THE HEN EGG (THE FIRST IMPERIAL EGG): A FABERGÉ IMPERIAL
EASTER EGG PRESENTED BY EMPEROR ALEXANDER III TO HIS WIFE
THE EMPRESS MARIA FEODOROVNA AT EASTER 1885
The
white enameled egg simulating eggshell, opening by means of
three bayonet fittings to reveal a matted gold “yolk”
which in turn opens by similar means to reveal a varicolor
gold hen in a suede-lined nest with stippled gold edge simulating
straw, the hen’s yellow and white gold feathers, yellow
gold head and red gold comb and wattle all meticulously chased,
the eyes set with cabochon rubies, the body of the hen opening
by means of a concealed hinge at the tail, the underside of
the body finely chased with yellow gold feet, unmarked.
The Hen Egg is the first of the legendary series of fifty
1 Imperial Easter Eggs created
by Fabergé for the last two tsars of Russia between
1885 and 1916. It is unmarked, but, following the opening
of the Russian archives and the discovery of the present egg
listed as the first among the five earliest Imperial Easter
eggs,
2 together with an exchange
of letters between Tsar Alexander III and his brother Vladimir
referring to this egg, all possible doubts have been dispelled
as to its exact nature.
3
On February 1, 1885, Alexander wrote a letter to his brother
referring to an order from Fabergé:
“...this could be very nice indeed. I would suggest
replacing the last present by a small pendant egg of some
precious stone. Please speak to Fabergé about this,
I would be very grateful to you… Sasha.” 4
Grand Duke Vladimir sent the finished egg to the Tsar
together with a letter on March 21, 1885 saying that the egg
being made according to his wishes by the jeweler Fabergé
was in his opinion a complete success and of fine and intricate
workmanship. In accordance with his wishes the ring was replaced
by an expensive specimen ruby pendant egg on a chain, which
Empress Maria Feodorovna could wear as a “symbol of
autocracy.” Grand Duke Vladimir attached a set of instructions
for the Tsar on how to open the hen surprise, warning him
of its fragility.
The Emperor replied from Gatchina the same day that he was
very grateful to his uncle Vladimir for the trouble that he
taken in placing the order with Fabergé and for having
overseen its production. He was very satisfied with the workmanship,
which was truly exquisite. He appreciated his uncle’s
instructions for opening the surprise and hoped that the egg
would have “the desired effect on its future owner.”
5
Fabergé’s egg was to be a replica, or a free
rendering, of an early eighteenth-century egg, of which at
least three examples are still in existence (Rosenborg Castle,
Copenhagen; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Private Collection,
formerly in the Green Vaults, Dresden ).
6 They all have in common a hen surprise, opening to
reveal a crown in which is contained a ring. It is generally
assumed that the Tsar wished to surprise his wife with a souvenir
inspired by an item well known to her in the Danish royal
treasury. Fabergé is known to have relished the challenge
of measuring his work against that of an eighteenth-century
master.Of these three eggs, the Dresden Hen Egg would have
been familiar to Fabergé, who lived in the Saxon capital
as a young man, and whose parents from 1860 onwards resided
in that city and died there.
Fabergé’s original crown and two ruby surprises
are listed in Fabergé’s invoice of 1885 and in
a description of 1889, but were no longer part of the egg
by 1917. The two ruby eggs al one priced at 2,700 rubles accounted
for more than half of the total price of 4,151 rubles. A related lapis lazuli hen egg in the
Cleveland Museum of Art from the collection of India Early
Minshall, possibly a variation on the theme by Fabergé,
still retains a ruby pendant suspended within the crown.
7
A further unmarked “Egg-and-hen egg” from the
collection of King Farouk of Egypt was acquired by Matilda
Geddings Gray from Armand Hammer in 1957, when it was thought
to be the First Imperial Egg.
8
The Hen Egg is listed in the account books of the Assistant
Manager of His Majesty’s Cabinet, N. Petrov, as:
“White enamel Easter egg, with a crown, set with rubies,
diamonds and rose-cut diamonds (and 2 ruby pendant eggs –
2700 rubles) – 4151 rubles”
9
followed by another entry:
“9 April (1885) To the jeweler Fabergé for a
gold egg with precious stones, 4151 rub. 75 kop. 11 April.
Allocation No. 337.”
10
In a list of eggs established in 1889, N. Petrov lists the
present egg as the first, dated 1885.
With the exception of the Kelch First Egg and the Scandinavian
Egg, none of the hen eggs bear the hallmark of the maker.
