Top 10 Most Extraordinary Fabergé Easter Eggs

## Frequently Asked Questions About the Fabergé Imperial Eggs

How many Fabergé Imperial Eggs were made? Fifty jeweled Easter eggs were crafted for the Russian Imperial family between 1885 and 1917.

Which was the first Imperial Fabergé egg? The Hen Egg, made in 1885 for Tsar Alexander III as an Easter gift for his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna.

How many Imperial Fabergé eggs are still missing? Eight of the original fifty have never been recovered; their whereabouts remain unknown.

Which Imperial egg is the largest? The Moscow Kremlin Egg (1906), measuring about 36 centimetres tall.

Are Fabergé eggs the most valuable objects ever made? Several Imperial eggs rank among the most expensive decorative objects ever sold at auction, with values in the millions of dollars.

Collectors and historians generally weigh four things when comparing Fabergé Imperial eggs: the complexity of the hidden surprise mechanism (a working miniature train, an automaton rooster, or a coach with doors that open are all more ambitious than a simple pendant inside), the rarity and craftsmanship of the materials, the historical moment the egg commemorates, and its documented provenance. An egg that combines several of these — like the Coronation Egg's diamond trellis shell and its fully articulated miniature coach — tends to be judged more extraordinary than one that is beautiful but mechanically simple.

The eggs on this list that have set auction records share a combination of an unusually elaborate surprise and a clean ownership history. The Winter Egg's rock-crystal shell and quartz flower basket sold for $9.6 million at Christie's in 2002; the Rothschild Egg's automaton clock, with a rooster that crows and flaps its wings on the hour, sold for $18.5 million in 2007. By contrast, the Third Imperial Egg — found by a scrap metal dealer who had no idea what he owned — shows that value on this list isn't only about the egg itself; the astonishing story of a nearly lost object resurfacing decades later matters just as much as the craftsmanship.

The most common misconception is treating "Fabergé egg" as a single well-defined category. Only 50 Imperial eggs were ever made, commissioned specifically by Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II as Easter gifts for the women in their family — the Hen Egg on this list was the first, made in 1885. The House of Fabergé made many other objects and some non-Imperial eggs for other wealthy clients, like the Rothschild Egg on this list, and the modern Fabergé jewelry brand sold today has no design connection to these 19th and early 20th century pieces. The second common misconception is assuming most of the Imperial eggs are lost — in fact only eight of the fifty are unaccounted for; the rest are documented in museums or private collections.