Third Imperial Faberge Egg, ©Wartski. Photo used with permission.
by Angela Magnotti Andrews
A Fancy Golden Egg
It has been a bit of a noose around his neck for ten years, albeit a beautiful one. He purchased the piece for approximately $14,000 at a Midwestern antique fair with hope that the gemstones could be sold and the gold melted down for perhaps $500 profit. However, his estimates of its value exceeded those of his prospective buyers. Call it a hunch (or stubbornness), but the man decided to hold onto it rather than selling the piece at a loss. It is a fancy golden egg, made with exquisite detailing including a ridged shell and an ornate mounting. It is set with a large round diamond 'pushpiece', which opens the shell to reveal a wonderful prize. The egg rests upon its original pedestal, an ornately carved golden tripod featuring chased lion's paw feet and a festoon of colored-gold garlands suspended from three cabochon blue sapphires surrounded by gold beads and crested by diamond-encrusted bows {cited: Wartski}. A simple click of the diamond button, and the lid pops open to reveal a beautiful lady's pocket-style watch with white enamel dial and openwork gold hands set with diamonds. An engraving on the watch, which reads 'Vacheron Constantin', offered the only clue as to its illustrious history.
Faberge Egg with Clock, ©Wartski. Photo used with permission.
An Identical Likeness
The scrap-metal dealer, desperate for some return on his investment, typed in Google the search phrase "egg Vacheron Constantin." In a stroke of pure serendipity, The Telegraph had one year prior published an article declaring that a photo of one of the missing Imperial Faberge Eggs was recently discovered in an American auction catalog from the 1960s. The photo demonstrated an identical likeness with the egg sitting upon this dealer's countertop. He made a swift trip to London, carrying photos of the egg to the named expert, Kieran McCarthy, director of Wartski, a firm specializing in the works of Carl Faberge. "I knew instantly that was it. I was flabbergasted--it was like being Indiana Jones and finding the Lost Ark," Mr. McCarthy told The Telegraph.'Treasures Into Tractors'
On May 18, 1887, Emperor Alexander III made a payment of 2160 roubles to Faberge for this, the third installment in his exceptional Easter gifts to his wife, Tsarina Maria Feodorovna. In total, 50 such Imperial Eggs were made by Faberge for the beautiful empress. In 1902, this particular egg was placed on display in the Von Dervis Mansion Exhibition in St. Petersburg. This was the last time this egg was seen in public. Fifteen years later, the Bolsheviks transferred the entire Imperial treasury, including all fifty of the remarkable eggs, to the Moscow Kremlin Armory. The presence of this particular egg is noted in the Kremlin archive as Art. 1548 {3}. The egg was transferred once again in 1922, to the care of Ivan Gavrilovich Chinariov, a representative of the Council of People's Commissars. It was a prime candidate for meltdown in the Russian Revolution's 'Treasures into Tractors' campaign {4}. Although much of the Imperial treasure was indeed lost, of the 50 Imperial Eggs seized by the Bolsheviks, all but 8 of them have been found intact. Of these eight, only three are expected to have survived the great meltdown.On the Kitchen Counter
This egg represents not only the third Imperial Egg made for the Tsarina, but also the third of these lost treasures discovered in the past 100 years. In 2011, a photo of the egg was spotted by an American in a Parke-Bernet catalog dated March 1964. Sold in the New York auction by vendor "Clarke" as a "Gold Watch in Egg-Form Case on Wrought Three-Tone Gold Stand, Set with Jewels" {1}, the jewel was never identified as a Faberge egg, and its whereabouts after the sale were unknown until it showed up on the kitchen counter of our Midwestern dealer. Kieran McCarthy, a Wartski representative, took a jaunt to the Midwest and knocked on the door of the dealer's humble home. The door opened, and he soon caught his first glimpse of the golden egg, somewhat dwarfed next to a large cupcake.Real Blue-Collar America
"I examined it and said, 'You have an Imperial Faberge Easter Egg.' And he practically fainted. He literally fell to the floor in astonishment," Mr. McCarthy reported. The fortunate dealer is not of the world of important jewels and collectors. "He's from...a world of diners and pick-up trucks, real blue-collar America, and he and his partner are still stunned by all this," Mr. McCarthy told reporters. The actual sale price was withheld to protect all parties involved, but Wartski calls the finder "an art historical lottery winner, receiving multiple millions of dollars per centimetre of egg" {4}.An Exclusive Exhibition
The egg's new owner, a private collector, has graciously agreed to allow an exclusive exhibition of the found egg at Wartski London, who plan to display the marvelous egg in the days leading up to Easter. To view "the ultimate Easter Treasure," one can stand in line at the Wartski showroom on Grafton Street, London, from 9:30am-5:00pm between April 14th and April 17th of this year. For details, we invite you to visit Wartski online.Notes
- Nikkhah, Roya. "Is This L20 Million Nest-Egg On Your Mantelpiece?" The Telegraph, August 13, 2011.
- Singh, Anita. "The L20m Faberge Egg That Was Almost Sold for Scrap," The Telegraph, March 18, 2014. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/10706025/The-20m-Faberge-egg-that-was-almost-sold-for-scrap.html.
- Wartski. "The Lost Third Imperial Easter Egg by Carl Faberge." Accessed March 21, 2014. http://www.wartski.com/.
- Wartski Press Release. "Lost Treasure Found After Almost 100 Years." Acquired March 21, 2014 from Wartski.
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