The Last Two Faberge Eggs

In 1917 Carl Faberge had already fashioned the Birch Egg for the Dowager queen, Tsarina maria and was fashioning a beautiful Tsarevich Alexei Constellation egg that was supposed to represent the sky at the time of the birth of Prince Alexei ( the Tsarevich) Tsarina's Alexandra's favorite but ailing son. This was never completed.

Only recently were pictures and models were found during a Russian exhibition.

The turn of events leading to the bloody revolution meant that the eggs were never delivered and in the case of the latter not completed. Carl Fabergé escaped from Russia and settled in Switzerland only to die in 1920.

While the legacy of Carl Fabergé continues by the House of Faberge his genius has been laid to rest.


 The 1917 Birch Egg

The Birch Egg, also known as Karelian Birch Egg, is made of gold and Karelian Birch. The now missing Birch egg detailing miniature was possibly a miniature elephant, made of gold, silver, rose-cut diamonds and enamel. Karelian birch is a sort of birch that only grows in Russia, on Michael Perkhin's (the designer) native land, Karelia. Karelia is situated between St. Petersburg and Finland. The now lost surprise was a miniature elephant, decorated with gold and silver, 8 big and 61 small diamonds. It probably referred to the elephant of the Danish Order of the Elephant, Denmark being the country where Maria Feodorovna was born. The key to wind the elephant exists and is made of gold, set with diamonds.

This Egg was purchased by the privately owned Russian National Museum (a group of Russian collectors) and had not been exhibited on its native soil since 1927. The Museum purchased the Egg after it emerged from nearly 85 years of obscurity in 2001. Alexander Ivanov, the director of the Museum, declined to name the Egg's previous owner, who he said lives in London and is descended from a family of Russian emigres, saying only that the Egg cost the museum "millions of dollars". The Egg came with the key, the case and two documents, the authentic calculation of the firm Fabergé dated April 25, 1917.


The Constellation Egg is one of two Easter eggs designed under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé in 1917, for the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. It was the last Fabergé egg designed. It remains unfinished.

Due to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the egg was never finished or presented to Tsar Nicholas' wife, the Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna.
 

The egg, as it is known from 1917 document, was made of blue glass with a crystal base, and the Leo sign of the zodiac is engraved on the glass. (The heir to the Russian throne, Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, was a Leo). There are stars that are marked by diamonds, and there is a clock mechanism inside the egg.