Wealth, power, prestige, and control over the largest country in the world, having all of it will surely bring some bigtime flex. Before stories of golden Lamborghini of oil-rich Sheikhs or macadamia nut-fed cows of tech tycoons, Tsar Alexander III made an exceptional splurge on a mundane Easter egg to cheer up his wife. This flex of wealth resulted in fabulous pieces that even today cost fortunes in auctions.
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| Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna |
The Spender
Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov, Czar/Tsar and Emperor of all Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland ruled from 1881 to 1894. He lived as a notoriously Russian nationalist, out rightly autocrat, a frugal royal and a loving father and husband. Despite enacting anti-Semitic laws and stomping out liberalism, he loved his children and his wife, the Tsarina and Empress Maria Feodorovna.
Amidst his reign, a specter haunted Europe in the late 19th century, not yet communism, but one of its sister ideologies, anarchism and nihilism. Assassination of officials and royals became a thing with a close to home example in 1881 when Alexander III’s father, Alexander II passed away after an anarchist exploded a bomb to the Emperor. The fear of a repeat tightened security and restricted the movement of royals, making the Empress Maria Feodorovna anxious for the fate of her husband.
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| The assassination of Alexander II, drawing by G. Broling, 1881 |
The dread intensified in 1883 as Emperor Alexander III celebrated Easter in Livadia. Easter meant the opening of easter eggs, and one brought a nasty surprise to the Emperor of the largest contiguous Empire in the world. The egg contained a small silver dagger and 2 ivory-carved skulls alongside a bone-chilling threat, “Christ has risen…you may crush us, but we (the nihilist) shall rise again.” The celebration of Christ’s resurrection turned into a fear of a violent death for the Romanovs.
The Emperor worried about the Empress’s dreariness and wanted to uplift her spirits. Despite being extremely frugal, he wanted to splurge for this goal. The Emperor became famous for eating simple food and wearing trousers until it fell apart. But, alongside cigars, he wanted to spend big in giving something special to the Empress.
The Fabricator
Tsar Alexander III turned to a prestigious dynasty of craftsmen, the House of Faberge. The House of Faberge or the Faberge family boasted a long history in craftsmanship. One of their scions then received the task of meeting the particular taste of the Emperor.
The name itself attests to the family’s legacy of being tradesmen. Faberge originated from the Latin word “faber” which meant a smith or a craftsman. The same word gave the English words “fabrication” and “fabricator.”
During the 17th century, the early Faberges lived in France then ruled by the Sun-King Louis XIV. Unfortunately, the Bourbon King turned to a bigot in the 1680s issuing the Edict of Fontainebleau that expelled Protestants or Huguenots from France. The Faberges then joined the droves of skilled Protestants who fled France for the safer and more tolerant countries, mostly German States.
By the 1800s, the Faberges appeared on paper in Russia. Gustav Faberge wanted to cash in on the Russian nobility’s Francophilia or love of anything French as Russians saw France as the center of taste and sophistication. In 1841, Gustav established the House of Faberge and by 1846 fathered Karl Gustavovich Fabergé aka Peter Carl Faberge.
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| Peter Carl Faberge |
Carl enjoyed the fruits of his father’s labor and carried his legacy as well. He studied in good schools in St. Petersburg. In 1860, they moved to Dresden where Carl studied and learned more about the craft of jewelry making, after which he went on a tour of fashion centers of London and Paris. By 1864, Carl returned to St. Petersburg, finally taking the helm of the House of Faberge.
The Meeting
After decades of experience, by 1880, Carl Faberge made a name for himself in the jewelry and precious stones market. In 1882, his work made an impression on the greatest patron he could ever have in Russia, the Tsar. Together, Alexander III aimed to please his wife and Faberge to cement his name in the industry.
The All-Russia Industrial and Art Exhibitions ran in Moscow in 1882. The event displayed various archaeological artifacts from across Russia. Faberge participated in this exhibition with his Russian Revival Style jewelry. He used the exhibited artifacts as inspiration to create new pieces. One of his customers turned out to be Emperor Alexander III who purchased a cuff bearing a grasshopper, which according to tradition meant good luck.
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| All-Russia Exhibition 1882 in Moscow |
Luckily for Faberge, Grand Duke Vladimir, the younger brother of Tsar Alexander III, decided to give him the Emperor’s request for a special Easter egg to him. The commission priced at 4,151 rubles required an Easter egg that displayed simplicity but also elegant. An inspiration also came along with the commission, a special ivory Easter egg owned by Princess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark, aunt of the Empress Maria Feodorovna. These eggs turned out to have fascinated Maria during her childhood. Hence, Faberge had the following objective, a simple yet special piece that gives comfort and reminds the Tsarina of good times.
Faberge and his team, including his workmaster Erik August Kollin, worked on the project. The end result came in the form of the Hen Egg. The Hen Egg resembled a nest doll. Its first shell made of enamel, while inside hid a golden egg, followed by a golden hen supposedly with eyes made of rubles and finally a “surprise”, a miniature crown jewel and finally a tiny ruby egg. Unfortunately, the miniature crown and the tiny ruby egg later disappeared.
The egg created the desired effect. On May 1, 1885, Faberge received the proclamation: “His Majesty the Emperor has granted his Supreme permission to Saint Petersburg Second Guild Merchant jeweler Carl Faberge, with a store at 18 Bolshaya Morskaya, to bear the title Supplier ot the Imperial Court with the right to bear the State Coat of Arms in his shop’s sign.” Thus, the relationship between Faberge and the sovereign and the annual tradition of an Easter Egg with a “special surprise” began.
Aftermath
The tradition continued while Faberge’s name received distinction. Despite the passing of Tsar Alexander III in 1894, Tsar Nicholas II continued the tradition of special eggs. In 1900, along with Matryoshka dolls, Faberge displayed the Pansy Egg to the delight and fascination of visitors in Paris Exposition Universelle.
The good times, however, ended in the 1917 Revolution and the rise of the Bolsheviks. Much of the Romanovs fled in exile except for Nicholas II’s family who met a gruesome end. Carl Faberge escaped Russia, but his works scattered with some considered loss and others fell in private collections. Each of the Faberge Eggs fetched millions of dollars with the Third Imperial Easter made in 1887 valued at USD 33 million.
Summing Up
The Faberge Eggs embodied wealth, craftsmanship, and love. The amount paid for a mere Easter egg demonstrated the enormous wealth held by the Romanovs or how wasteful they wasted tax money. It also embodied the ingenuity and creativity of Carl Peter Faberge and his craftsmen to meet the specific wants of their royal clients. Finally, it displayed Tsar Alexander III's love for his wife, for a moment deciding to abandon his frugality for the sake of his beloved wife. The Faberge Egg continues to command high prices for the exceptional creativity, materials, and the stories that laid behind each piece.
See also:
Bibliography:
Faber, Toby. Faberge's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of Masterpieces that Outlived an Empire. New York, New York: Random House, Inc., 2008.
Lowe, Charles. Alexander III of Russia. New York, New York: Macmillan and Co., 1895.
Venable, S. Gold: A Cultural Encyclopedia. California: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2011.
Volkov, S. St. Petersburg: A Cultural History. New York City: Free Press Paperbacks, 1995.
“Faberge Eggs.” Treasures of the World. Accessed February 16, 2014. http://www.pbs.org.
“Imperial Eggs.” Faberge. Accessed February 16, 2014. http://www.faberge.com
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