The luxury of Fabergé

July 22, 2011

The Lily of the Valley Egg Pin 

I have recently been mesmerised with the beauty of the precious Fabergé Eggs. 

Fabergé egg is any one of the thousands of jewelled eggs made by the House of Fabergé from 1885 through 1917. Most were miniature eggs that were popular gifts at Eastertide. They were worn on a neck chain either singly or in groups.

The most famous eggs produced by the House were the larger ones made for Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia and seven large eggs were made for the Kelch family of Moscow.

The Fabergé egg has become a symbol of luxury, and the eggs are regarded as masterpieces of the jeweler's art

The Imperial Egg featured in Octopussy
The Imperial Egg enjoyed great fame throughout history, and more recently stared in the Fabergé 1983 James Bond movie Octopussy, a egg is the object of a bidding war between James Bond and Kamal Khan (in which Bond then plants a recording device). 

Rothschild Egg

The Diamond Set Cockerel. 
The Rothschild egg was sold by Christie's auction house on November 28, 2007, for £8.9 million (including commission). 
The price achieved set three auction records: it is the most expensive timepiece, Russian object, and Fabergé object ever sold at auction.
The egg was bought by Alexander Ivanov, the director of the Russian National Museum "It's one of the most beautiful, valuable and most intricate Fabergé eggs ever. We didn't have investors, and this egg will go into the private museum which we are building in downtown Moscow. We will not resell it."
Upon the hour, a diamond set cockerel pops up from the top of the egg, flaps its wings four times and nods his head three times whilst crowing. 

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