31 March 2012

Easter Eggs for an Emperor

Яйца Фаберже
  With Easter so near, I thought it would be nice to post these images of Faberge eggs.

 The intricate work in these tiny masterpieces just amazes me! 

 There were thousands made in his workshops between the years of 1855 and 1917.

 Most often these exquisite eggs were given as gifts at Easter.

 The most famous—and largest—were the 50 or so imperial eggs made
for the Tsar and his family.

Only 42 of those beautiful eggs have survived.
 The last of them, Constellation, was left unfinished. 

 That year, 1917, the Tsar and his entire family were taken prisoner
and in 1918 were massacred.

 I have seen several of these at the New Orleans Museum of Fine Arts.  

 It would be nice to have just one on the table on Easter morning, wouldn't it?

  This is what I would choose!


The Lilies of the Valley egg (1898) [at the top] is a translucent pink-enameled treasure covered with gold-stemmed flowers made of pearls, diamonds and rubies. One flower, when turned, releases a geared mechanism inside to raise the fan of tiny miniatures from the top – portraits of the Czar and his first two daughters, Olga and Tatiana. Every spring, Alexandra had the rooms of the palaces filled with beautiful floral bouquets. Fabergé knew that pink was the favorite color of the Empress, and lilies of the valley her favorite flower.

Basket of Flowers (1901) [at the bottom] is owned by Queen Elizabeth II.
You can read about it
here

 
Happy Easter!

7 comments:

  1. wow! These are amazing! I know i have never really had a good look. Everyone has heard of them though. Thanks for the peek! Have a great Easter!

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  2. Aren't they incredible? Enjoy the Easter holiday, Jacqueline! I hope you have beautiful weather.

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  3. Truly incredible works of art. Yes, I wouldn't mind waking to one of these on Easter Morning...then I'd probably sell it and retire! lol They are exquisite!

    Nancy

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  4. p/s My favorites are the first and last that you showed!

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  5. Those are my favorites, too, Nancy! It's interesting to learn how each was made. I've edited the post to describe how Faberge created the first egg (the one with Lilies of the Valley).

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  6. These eggs are the most amazing thing. I wonder what happened to the other 8?

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  7. I'm not sure, but it's sad to think they might be lost. Such beautiful items, so small and such incredible craft in each one!

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