This Fabergé Egg Could Crack $27M At Auction

London—A Fabergé egg known for breaking auction records will be up for sale at an upcoming Christie’s auction.

“The Winter Egg” is the highlight of its “The Winter Egg and Important Works by Fabergé from a Princely Collection” sale, set to be held during “Classic Week” in London on Dec. 2.

It was commissioned by Emperor Nicholas II as an Easter gift to his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, in 1913, which was also the 300th anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty, said Christie’s.

The Winter Egg is expected to sell for more than £20 million ($26.8 million).

The egg is carved from rock crystal, with a frost design on its interior. The exterior features rose-cut diamond-set platinum snowflake motifs. 

Two vertical diamond-set platinum borders hide a hinge on the side with a cabochon moonstone closure.

The egg sits on a rock crystal base, made to look like a melting ice block, with rose-cut diamond-set platinum rivulets. A platinum pin supports the middle of the egg.

The Winter Egg opens to reveal a springtime surprise inside, which is a basket of flowers.

“A masterpiece of both technical skill and artistic beauty, The Winter Egg is richly imbued with clear Easter symbolism. It represents the idea of resurrection, capturing the shift from winter's harshness to the vibrant renewal of spring,” said Christie’s.

Hanging from a platinum hook is a double-handled trelliswork platinum basket, set with rose-cut diamonds. It’s filled with carved white quartz wood anemones.

Each flower has a gold wire stem and stamens with a demantoid garnet at the center and leaves made of carved nephrite. The flowers sit in a bed of gold moss.

At the base of the basket is an engraving that reads “FABERGÉ 1913.”

Fabergé designer Alma Theresia Pihl was the creative force behind the design while her uncle and workmaster Albert Holmström crafted the egg.

The idea of the snowflake design came to her when she was looking out the frost-covered window of the workshop and saw ice crystals forming, said Christie’s. She then was inspired to recreate the frost pattern in rock crystal, platinum, and rose-cut diamonds.

“It is among the most lavish of Fabergé's Imperial creations and widely regarded as one of the most original and artistically inventive Easter eggs that the house created for the Imperial family,” said the auction house.

Alma, who was born into a family of Finnish jewelers, was one of only a few female designers at Fabergé, said Christie’s.

Her mother, Fanny Holmström, was the daughter of Fabergé's workmaster, August Holmström, and her father, Oscar Pihl, led Fabergé's jewelry workshop in Moscow.

In 1908, at 20 years old, Alma began working for her Uncle Albert, painting watercolors that served as archival records. Her talent was apparent, and he had a few of her designs made in the workshop.

While working as a designer under her uncle, Alma created two of her most well-known designs, “Snowflake” and “Mosaic,” which were turned into two of the “most remarkable” Easter eggs, said Christie’s, including The Winter Egg and “The Mosaic Egg,” the latter of which is in The Royal Collection in England.

Fabergé is best known for its series of Imperial Easter Eggs, produced between 1885 and 1916.

Only 50 of these eggs were completed, and 43 of them still exist, said Christie’s, mainly in museums, though seven, including The Winter Egg, are owned by private collectors.

Most Imperial eggs took about a year to complete, with the Imperial Family giving Fabergé design freedom, it said.

The Winter Egg is among the best documented of all the Imperial Easter Eggs, said Christie’s.

After the 1917 revolution, it was moved from St. Petersburg to the Kremlin Armory in Moscow along with many other valuable possessions of the Imperial Family.

When a new Soviet government was established in the 1920s, it began to sell valuable art, including the eggs, which is how several ended up in private collections, said Christie’s.

Though it was tracked from owner to owner, The Winter Egg was believed to be lost for nearly 20 years, from 1975 to 1994.

When it reemerged, it was an auction showstopper, setting the world record for a work by Fabergé twice.

Christie’s auctioned it in 1994 in Geneva, setting a world record of 7.3 million Swiss francs ($9.1 million). When it sold again in New York in 2002, it set another record, selling for $9.6 million.

“It is a privilege for Christie's to be entrusted with the sale of the exquisite 'Winter Egg' by Fabergé for the third time in its history,” said Margo Oganesian, Christie's head of the department of Fabergé and Russian works of art.

“With only six other Imperial Easter Eggs remaining in private collections, this is an extraordinary chance for collectors to acquire what is arguably one of Fabergé's finest creations, both technically and artistically. It would undoubtedly enhance the most distinguished collection.”

Christie's holds the auction record for Fabergé, which it set in 2007 when “The Rothschild Egg” sold for £8.9 million ($11.9 million) in London.

In 2021, the auction house hosted “The Harry Woolf Collection” sale, a single-owner Fabergé collection, which sold for £5.2 million ($6.9 million).

The upcoming December sale will also feature nearly 50 other Fabergé pieces with estimates of up to £2 million ($2.7 million).

Fabergé was recently sold by Gemfields, which had owned the brand since 2013, to U.S.-based tech investment company SMG Capital LLC for $50 million.