It is 99 years since Carl Fabergé created his last Imperial Easter Egg. The exquisite Fabergé eggs, crafted for the Russian royal family between 1885 and 1916 (and widely considered to be the iconic artist-jeweller’s crowning achievement), are an inextricable part of the Fabergé legend – a story tinged with decadence, drama and, ultimately, tragedy. And this year, for the first time in nearly a century, Fabergé will launch a collection of four new eggs.
The story began when Tsar Alexander III decided to surprise his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna, with a jewelled Easter egg. This first egg, known as the Hen Egg, was crafted from gold, with a series of surprises hidden within, including a multicoloured gold hen and a diamond replica of the Imperial crown. Fabergé would go on to create 50 eggs for the royal family (although only 42 survived the Bolshevik Revolution), and each would conceal a similar surprise. The Lilies of the Valley Egg (pictured) was presented in 1898; the twist of a pearl button reveals its surprise – three portraits, of Tsar Nicholas II and his two eldest daughters.
Details about the new Fabergé eggs are being kept under wraps but, according to Robert Benvenuto, Fabergé’s president and chief operating officer, they are already 80 per cent complete.
March this year will also see the brand unveil four limited-edition watch collections, for men and women. For inspiration when creating the ladies’ watches, the Fabergé team also looked to those lavish objets d’art so loved by the tsars. “The inspiration for two of the models comes from two pre-1917 Imperial Eggs – the Peacock Egg and the Winter Egg. But this is our interpretation of them, 100 years later,” says Benvenuto.
While you wait for these new offerings, you can console yourself with Fabergé’s latest jewellery collections, which were launched at Damas in the UAE last month. These include Rococo, a Charms Collection and Regalia, a diamond and ruby-encrusted suite with an egg-shaped pendant suspended on a double string of pearls and featuring 3,386 round and calibre-cut rubies. And in true Fabergé style, there’s a surprise to be found within the egg.
sdenman@thenational.ae
