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Dorothy Copus Brush Faberge sure left "All life comes from an egg," says
an old Roman proverb. Ancient cultures understood this truth
long before Easter became part of the Christian calendar. The
message of new life the egg carries was the Easter promise Christ
gave us. Czar Alexander III remembered the Russian
proverb, "The gift of an egg is dear on Easter Day,"
and in 1884 he commissioned Peter Carl Faberge to make an Easter
egg for his wife, Czarina Marie. So pleased was she a tradition
began that continued until the Bolshevik Revolution. In all Faberge fashioned 53 of these exquisite
creations, all with a surprise inside. Today 44 are known to
be in museums or private owners' hands. Collectively they are
valued at more than $4 million. Faberge, born in St. Petersburg in 1846, was
of Huguenot descent. He was educated in Dresden, Italy, France
and England. In 1870 he inherited his father's business known
for its exclusive designs of jewelry. Faberge changed the business
to creating objects of fantasy. He thought of himself as an artistic
jeweler and was known for his technical perfection. That first imperial Easter egg resulted from a close collaboration between the czar and the young Faberge. It looked like a hen's egg done in enameled opaque white over gold. Fashioned with two halves, when opened a yellow gold yolk was found. This also opened to reveal a tiny yellow and white tinted gold hen sitting on a nest. Her eyes were rubies and every feather was carefully engraved. Her beak and comb were of red gold. The final surprise was shown when her head was lifted. This released the tail and inside was a diamond replica of the Imperial Crown with a tiny ruby pendant hanging from it. The egg was only two and a half inches high. The hen was one and three-eighths inches long. Many years later this egg became part of the
Forbes Magazine collection. Malcolm Forbes assembled an extraordinary
group of Faberge objects, including 12 imperial Easter eggs. Faberge was named goldsmith to the Imperial
Court of Russia in 1885. He had firms in both Moscow and St.
Petersburg with about 500 employees between the two. He respected
the talent of his craftspeople and one of his secrets was that
each object was produced in one workshop and by one individual
artisan. They produced carved animals and flowers, boxes of every
size and shape, jewels, automated pieces and decorative objects. A pioneer in his field, Faberge was always
open to new ideas and not bound by traditional ways of doing
things. His was a restless imagination. One biographer says of
his stone carvings of animals, birds and fish in agate, jade,
crystals and other semi-precious stones that, "Faberge's
witty, stylized essays are among the most Russian of his wares." Among the rarest works from Faberge are the
flowers. A spray of buttercups modeled in gold with buds and
flower heads set in diamonds. A basket of lilies of the valley
in woven yellow gold have pearl and rose diamond flowers. They
sit in a bed of moss which is spun green gold and platinum. A. Kenneth Snowman's book, Carl Faberge, is
filled with color pictures of these amazing, intricate works
of art. Faberge's eldest son, Eugene, joined the firm
in 1894. He told of the special room set aside in the Palace
where a wide range of Faberge objects were kept so when a gift
was needed they were available. Each month Eugene went there
to take stock, prepare bills for anything that had been taken
and to replenish the stock. With the violent end of the Romanov reign
in 1917 so too the Faberge era ended. The Bolsheviks closed the
business in 1918. Carl escaped by acting as a courier attached
to the British Embassy. He spent his few remaining years in exile
and died in 1920. There is a recent surprise in the Faberge family
story which will be in next week's column. But for this week I leave you with the words of Irish writer Amanda M. Ros in her Ode to Easter."Dear Lord, the day of eggs is here." As the children hunt for the colored eggs tell them the story of new life an egg holds. |