As a present for Easter 1885 Tzar Alexander III of Russia gave his wife Marie
Feodorovna an exquisite egg; the outside shell was opaque white enamel opening
to reveal a golden yolk within which was a gold chicken with ruby eyes. Thus began
a tradition that lasted for almost a generation of exotic Easter eggs for the
Tzar's family that were masterminded by Peter Carl Fabergé, one of the
most original and liveliest of jewellers, sometimes known as 'the last of the
great goldsmiths'. His firm, the House of Fabergé at 24 Bolshaya Morskaya
Street in St Petersburg, created everything from dress studs, cufflinks and cigarette
cases to crowns for royal families, not just throughout Europe, but Asia.
Carl Fabergé saw himself not as a merchant, but as an artist-jeweller.
"His fundamental belief," wrote A. Kenneth Snowman, whose jewellery
house, Wartski, have done much to preserve the Fabergé tradition, "(was
that) the value of a work of art lay in the inspiration of its design and the
merit of its craftsmanship and not in the cost of the ingredients employed in
its manufacture." And Roy Strong, director of London's Victoria & Albert
Museum at the time of a Fabergé exhibition there in 1977, wrote, "Fabergé
is almost the last expression of court art within the European tradition which
brings with it a passionate conviction of the importance of craftsmanship and
inventiveness of design, aligned to a celebration of the virtues of wit and fantasy
applied to everyday objects, that still has a relevance to the design of today".
The Fabergé family were originally Huguenot refugees from France. Gustav
Fabergé, Peter Carl's father, opened a small jewellery shop in St Petersburg
in 1842. His son took over the business in 1870 at the age of 24 and transformed
it into a jewellery house of world-wide repute for the next 50 years. By 1900
it had over 500 employees, but Carl Fabergé himself presided over the designs,
ably assisted by three other talented goldsmiths or 'workmasters': first Erik
Kollin, then Michael Perchin, and finally Henrik Wigström. He was aided,
too, by his younger brother, Agathon, who was a painter and sculptor, and, later,
by his own sons Eugene and Alexander.
The real breakthrough came in 1885 with Fabergé's appointment as Court
Jeweller to Tzar Alexander III and the creation of that first Easter egg. Thereafter,
the Tzar ordered an Easter egg each year. When Alexander died, the new Tzar, Nicholas
II, required two Imperial eggs, one for his widowed mother, Marie Feodorovna,
and one for his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna. A Coronation egg was also created
for the new Emperor. This sumptuous egg had a shell of gold, with panels of yellow
enamel ornamented with sunray patterns; inside was a perfect model of the Coronation
Coach of gilded wood chased in gold. The opening of the Trans-Siberian Express
in 1901 also called for a special egg, within which a platinum engine pulled golden
railway carriages. The eggs, on which Fabergé's reputation has been built,
have been widely dispersed over the last century, but the two biggest collections
are held by Queen Elizabeth in Britain, and at the Forbes Magazine Galleries in
New York (see below).
The eggs may be remembered as Fabergé's masterpieces, but they should not
mask the huge output of more day-to-day articles for birthdays, weddings, christenings,
Christmas or other celebrations, not just within the Russian imperial family,
but for royalty and the wealthy everywhere. Thailand's King Chulalongkorn, Indian
rajahs and Chinese mandarins were all patrons. And it is in these designs that
Fabergé's great talent for working with gold is often revealed.
Fabergé always liked using what the French call 'or en quatre couleurs'
- four-colour gold. "Colour was an important consideration in his use of
gold," observes John Booth in The Art of Fabergé, "it could be
changed by mixing gold with other metals … the addition of silver gives a
green tinge to the original yellow, copper gives red gold, nickel or palladium
makes white gold … more esoteric effects are possible with other alloy mixes
to give blue, orange and grey golds." Such combinations were entirely practical
since Fabergé worked primarily in 14 carat
(583 fine)
gold, which allowed the flexibility of experimenting with different alloys
for new colours.
His ideas were tried out particularly on cigarette cases of which he and his workmasters
designed scores in an era when smoking cigarettes was fashionable (just as gold
snuff boxes had been in the 18th century). "One idea that was Fabergé's
own was to juxtapose sizeable areas of gold in a variety of shades … in cigarette
cases with ribbed or smooth surfaces and bands of red and yellow gold, or flutes
in different shades of gold, radiating from a single point", note G. von
Habsburg-Lothringen and A. von Sododkoff in their technical study of Fabergé's
work. (See: goldlibrary/jewellery)
The authors add, "It is the cigarette cases and the various other types of
box that most strikingly demonstrate the quality of workmanship and the sheer
virtuosity of Fabergé's goldsmiths".
Along with subtle changes of the colour went contrasts between high polish, mat
or rough nugget effects. One cigarette case for Tzar Nicholas II was designed
as a map of his favourite summer resort area on the Black Sea; the mountains inland
were represented in rough textured gold, the roads were in red rubies, with precious
stones for the towns, the railway line was dotted emeralds, and the Black Sea
itself patterned in blue sapphires.
The imagination of the goldsmiths of the House of Fabergé knew few bounds.
Cufflinks and studs for dress shirts were of gold and enamel set with diamonds.
Artificial flowers were made with golden buttercups set with a gold bee or silky
catkins of spun green gold. Early inspiration came too from ancient Scythian gold
treasures from 400 BC found in the Crimea, from which a bracelet was re-created
for the Pan-Russian Exhibition of 1882. When the Fabergé bracelet and the
original Scythian bracelet were shown to the Tzar, he could not distinguish one
from the other (the Fabergé bracelet is now in the Victoria
& Albert Museum, London).
But, like the Russian Imperial Court itself, it was all too opulent to last. The
Russian Revolution in 1917 spelled the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the House
of Fabergé. Carl Fabergé fled and died in Switzerland in 1920. His
legacy, however, is as the last of the great goldsmiths.
Fabergé's creations were widely dispersed throughout the royal families
of early 20th century Europe and many remain in private collections. Of the Easter
Eggs that can be seen, a good number are on show at museums in the United States.
The Forbes Magazine Galleries, 60 Fifth Avenue at 12th Street, New York, NY 10011
has a collection of over 300 Fabergé pieces, including 12 of the Easter
Eggs. (They do not have a website, but the Galleries are open Tuesday, Wednesday,
Friday and Saturday 10am to 4pm; tel 1 212 206 5548.) The Virginia Museum of Fine
Arts, Richmond, VA 23221, has five Easter Eggs (www.vmfa.state.va.us).
The New Orleans Museum of Art, City Park, New Orleans, LA 70179, has two Easter
Eggs and the Imperial Lilies of the Valley Basket (www.noma.org).
Two Easter Eggs are also in both the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland
(www.thewalters.org) and
in Hillwood Museum and Gardens, 4155 Linnean Avenue NW, Washington DC 2008 (www.hillwoodmuseum.org).
See also: library/history
and library/jewellery.