Fabergé eggs are extravagantly decorated, jeweled eggs created by master jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé and his assistants. The Russian jeweler made at least seventy-five eggs between 1885 and 1917, fifty-two of which are Imperial Easter eggs presented to Russian Czars Alexander III and Nicholas II as Easter gifts for their respective wives. Each of the eggs contained a surprise, the original being a golden yolk containing a golden hen wearing a crown from which a ruby hangs. Recently, the most expensive Fabergé egg was sold by Christie’s auction house for £8.9 million ($17.4 million USD) in December of 2007.
The egg was created for members of the French Rothschild banking family in 1902. It was commissioned by socialite and art collector Batrice Ephrussi de Rothschild to be presented to her younger brother’s fiancee, Germaine Halphen. The Rothschild egg is thought to have remained undocumented due to the destruction of the Fabergé archives following the October Revolution.
The egg, which is also a decorative clock with a diamond-set cockerel that pops up on the hour, is not just the most expensive Fabergé egg; it’s also the most expensive timepiece and the most expensive Russian object. It was purchased by the owner of Russia’s first private museum, Alexander Ivanov.
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BEAUTIFUL!!