Elaborate Details, Hidden Surprises

the first Imperial Easter egg from the House of Fabergé as a gift for his wife, Maria Feodorovna. Upon Alexander’s death in 1894, his son, Emperor Nikolai II, continued this Imperial family tradition, annually requesting one egg for his mother and another for his wife. The skilled artisans who created these treasures worked under the auspices of master craftsman Peter Carl Fabergé, head of the firm that still bears his family name. Fabergé operated with creative freedom, and his craftsmen had a treasure chest of riches at their disposal. Diamonds, pearls, sapphires, rubies, gold, guilloché enamel, aquamarine, lapis lazuli, ivory, mother of pearl, and platinum were commonly used embellishments. Each of these unique 50 objets d’art created during 1885–1916 shared a single feature: a concealed surprise. These sequestered miniature wonders include a rotating globe, a replica of Gatchina Palace, a four-leaf clover, a gold watch, Peter the Great’s monument on the Neva River, miniature portraits, a mechanical swan, an 18th century carriage that took 14 months to complete, and a jeweled elephant automaton (rediscovered in 2015 and reunited with its egg in 2017). Fabergé expert Géza von Habsburg describes Fabergé eggs as being “the absolute summit of craftsmanship. They are unbelievably made. They were the sort of apogee of