A rare Fabergé egg, commissioned by the last Emperor of Russia, is expected to fetch more than £20 million (€22.8m) at auction.
A glittering treasure, covered in diamonds and commissioned for a dying dynasty, is about to return to the spotlight.
The Winter Egg, crafted by legendary jeweller Fabergé, was gifted by Russia's last Emperor Nicholas II to his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, on Easter Day 1913.
While the imperial family met a grisly end, executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918, some of their famous eggs survived - including this exceptional example, which is set to go under the hammer next week.
"The Winter Egg is made of rock crystal. It would have been an extremely difficult job, first of all to find such a clear specimen of rock crystal, but then also carve it in such a difficult shape, the ovoid shape, and also engrave with the beautiful snowflake design from the inside without the rock crystal cracking," explains Margo Oganesian, Christie’s Head of Fabergé and Russian Works.
"It must have been a really, really challenging job. And of course in 1913, before all the technology that we have now, this this was all made by hand of course."
The egg and its base are set with platinum mounts in delicate snowflake shapes and adorned with 4,500 rose-cut diamonds.
Nicholas II commissioned two eggs every Easter - one for his wife and one for his mother. Each took a year to design and craft, with costs that dwarfed the earnings of an ordinary worker.
"The price was 24,600 rubles. It was the most expensive item of Fabergé created at the time in 1913. And just for comparison to understand how much money it was, an average worker in Moscow would get 30 rubles a month. So this was an incredibly high amount, ones that only Romanovs could afford, of course,” says Oganesian.
The Winter Egg has previously set world records, selling in 1994 and 2002. Its upcoming auction marks the first time in more than 20 years that an Imperial Easter Egg has been available on the public market.
"There are only six other Imperial Easter eggs left in private hands, in private collections, and the Winter Egg is arguably one of the best imperial Easter eggs Fabergé ever created. The design of it, the craftsmanship, the story, the fact that it's complete with its surprise and the surprise wasn't lost like was the case with many other eggs, it all makes it incredibly important and rare,” says Oganesian.
The Winter Egg will be auctioned by Christie’s on 2 December in London.
