Nécessaire egg
| Nécessaire egg |
|---|
| Peter Carl Fabergé workshop , 1889 |
| Goldsmith work |
| lost
Link to the picture |
The Nécessaire egg is the lost fifth “Imperial” Fabergé egg . It was a gift from the Russian Emperor Alexander III. to his wife Maria Feodorovna for Easter 1889.
description
Little information is available about the Nécessaire egg. What is certain is that it is made of gold and rich with diamond in rose-cut and with rubies , emeralds and sapphires is busy and originally a manicure contained set containing 13 diamond-set pieces. A handwritten note describing the first Faberge eggs from the years 1885 to 1890 calls for a 1,889 Nécessaire in Louis XV style for 1900 rubles. Further archives of the imperial court attest that the egg belongs to the inventory of Gatchina Castle : "Egg decorated with precious stones, including 13 toiletries".
Small Nécessaires made of precious materials were quite popular at the Russian imperial court in the 18th century. In the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg there is an egg-shaped French nécessaire from the mid-18th century. It may have been given to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna by the French ambassador to the Russian court . The enamelled and gem-studded nécessaire hides a clock under a lid on the blunt side and access to a compartment with toiletries on the pointed side. The egg, measuring 8.3 by 6.4 centimeters, was in the treasury of the Winter Palace and Fabergé could well have been known.
Provenance and whereabouts
After Nicholas II abdicated in mid-September 1917, around 40 Fabergé eggs were placed in the armory of the Moscow Kremlin on behalf of the Kerensky government . A first inventory was drawn up in which one item reads "golden Nécessaire egg, decorated with precious gemstones". The tsarist family was murdered in 1918. The Fabergé eggs were likely handed over to the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR in February or March 1922 . An inventory that was also created here mentions “1 golden Nécessaire egg with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and 1 sapphire”. In the 1920s numerous Fabergé eggs and other valuable objects from the Tsar's possession were sold by the Antikwariat , the department of the Soviet Ministry of Commerce responsible for the exploitation of cultural property. Some eggs reappeared in the international art trade.
Only in 2008 did it become known through a publication in the British magazine Country Life that the Nécessaire egg was exhibited undetected in its business premises in November 1949 by the London jeweler Wartski, who specializes in Fabergé objects . In 1952 it was bought by Wartski and sold to "a stranger" on June 19, 1952 for 1200 pounds. It is believed that the egg is still in the possession of a British man.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Annemiek Wintraecken: 1889 Nécessaire Egg. wintraecken.nl, December 30, 2017, accessed on May 9, 2020 .
- ^ Fabergé Imperial Egg Chronology. In: Fabergé Research Site. 2020, accessed May 10, 2020 .
- ^ Egg-Shaped Necessaire with a Watch. Retrieved May 10, 2020 .
- ↑ Where is the missing Fabergé Nécessaire Egg? Wartski , accessed on May 10, 2020 .
- ^ The ultimate Easter egg: Fabergé Egg in London. In: Country Life . April 9, 2014, accessed May 10, 2020 .