Hen egg with sapphire pendant

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The hen egg with a sapphire pendant is the second “imperial” Fabergé egg that has been missing since 1922 . It was a gift from the Russian Emperor Alexander III. to his wife Maria Feodorovna for Easter in 1886.

The hens egg with sapphire pendant was contemporary than one with diamonds in rose cut occupied Henne described gold, which holds an oval sapphire in its beak. This includes a wicker basket also set with diamonds and made of gold. The entire gem was set with more than 500 diamonds.

The egg is referred to in various archives of the Russian court. After that, the hen should first be made of silver and peck a sapphire from a nest. In the course of the preparations, Fabergé was able to convince with his ideas. A handwritten list drawn up by a court official around 1890 names a price of 2986 rubles and 25 kopecks for the egg, of which 1,800 rubles for a sapphire alone.

After the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II in mid-September 1917, around 40 Fabergé eggs were brought to the armory of the Moscow Kremlin on behalf of the Kerensky government . The tsarist family was murdered in July 1918. The Fabergé eggs were likely handed over to the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR in February or March 1922 . A list from 1922 found in an archive mentions a silver hen, set with rose-cut diamonds and on a gold stand, which had been given to the Council of People's Commissars. The description of the material differs from the 19th century records. In the 1920s, other Fabergé eggs were sold in Paris or Berlin, probably through Antikwariat , the department of the Soviet Ministry of Commerce responsible for the exploitation of cultural property. Other eggs reappeared in the international art trade, but the hen egg with the sapphire pendant is still missing.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Annemiek Wintraecken: 1886 Hen Egg With Sapphire counterpart. wintraecken.nl, April 1, 2016, accessed on April 19, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c Fabergé Imperial Egg Chronology. In: Fabergé Research Site. 2020, accessed April 19, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Annemiek Wintraecken: 1885 Hen Egg / First Hen Egg. wintraecken.nl, January 2, 2019, accessed on April 19, 2020 .
  4. ^ Tatiana Fabergé, Lynette G. Proler, Valentin V. Skurlov: The Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs . Christies, London 1997, ISBN 0-903432-48-X , pp. 240 .