A sapphire pendant is a jewelry egg , one of fifty-two imperial Easter eggs made by Karl Faberge for the Russian imperial family. It was created in 1886 by order of Emperor Alexander III , who presented it to his wife, Empress Maria Fedorovna . It is listed as one of the eight eggs currently lost.
| “Chicken with sapphire pendant” | |
|---|---|
| Faberge eggs | |
| Year of manufacture | 1886 |
| Customer | Alexander III |
| First owner | Maria Fedorovna |
| Current owner | |
| Owner | Unknown |
| Year of receipt | Unknown |
| Design and materials | |
| Master | Unknown |
| Materials | Gold , sapphires , diamonds |
| Height | Unknown |
| Width | Unknown |
| Surprise | |
| The exact design of the egg is unknown, so it is impossible to say for sure whether the pendant was part of the design of the egg or was just a surprise. | |
Content
Design
The exact design of this egg is unknown, because its photographs or illustrations have not been preserved, and the descriptions are very contradictory. [1] A gift in the record of the USSR State Archive for 1886 was described as “A chicken made of gold and diamonds, taking a sapphire egg from a basket”. [2] [3] A sapphire egg was freely stored in the beak of a chicken. The hen and basket, covered with hundreds of rose-cut diamonds, were made of gold. In the archive of the Provisional Government of Russia, it was described as a silver chicken on a gold stand, although this description is most likely erroneous, since in the order of the emperor for 1886 the requirement to make an egg of gold was especially emphasized. [3]
Surprise
There are no documentary descriptions about the surprise of the egg, and at the moment there is no information about its whereabouts.
History
An egg with a sapphire pendant was sent to Emperor Alexander III on April 5, 1886 from the Faberge workshop. The gift was presented to Empress Maria Fedorovna on April 13 of the same year. The egg was kept in Anichkov Palace until the 1917 revolution . The last documented evidence of the location of the egg was written in 1922, and it was reported that it was in the Kremlin Armory. At the moment, it remains a mystery whether the egg was lost or is in one of the private collections. [3]
Notes
- ↑ Lowes, Will. Fabergé Eggs A Retrospective Encyclopedia. - Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press Inc., 2001. - P. 22. - ISBN 0-8108-3946-6 .
- ↑ Archive of Valentin Skurlov
- ↑ 1 2 3 Lowes 2001 , pg. 22