faberge Archives

After extensive, but not wholly onerous research, I have found that the must have luxury chocolate Easter egg for 2024 is the Grande Easter Egg from Betty’s in Yorkshire. Your £375 will allow you to acquire over five kilos of Grand Cru Swiss chocolate made from Venezuelan criollo cocoa beans. Your egg will be applied with iced Spring flowers including narcissi, primroses, pansies and lily of the valley all with hand piped stems. Betty’s have been producing these hand crafted edible masterpieces for over a hundred years.

However, the history of eggs at Easter goes back many centuries. In the 1290 household accounts of Edward I ‘one shilling and sixpence for the decoration and distribution of pace eggs.’ ( Pace being a dialectical term for pashe or pascal.) These were hens’ eggs which had been dyed or coloured and were distributed to members of the Royal household. These eggs would have been wrapped in onion skins and then boiled, when the onion skin was removed the eggs looked as though they had a mottled gilding. The Scandinavians had a similar tradition also using flowers and leaves to produce a pattern.

Throughout Europe eggs were dyed and painted; and eggs were in plentiful supply. Although Shrove Tuesday saw the using up of eggs to make pancakes prior to Lent, no-one told the chickens that eggs were off the menu for the next forty days, so they continued to produce them, resulting in a glut of eggs by Easter. Throughout Europe and beyond the decorating and distributing of eggs has been part of Easter celebrations for hundreds of years.

The White House has a traditional Easter Egg Roll. In 1878 the President Rutherford B Hayes allowed the White House Grounds to be opened on Easter Monday and children were allowed to bring along Easter eggs and roll them on the lawn with a long handled spoon. Today it is a huge event and children can enter a public ballot to attend.

The ultimate Easter egg tradition is that of the Fabergé eggs. Jewelled eggs had been gifted at Easter before 1885. However, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, brother to Tsar Alexander III suggested that Peter Carl Fabergé be commissioned to create a Royal egg. The egg, known as the ‘Hen Egg’ was given to the Tsarina, who was thrilled with it. It opened to reveal a golden hen sitting on golden straw and inside the hen was a replica of the Imperial Crown and a ruby pendant. Fabergé had triumphed and Alexander named him ‘goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial Crown’, placing an order for another egg the following year. The eggs became more ornate and elaborate year after year. The designs did not have to have Royal approval, the only prerequisites were that each should be unique and contain a surprise. The eggs made for the Russian Royal family are known as the Imperial eggs.

A few notable figures, including the Rothschilds commissioned eggs of their own, but these were not numerous. The revolution in 1918, inevitably saw an end to this tradition, although Fabergé in its more recent incarnation still produces egg themed jewellery. Should you wish to purchase your own Fabergé egg pendant this Easter, the 18 carat gold, diamond and enamel Palais Tsarkoye Selo turquoise egg containing an enamel and diamond locket, can be yours for £12,000.

The popularity of gold and silver eggs with novelty surprises may have begun with Fabergé but has been taken up by others. In the 1960’s and 70’s the English silversmith Stuart Devlin acquired a large following for his eggs. They are still popular today and one sold at auction recently with Dreweatts at a hammer price of £1,100.

A longchain suspending numerous French, Austrian and Hungarian egg pendants sold in 2022, as seen in the adjacent images. The finesse of the manufacture, the frequent use of colourful guilloché enamel and the cute novelty surprises inside, helped Bonhams reach a hammer price of £28,000.

If this all seem a little overwhelming perhaps it’s time to consider the more modest Cadbury’s creme egg. Initially sold as the Frys’s creme egg, it became part of the Cadbury family in 1971. They are still only available from New Year’s Day until Easter Sunday and in recent YouGov poll they were ranked as the UK’s most famous confectionery.

We hope that the Easter bunny will bring you your egg of choice and Doerr Dallas wishes you a very happy Easter.

The Fabergé name catapults us back to the late 19th century when the Romanovs ruled over the vast Russian Empire. The firm’s fortunes were tied to the lavish spending of an international network of royalty and socialites, until the first world war took its toll on such conspicuous consumption. When the House of Fabergé folded in 1918 alongside the collapse of the Russian monarchy, the Soviet authorities lost no time in nationalising personal property.

Jewelled Kovsh, 1886, presented to Victor Albert Spencer, 3rd Baron Churchill. Image courtesy of Bonhams

Although Fabergé, as a brand name, was revived to represent a string of unrelated products from fragrance and toiletries to household bleach, its association with Imperial splendour was never fully extinguished. Beginning in the 1920’s Western dealers acquired art that was considered ideologically surplus to Soviet requirements. A lucrative market for Fabergé was established, particularly in America, and inspired the trade of spurious ‘Fauxbergé’.
Russia has since re-established its purchasing power and, with it, an unflagging appetite to repatriate its lost patrimony. The learning curve necessary to negotiate heavily restored and imitation pieces is steep. Longstanding collectors who have experienced sharp fluctuations of dizzying prices and market corrections are, as a result, increasingly discerning.

Victor Albert Spencer, 3rd Baron Churchill

A recent Russian sale at Bonhams featured a jewelled kovsh (pictured) presented by Emperor Nicholas II to an acquaintance, Victor Albert Spencer, 3rd Baron Churchill, at Balmoral in 1896. As the son of Queen Victoria’s longest service Lady of the Bedchamber, Churchill grew up in the royal household and moved in court circles. The presentation gift, shaped as an abbreviated ladle carved of agate stone, was enhanced by a jewelled double-headed eagle on its handle. This underscored the Imperial provenance and the bowl carved of native hardstone acted as a reminder of Russia’s vast mineral wealth.

One of Faberge’s legendary Easter designs, The Rose Trellis Egg (1907) Courtesy of The Walters Art Museum

Hallmarks confirmed the gift was the work of Michael Perchin, head workmaster for Fabergé in St. Petersburg in 1896. Further inventory numbers scratched on the handle matched up with the firm’s surviving ledgers, corroborating the kovsh’s purchase by the Imperial Cabinet: the office in charge of the treasury, property and institutions belonging to the Russian Imperial family. The Cabinet’s list documenting gifts offered by their Imperial Highnesses abroad in 1896 cited Churchill as the recipient.

Emperor Nicholas II, the last ruling Romanov, and family

The original sale invoice from Fabergé of 335 roubles represented a considerable amount of money. A 1902 Baedecker travel guide suggested budgeting 6-10 roubles for a night’s stay at the legendary Europa Hotel in St. Petersburg, so the presentation was a generous gift to an English acquaintance held in high esteem.
Clarifying the kovsh’s documented provenance offered the buying public the fullest understanding of its historical context and attracted a great deal of interest at Bonhams in November 2018. Churchill’s descendants were gratified by the results of their consignment to the Russian auction when the kovsh sold for £236,750.
As is often the case, Fabergé objects in private hands are repeatedly undervalued as the market has recently become more buoyant, scholarship has advanced considerably and access to Russian archives has improved. It is therefore imperative that any insurance valuation be refreshed every three years and required where none has been undertaken within five.
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Easter Eggs

Emperor Nicholas II’s Fabergé Gift to an English Nobleman