler still around?

Yes, but Peter Carl Fabergé probably would not recognize its present incarnation. After his death, his sons struggled to resurrect the business, but depression conditions and lack of qualified labor restrained them. While they labored, American opportunist Samuel Rubin caught wind of the Fabergé brand and registered the name for himself, using it to sell perfumes and toiletries.

By the time the Fabergé family heard about this, it was too late. Their money was gone, and they had no means to battle in the American legal system. The American stole their name, and the family walked away with a small settlement. Taken from their hands, the Fabergé name was bought and sold several times, but it was rarely used to represent jeweler's work.

Theo Fabergé (source), grandson of Peter, designed and sold his own Easter eggs (source). Though they are produced in runs of thousands, not one-of-a-kind, they are still quite beautiful and command tens of thousands of dollars in the market. Regrettably, Theo was legally barred from using the Fabergé name to sell them. However, just days before his death in 2007, he and his daughter joined the company named for his family, since it had finally returned to producing jewelry.

In 2007, the Fabergé family was united with the company that had stolen their name over seventy years ago. Two granddaughters of Peter Fabergé, Tatiana and Sarah Fabergé, offer "expertise and guidance" to the Fabergé company, according to Faberge.com. This is more than a publicity stunt, as the two women have been active in the egg business for some time. Sarah Fabergé has practice making and selling luxury jeweled eggs through her father, Theo Fabergé. Her cousin, Tatiana Fabergé, makes a living teaching others about the Fabergé legacy, serving as a historian, educator, and biographer.

Tatiana, left, and Sarah, right (Picture from the DailyMail). The picture was taken in 2009 during the launch of the Fabergé company's first jewelry collection. This occasion was the first time since the 1920s that the Fabergé company sold jewelry. It is also the first time in history that the Fabergé family have worked with the rights-holding Fabergé company.

Today, the Fabergé company operates a handful of boutiques spread around the world, placed in the hubs of the rich and famous. In spite of their egg-centric designs and copious use of diamonds, Peter Fabergé and the csarist splendor are clearly absent. In spite of that, I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't recommend a peek at the company's online galleries. Obviously those rings and necklaces are far too gaudy, the gold excessive and the diamonds, rubies, and emeralds tossed about like grains of sand across a beach...

But I bet these would look really good on you, or on a female friend of yours.

Final Bits

I have a great many references listed, but by far the most comprehensive is mieks.com. Run by a Netherlands Fabergé enthusiast, it is well sourced, readable, and has plenty of pictures. If you are hungry for more, better quality images, check out Carl Faberge: Goldsmith to the Imperial court of Russia by Snowman. The hardback book is light enough to sit comfortably in your lap, and the large, glossy pages are a pleasure to browse. Snowman himself owns a few small pieces, and his father purchased the Winter egg directly from the Soviets back in the 1920s.

This series is over, but don't lay an egg. Stay tuned for more Cryptic Mysteries!

Sources

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

Fabergé Fabulous 1/3: Eggs and their Nests

In the mid 1880s, a middle-aged czar was looking for the perfect Easter gift for his wife of twenty years. An egg was the obvious choice. In addition to being the Easter gift in vogue among Russian aristocracy, an egg would also have nostalgic value for his wife, who admired them growing up as a princess of Denmark. The czar approached a renowned goldsmith with the idea, and the product of their efforts so delighted the czarina that fifty eggs were eventually created, each bearing a different treasure inside.

The first Fabergé egg was made in 1885 by Carl Fabergé for Czar Alexander III, who gave it to his wife Maria Feodorovna, who loved it. The outer egg is gold with white enamel. It opens to a gold 'yolk,' which also opens to reveal a tiny adorable chicken, as shown. The chicken also opens, but its hidden surprise, a ruby crown attached to a pendant, has been lost to time. Pic from Link of Times.

Today, the glittering baubles which so charmed Russian royalty are hoarded by a new generation of magnates. They are incredibly valuable. Even though a single three-to-six-inch Fabergé egg can buy one of the nicer mansions in Beverly Hills, some can afford to keep several of these valuable eggs, locking them in a private gallery, much as Russia's last czars must have done.

Where are they now, and can I see one?

The eggs have been scattered around the world, so yes, you can probably see one. Russia started with 50 imperial eggs (There are other Fabergé masterpieces out there, but only 50 eggs made for the czars).

