The More We Know | 'Lost' $20 Million Faberge Egg On Show For First Time In 112 Years @TheMoreWeKnow | Uploaded April 2014 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
A $20 million Faberge Imperial Easter egg, lost from the public eye for decades before it was saved from the melting pot by a U.S. scrap metal dealer, is to go on show for the first time in London in more than 100 years.
Last seen displayed at a 1902 exhibition in St Petersburg, the 8.2 cm golden egg - commissioned by the Russian Emperor Alexander III as a gift for his wife for Easter 1887 - was seized by the Bolsheviks during the chaos of the 1917 Russian Revolution and disappeared for years in the United States.
"A hundred years ago in St Petersburg it was shown when the Tsarina lent it to an exhibition, a charity exhibition and since then it has passed through many hands; it has travelled through revolution and war, the turmoil of twenty century Russia which can't be underestimated and then found its way to the Mid West (America) where it was then reawakened and this is the Egg waking up," Kieran McCarthy, director of the Wartski antique dealer, told Reuters.
By chance, an unidentified man paid $14,000 for the egg at a bric-and-brac market in the American Midwest with the intention to sell it for scrap metal. However, unable to find a buyer, he searched the Internet and realised he might have the egg that was made for Empress Maria Feodorovna.
"Well it literally walked in thorough our front door. This is Wartski, and I was sat at my desk here and in walked a gentleman very, very modestly attired, and incredibly nervous also. He walked up to the desk, never said why he was here but he handed me a sheath of photographs. And in these photographs were picture of the Third Imperial Easter Egg. The missing Faberge treasure," continued McCarthy.
London's Wartski antiques dealer, whom the man approached with his find, bought the egg for an unidentified private collector, who allowed it to be put on show in a four day exhibition from April 14-17 in its small showroom just off the city's luxury shopping belt Bond Street.
McCarthy added that for the art historical community and for the Faberge world, the re-finding of the lost Imperial Egg was likened to finding a missing Rembrandt.
"The egg will be on shown for 24 hours and then it may disappear again and may not be seen for, who knows, I would not be surprised if it didn't come out for another 112 years," he said, adding they were receiving calls as far as South Africa and Australia from people intending to fly in to see the egg.
Slightly taller than a chocolate cupcake, the ridged yellow gold egg sits on a tripod pedestal with lion paw feet, which is encircled by coloured gold flower garlands strung from cabochon blue sapphires topped with rose diamond set bows.
Made by Faberge's Chief Jeweller August Holmstrom, it opens to reveal a lady's watch by Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin, which has a white enamel dial and diamond set gold hands.
"If you image Faberge as being the greatest goldsmith and the Tsars as being the last gasp of pretty much feudal patronage, this egg is the production of that meeting; a meeting of what is now a lost dynasty and a lost goldsmith, and the two of them brought together produced the most amazing objects which are the product of that time and of course the life at that time for those at that level of society was incredibly luxurious. It was all about craft and skill and the egg displays Faberge's craft and skill to its up-most," said McCarthy.
The eggs made by Russian jeweller Peter Carl Faberge are seen as treasures that only billionaires and royalty can ever hope of collecting. Current owners include the Kremlin and Queen Elizabeth.
Faberge made 50 of these Easter eggs for Emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II from 1885 to 1916, and until its recent rediscovery, the Third Imperial Faberge egg was among eight lost eggs. Two others are thought to have survived the revolution.
"It just shows that you never know," said McCarthy, when asked whether hopes remained of finding the other two. "We never thought this one would turn up and literally it was on somebody who walked through the front door."
Entrance to the April 14-17 exhibition of the Imperial Easter Egg is free, and is open from 1000-1600 GMT.
theshortpenguin.com
A $20 million Faberge Imperial Easter egg, lost from the public eye for decades before it was saved from the melting pot by a U.S. scrap metal dealer, is to go on show for the first time in London in more than 100 years.
Last seen displayed at a 1902 exhibition in St Petersburg, the 8.2 cm golden egg - commissioned by the Russian Emperor Alexander III as a gift for his wife for Easter 1887 - was seized by the Bolsheviks during the chaos of the 1917 Russian Revolution and disappeared for years in the United States.
"A hundred years ago in St Petersburg it was shown when the Tsarina lent it to an exhibition, a charity exhibition and since then it has passed through many hands; it has travelled through revolution and war, the turmoil of twenty century Russia which can't be underestimated and then found its way to the Mid West (America) where it was then reawakened and this is the Egg waking up," Kieran McCarthy, director of the Wartski antique dealer, told Reuters.
By chance, an unidentified man paid $14,000 for the egg at a bric-and-brac market in the American Midwest with the intention to sell it for scrap metal. However, unable to find a buyer, he searched the Internet and realised he might have the egg that was made for Empress Maria Feodorovna.
"Well it literally walked in thorough our front door. This is Wartski, and I was sat at my desk here and in walked a gentleman very, very modestly attired, and incredibly nervous also. He walked up to the desk, never said why he was here but he handed me a sheath of photographs. And in these photographs were picture of the Third Imperial Easter Egg. The missing Faberge treasure," continued McCarthy.
London's Wartski antiques dealer, whom the man approached with his find, bought the egg for an unidentified private collector, who allowed it to be put on show in a four day exhibition from April 14-17 in its small showroom just off the city's luxury shopping belt Bond Street.
McCarthy added that for the art historical community and for the Faberge world, the re-finding of the lost Imperial Egg was likened to finding a missing Rembrandt.
"The egg will be on shown for 24 hours and then it may disappear again and may not be seen for, who knows, I would not be surprised if it didn't come out for another 112 years," he said, adding they were receiving calls as far as South Africa and Australia from people intending to fly in to see the egg.
Slightly taller than a chocolate cupcake, the ridged yellow gold egg sits on a tripod pedestal with lion paw feet, which is encircled by coloured gold flower garlands strung from cabochon blue sapphires topped with rose diamond set bows.
Made by Faberge's Chief Jeweller August Holmstrom, it opens to reveal a lady's watch by Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin, which has a white enamel dial and diamond set gold hands.
"If you image Faberge as being the greatest goldsmith and the Tsars as being the last gasp of pretty much feudal patronage, this egg is the production of that meeting; a meeting of what is now a lost dynasty and a lost goldsmith, and the two of them brought together produced the most amazing objects which are the product of that time and of course the life at that time for those at that level of society was incredibly luxurious. It was all about craft and skill and the egg displays Faberge's craft and skill to its up-most," said McCarthy.
The eggs made by Russian jeweller Peter Carl Faberge are seen as treasures that only billionaires and royalty can ever hope of collecting. Current owners include the Kremlin and Queen Elizabeth.
Faberge made 50 of these Easter eggs for Emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II from 1885 to 1916, and until its recent rediscovery, the Third Imperial Faberge egg was among eight lost eggs. Two others are thought to have survived the revolution.
"It just shows that you never know," said McCarthy, when asked whether hopes remained of finding the other two. "We never thought this one would turn up and literally it was on somebody who walked through the front door."
Entrance to the April 14-17 exhibition of the Imperial Easter Egg is free, and is open from 1000-1600 GMT.
theshortpenguin.com
