Faberge Imperial Easter Egg (With Pearls)

Adeline Leigh

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In the spirit of Easter, I brought out my handpainted eggs from a recent trip to Europe and chanced upon something in my googling; the incomparable Faberge Lilies of the Valley Egg.

You reckon these being naturals or cultured? The pearls, that is.

From Wiki:
The Lilies of the Valley Egg is a jewelled Faberg? egg made under the supervision of the Russian jeweller Peter Carl Faberg? in 1898 by Faberg? ateliers. The supervising goldsmith was Michael Perchin. The egg is one of the two eggs in Art Nouveau style. It was presented on April 5 to Tzar Nicholas II, and was used as a gift to the Tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. The egg is part of the Victor Vekselberg's Foundation's Collection. [My edit: Other sources report that in 1979 Kenneth Snowman of Wartski sold the egg to Malcolm Forbes together with the Coronation Egg for a total of $2,160,000.]

The egg is covered in pearls and topped with pink enamel. The egg is supported by cabriole legs of green-gold leaves with rose diamond dewdrops. The gold-stemmed lilies have green enameled leaves and pearl flowers made with rubies and pearls.

Instead of a surprise when opening the egg, this egg's surprise gets 'elevated' out of the egg by twisting a gold-mounted pearl button. When fully raised three portraits are visible under the Imperial crown; Czar Nicholas II and his two oldest daughters, Olga and Tatiana, painted on ivory by Johannes Zehngraf. The portraits are in frames of rose diamonds on gold panels. They are framed in rose diamonds and backed with gold panels engraved with the presentation date: July 31, 1898.

For more, read here:
http://www.treasuresofimperialrussia...p7_lilies.html
 

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Have Faberge ever shown a minimalist bent?
 
Totally over the top, but I find myself fascinated by the dainty pearls. It's very pretty and perfect for a PG Easter Egg!
 
Pink and green is one of my favorite color combinations. The more I see it, the more I like it. :)
 
Totally real, and exquisite! The pearls used by Faberge would have been the best available. Beginning in 1893, Mikimoto was marketing half-pearls. I think the patent date for spherical pearls was 1913(?), but 1921 was when they first flooded the market.
 
I don't think that's unusual at all. In the photos, I can see rounds, off-rounds, and various button types. Natural pearls can be any of these; I think there is a misconception that they only come in distorted shapes. Check out my thread under the Natural Pearls forum and you will see that some of them are exquisitely round!
 
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