32 of those were eaten up by art dealers, foreign royalty, and industrial magnates at the close of the Russian Revolution
The Soviets kept 10 for themselves
5 eggs have vanished, most likely for good
2 are presumed extant but missing
And 1...

1 egg was found this last March by a lucky Midwestern scrap dealer, who paid $14,000 for it at a flea market. The egg, pictured below, is just over three inches high, not counting its base. For a mere four days, it was put on display in London by Wartski, the antique dealers who verified its authenticity. If you couldn't make it to the exhibition, Wartski posted some really nice pics here.

It could easily fit in the palm of your hand. The egg and stand are solid gold. The big center diamond functions as a button that pops open the egg's top half, revealing a watch. This egg has not been seen in public since 1902, when Nicholas II finally revealed his imperial egg collection to the public.

The man who discovered this lion-footed fortune received some undisclosed millions of dollars. We can only guess at his payment, since the last Fabergé egg--and it wasn't even an imperial egg--sold for $18 million. Did I mention that 2 eggs are still missing? It really boosts the appeal of garage sales.

Those of us who can't afford to buy an island can still catch sight of an egg or two, though it's no easy task. The Kremlin Armory Museum in Russia has 10 Fabergé eggs. Their website is shockingly dated, but you can find good pictures and descriptions of their clutch at moscowkremlin.ru. The Trans-Siberian egg is considered the jewel of the collection.

The Trans-Siberian egg, made in 1900, celebrated the rapid progress of the Trans-Siberian Railway across Russia. The silver middle of the egg depicts a map of Russia with the rail line, and the green enameled cap opens to reveal a tiny train set, pictured here outside the egg. The coaches are labeled, including 'Ladies Only' and 'Nonsmoking,' and this tiny train is wound up with a tiny golden key.

There are 3 in England's Royal Collection, but they are not often on display. This is quite a shame given the beauty of their Mosaic Egg.

The Mosaic egg, created in 1914 and currently a part of the Royal Collection. The egg's surprise, pictured here, is a tiny portrait of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna's five children, the supposed future of Russian royalty. The egg is formed with a golden inner ribbing covered over with a platinum web, which has been studded with gemstones. Its construction allows light to pass through, giving it a radiance ill-captured in photographs. The inside of the egg is also quite beautiful.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has 5 imperial eggs, the lucky product of donation, and they are far more willing to share them than most. The 5 eggs travel around the world in a roaming exhibition called Fabergé Revealed. At the moment, the exhibition is at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where it will remain until October 19, 2014. Their Pelican egg unfolds into a set of eight pictures, and the Peter the Great egg is a whole miniature diorama.

This is the Peter the Great egg made for Easter 1903, currently owned by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. As you can see, there is a ridiculous amount of gold, diamonds, and tiny bitty details all over this egg. I cannot even handle it. Look at how tiny that horse is! I cannot even handle this egg.

If you don't want to go to Canada, you may be able to see an imperial Fabergé egg on the East Coast. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has 3 on loan from the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation, but only until November 2016. While lacking the Met's range and fame, Hillwood Museum in Washington, D.C. is a stately mansion-cum-museum that is packed with Russian art, including 2 imperial eggs. In my opinion, Hillwood is the better option for Fabergé hunters.

In 1896, the recently crowned Nicholas II gave this egg, the Twelve Monogram egg, to Maria Feodorovna, in honor of the recently deceased Alexander III, his father and her husband. Although the inner treasure is missing, the egg probably held twelve miniature paintings of the Alexander III. The egg is covered in diamonds, gold, diamonds, blue enamel, diamonds, and diamonds. There might also be some diamonds on there.

This egg was also made for Maria Feodorovna. Called the Catherine the Great or grisaille egg, it was delivered in 1914 and originally contained a wind-up toy. The toy, described in a letter at the time, consisted of a tiny Catherine the Great seated in a sedan chair held aloft by two North African men. When wound, the toy would move as though being carried forward. The egg itself is covered in elaborate goldwork and miniatures featuring Catherine the Great. This egg resides at Hillwood Museum.

The Walters Museum of Art in Baltimore has 2 eggs, including one that holds a whole tiny golden palace. Another Fabergé egg is nested with the Cleveland Museum of Art, and another in a Fabergé museum in Baden-Baden, Germany.

