The Imperial Winter Egg, considered one of Fabergé’s finest creations for the Russian royal family, has sold for $30.2 million in London, shattering the previous auction record for a Fabergé egg set in 2007.
The Winter Egg, composed of a rock crystal shell, platinum edging and tracework, and 4,500 diamonds, was commissioned in 1913 by Tsar Nicholas II as an Easter gift for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, just five years before the tsar, his wife and their children were executed by the Bolsheviks.
Carved from rock crystal and embellished with platinum snowflake motifs set with rose-cut diamonds, the Winter Egg houses a delicate surprise: an exquisitely crafted bouquet of wood anemones, the first flowers to appear after Russia’s harsh winter.
The blossoms are fashioned from white quartz with gold wire stems and demantoid garnets at their centres, while the leaves are carved in nephrite.
The egg’s ownership history is as dramatic as its design.
It was purchased in the 1920s by a London dealer for just £450, after the cash-strapped Soviet authorities began selling off imperial treasures.
It later vanished from public view for around 20 years before resurfacing at a Christie’s sale in 1994, where it fetched more than seven million Swiss francs (around $5.6m at the time).
It changed hands again in 2002 for $9.6m.
Christie’s now topped the $18.5m paid at a 2007 Christie’s auction for another Fabergé egg created for the Rothschild banking family.
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