The present egg’s date falls into the first year of
Michael Perchin’s activity.Habsburg ,
11
who dates Perchin’s arrival at Fabergé to 1884
based on the year inscribed on the Bismarck Box, believes
the Hen Egg to be by Perchin. Ulla Tillander,
12
who dates Perchin’s arrival to 1886, thinks that the
egg belongs to the oeuvre of Erik Kollin. The hen-in-the-egg
theme containing a crown found many emulators in the nineteenth
century. A number of jeweled versions made in Vienna or Hungary
are known.
It is generally thought that Tsar Alexander III commissioned
this First Egg as a souvenir of home for Alexandra Feodorovna
– a token of affection for his homesick wife, who would
have known the Danish original in her family’s collection.
As a convert to the Orthodox Church, she was well aware of
the importance of the egg in Russia as a symbol of the Resurrection
of Christ. The tradition of presenting simple painted eggs,
generally red, together with an exchange of three kisses and
the greeting “Christ is Risen!” (to which the
response was “Indeed He is Risen!”) harks back
to the Middle Ages.
13 As time
went on, eggs became more and more lavish, with elaborately
painted duck and goose eggs and with papier-mâché,
wood and lacquer eggs supplanting the hen eggs. In the later
eighteenth century, after the founding of the Imperial Porcelain
Manufacture and of the Imperial Glass Manufacture under Catherine
the Great, the Tsarina and the Tsar presented ever-growing
numbers of eggs in these rarer materials. The number of such
eggs presented at court grew to 5,000 in porcelain and 7,000
in glass by the mid-nineteenth century. By Imperial decree,
Tsar Alexander III reduced these numbers, allowing no more
than a total of 120 eggs to be presented. During the reign
of Tsar Alexander III and Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, the first
porcelain eggs with gold cyphers on a white or sang de boeuf
ground made their appearance.
The earliest known example of an Imperial Easter egg is a
jeweled, gold, egg-shaped necessaire fitted with a clock,
Paris 1757-58, owned by Empress Elisabeth I and bearing her
monogram
14 which served as model
for Fabergé’s Peter the Great Egg of 1903, now
in Richmond, Virginia. Several examples date from the reign
of her successor, Empress Catherine the Great, for example
an egg-shaped enameled gold brûle parfum, said by tradition
to have been given to the Empress by her lover, Prince Grigory
Potemkin. It is now in the treasury of the State Hermitage
Museum, St. Petersburg, and was no doubt well known to Fabergé.
15
A diamond-set egg-shaped charm containing a tiny miniature
of the Empress is in the same collection and may have inspired
Fabergé’s vast number of miniature Easter eggs
.
16 A set of four cups and covers
made of gold, enamel and ivory from the 1780s inspired Faber
gé to create an egg decorated with gold lilies of the
valley.
17
The First Egg was confiscated by the Provisional Government
and sold to a Mr. Derek. It then appeared at an auction at
Christie’s in London, March 15, 1934, lot 55, consigned
by a Mr. Frederick Berry. It was catalogued as the egg presented
by Alexander III in 1888 (sic) and sold for £85 (reserved
at 50 guineas) to R. Suenson-Taylor (later created Lord Grantchester),
with a Mr. Sassoon as underbidder.
NOTES:
1. The total number of Imperial
Easter eggs has been variously stated by earlier authors as
being between fifty and fifty-six.
Fabergé/Proler/Skurlov 1997 have established the number
at fifty, of which ten were presented by Alexander III to
Maria Feodorovna between 1885 and 1894, twenty eggs each were
given by Nicholas II to his mother the Dowager Empress and,
after their marriage, to his wife Alexandra Feodorovna between
1895 and 1916 (with a hiatus in 1904 and 1905, the years of
the disastrous Russo-Japanese War).
2. Marina Lopato, “Fabergé
Eggs. Re-dating from new evidence” in Apollo, February
1991.
3. Fabergé/Proler/Skurlov
2000.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. All three eighteenth-century
eggs are illustrated in Mogens Bencard, The Hen in the Egg.
The Royal Danish Collections,
Amalienborg, 1999.
7. Hawley 1967.
8. Keefe 1993.
9. Fabergé/Proler/Skurlov
1997.
10. Ibid.
11.Wilmington 2000.
12. Munich 2003.
13. For a history of the Russian
tradition and the Russian Easter egg leading up to Fabergé,
see Tamara Kudriavtseva, “Osterliche Traditionen am
Zarenhof,” in Kostbare Ostereier aus dem Zarenreich,
Hirmer Verlag, 1998.
14. Munich 1986, 653. For Fabergé’s
egg see Fabergé/Proler/Skurlov, 1997.
15. St. Petersburg Jewellers.
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg 2000.
16. Munich 1986.
17. Munich 1986.