The remainder of the eggs are held by private parties. Luckily, they are usually pretty generous in sharing them with the public.

Who could possibly afford a Fabergé egg?

Most of these eggs were bought off the Bolsheviks, who sold them for very little. Many of the people, or their foundations, who have a set of eggs have simply been holding onto them since the 1920s or 1930s, when they acquired them. This is the case with the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation, the Royal Collection, the Kremlin Armory, Marjorie Merriweather Post and her estate at Hillwood, and, until recently, Malcom Forbes and family. Some chose to donate their treasures to museums, but others preferred to keep it in the family. In 2004, the Forbes family decided to offer their collection at auction. The auction included 9 imperial eggs, two non-imperial Fabergé eggs, and an assortment of other Fabergé crafts.

The 1897 coronation egg is the crown of the Forbes collection. If you search 'Fabergé' on the internet, this is usually the first egg to pop up. Made of gold, multiple colors of enamel, and the usual stunning assortment of jewels, this egg contains is a tiny golden coach. In a gesture that must have charmed Czarina Alexandra, the little vehicle is an exact replica of the one she rode to the coronation of her husband, Nicholas II. In 2004, Sotheby's expected the egg to bring as much as $24 million at auction.

However, everyone had a shock when Victor Vekselberg cancelled the Forbes' auction by purchasing the entire bounty of imperial eggs and other Fabergé artifacts for an estimated $100 million. Vekselberg, a fossil fuel baron and one of the four richest people in Russia, said he was happy to be able to return Russia's treasures, and to his credit, last November (11/2013) he opened the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg.

Supposedly. I actually can't find any news of it after November. But it's probably still there. Travel sites report that ticketing is random and expensive, no children are allowed, and the museum catch-all email is 3332655@fsv.ru, a welcoming address if I've ever seen one. The museum website at FSV is barren save for a brief history of the eggs and their acquisition. There is nothing about times or tickets. On the positive side, the museum is on a river, so if you do get tickets, it should be pretty easy to find your body.

The cockerel egg, acquired by Vekselberg as part of the Forbes' collection, was crafted in 1900 and presented to Nicholas' mother. In addition to the beautiful clock and base, the egg itself is a nearly opalescent blue. The cockerel at top usually resides within the egg, protected by the gold filigree cap. When a button at the top rear of the egg is pushed, the cockerel comes flapping out and crows, much in the style of a cuckoo clock, before retreating back inside the egg.

Although they may cluster in America and Russia, the eggs are not afraid of Africa. Sheikh Saud al-Thani, cousin of the ruling Emir in Qatar, is another wealthy egg-sitter and insatiable art collector. Between 1998 and 2005, he spent $1 billion, managing to nab Islamic treasure, Western paintings, vintage photographs, and a single Fabergé egg. In 2005, angry family members put the artistic sheikh on house arrest, charging him with embezzlement, and the egg--the Winter egg, Qatar's only Fabergé egg--vanished from public view. This is doubly unfortunate because it is my favorite egg.

The Winter egg, crafted in 1913 for the mother of Nicholas II, was last seen in the hands of Sheikh Saud al-Thani. In 2002, he purchased the egg at Christie's in New York for $9.5 million. Out of all the imperial eggs, this one cost the most to produce. The egg is made of thinly carved rock crystal, with snowflakes etched inside. Outside, the egg is frosted with platinum and studded with rose diamonds. The base is also rock crystal, carved into a lifelike melting glacier, with its own shimmering panoply of platinum and rose diamonds. A platinum basket of carved wood anemones make up this egg's surprise. With leaves of nephrite (a form of jade), petals of white quartz, and stamens of gold and garnets, this basket is a tiny wonder. A staggering 3,246 diamonds adorn the egg and its base.

The Prince of Monaco has the 1887 Blue Serpent Clock egg, but since it was prized by his late mother, the prince tends to keep it to himself. The remaining four eggs belong to four different private parties, and they are typically generous with tours and exhibitions. The purchaser of the golden egg discovered March 2014 is an exception. The mystery buyer has given no indication that he or his egg will come out in the open anytime soon.

The eggs are hard to find and harder to see. Museums do not always have them on display, and private parties are touch and go when granting public access to imperial Fabergé eggs. If you want to see an egg, there's really no substitute for personal ownership, as Victor Vekselberg would probably agree.

Next up: Eggs of a Falling Czar

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.

Sources