SHELL SHOCK
How an ornamental egg bought for scrap turned out to be a lost Fabergé masterpiece
SUPERMARKETS may be running low on essentials, but there’s no shortage of chocolate Easter eggs on their shelves. Collectors prefer things that bring lasting pleasure like the limited edition silver surprises illustrated here.
Not only do they satisfy the desire to own beautiful things, they may even reward their owners when it comes time to sell.
Of course, every collector dreams of owning an Easter egg by the great Russian silversmith Peter Carl Fabergé. Alas, the magnificent jewelled works of art made for tsars are now priceless museum pieces. The imperial family were Fabergé’s most important patrons. They were introduced to him at the Pan-Russian Exhibition in Moscow in 1882, where he showed a replica of a 4th-century BC gold bangle, the original of which is in the Hermitage Museum. Emperor Alexander III was so dazzled by the accuracy of the copy, he ordered other works by the jeweller be put on show at the Hermitage to promote Russia’s great craftsmanship.
In a further step, in 1885, he rewarded Fabergé with the titled “Supplier to the Court of His Imperial Majesty” and in the same year, the tsar commissioned the first of a series of imperial Easter eggs, made as gifts for his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna, and their mothers.
The egg is a sacred and intimate object celebrating Easter, the most important of Russian Orthodox festivals.
Known as the gold jewelled hen egg, it had an opaque white enamelled “shell”, which opened to reveal a yellow-gold yolk.
This opened to reveal a multicoloured gold hen that also opened, inside which was a tiny diamond replica of the imperial crown, from which a small ruby pendant was suspended. Between then and 1916, 50 lavishly decorated eggs were crafted in the Fabergé workshops and delivered to Alexander and his son, Nicolas II, each one seemingly more exotic and elaborate than the last.
Most are in public or private collections – Edward VII and Queen
Mary were collectors, as is the Queen, who owns three Imperial eggs – so finding one today is unlikely.
It can happen, though. In 2011, researchers discovered that an egg found in a catalogue for an auction in New York in 1964 was, in fact, the magnificent Imperial Third Egg, designed by Alexander and made by Fabergé in 1887. Its discovery launched a worldwide hunt to find out where it was.
The egg had been seized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution and was last seen in public in an exhibition of the
The trio of eggs designed by Sarah Fabergé, which each sold for £380
Russian imperial family’s collection in St. Petersburg in March 1902. It was not seen again until 1922 when the Soviets decided to sell it as part of their policy of turning “Treasures into Tractors”.
Sold then for $2,450 (then £875), it was subsequently acquired by a mid-West bric-a-brac market by a dealer who made a living buying gold and selling it for its scrap value. He paid $14,000 but he had overestimated its scrap value and was unable to find a buyer.
Years later and alerted by publicity surrounding the egg’s rediscovery, he alerted London jewellers and Fabergé specialists Wartski, who negotiated its sale to a private collector for an undisclosed sum. Speculation at the time put the price at around £20 million.
The Imperial Third Egg opens by pressing a diamond-set clasp to reveal a lady’s gold watch with diamond-set gold hands. It stands on an elaborate gold base encircled by finely chased coloured gold
Photo: Wartski
Anthony Elson’s silver gilt surprise egg, the enamelled egg opening to reveal two rotating rabbits (sold for £280); one of two parcel gilt eggs by Christopher Lawrence for the Heritage Collection (£400); an anonymous 9ct gold egg assayed in 1980, (£560); a Stuart Devlin silver gilt surprise egg containing pixies (£300) and one of two Christopher Lawrence limited edition eggs made for the Heritage Collection (£400)
garlands suspended from three cabochon blue sapphires topped with rose diamond set bows.
We can only dream. However, a trio of Fabergé eggs did sell for £380 apiece in a sale at Surrey auctioneers Ewbank’s last month. From the so-called St Petersburg Collection, they were from the London workshop of Peter Carl Fabergé’s great-granddaughter, Sarah, whose father, Theo Fabergé (19222007) continued the family tradition designing and making elegant objects from precious metals, gems, porcelain, rare wood and ivory. He launched the St Petersburg Collection in 1985. Sarah followed in his footsteps in 1994, when she added her first design to the collection. She is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Turners and a founding member of the Fabergé Heritage Council, working as an ambassador for the company. A handful of other contemporary silversmiths were represented in the Ewbank’s auction, including the renowned Stuart Devlin, whose death in 2018 crystallised collector interest.
His surprise eggs have values in the hundreds rather than thousands of pounds (unlike his magnificent silver and silver gilt centrepieces and candelabra), so they make ideal starting points to a collection.
Two of his limited edition eggs, assayed in 1980 and 1985
respectively, one opening to reveal a pixie, the other a jack-in-the-box, sold for £300 and £280.
Christopher Lawrence (b. 1936) dominated the Easter egg auction catalogue. Based in Essex, he visited a silver factory on a boy scout outing aged 13 and decided he would become a silversmith, learning his skills in a workshop built for him by his father at the bottom of the garden.
He enrolled at the Central School of Arts in London and was apprenticed to a London flatware maker at the age of 15, before spending nearly 10 years working as workshop manager for Gerald Benney (1930-2008), arguably the most outstanding and influential British goldsmiths of the second half of the 20th century.
A member of the Institute of Professional Goldsmiths and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, Lawrence ultimately set up on his own, ironically working in his own garden workshop in Southend on Sea, where he produced limited edition eggs and mushrooms – another of his specialities – that have an idiosyncratic appeal that makes each series unique collectables. Collectors of Anthony Elson, Robert Glover and Peter Nicholas silver surprise eggs were also contributors to the sale, all of whom were rewarded with hammer prices in the affordable low hundreds.
SPRING 2020 is, I hope, the oddest season we will ever experience. The world is on lockdown and we are isolated, cocooned in our homes. A joy for me and a relief from the news is the tonic that is gardening. When I get out and dig, water or weed, I concentrate on the project in hand.
Two weeks ago, aware of what was coming, I suggested to some friends that we should do something, even if only from our own homes. So we made use of modern technology, an app called Instagram.
It’s a place in the clouds where people share images that inspire them.
For gardeners it’s a godsend. But Instagram allows you to do something else – you can broadcast on it, so every night from
7-8pm and every weekend from 11am-noon I host a garden conversation. People send in their questions and myself and my friends answer them.
We give tips on roses, daffodils and design. We talk to nurserymen and estate gardeners. We ask them how they are coping, but also, ask what inspires them. So today I thought I’d share a little of that with you. These are among the most frequently asked questions and if you’d like to join us, to participate, even just by watching, you’ll find me at 11am this morning on Instagram @diarmuidgavin.
WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO STOP SNAILS DEVOURING MY HOSTAS?
SNAILS love hostas and new leafy growth so you need to prepare now. Beer traps are good, or any barrier that makes it difficult for snails to traverse, for example, crushed egg shells, bark or grit. The best way is to seek them out at night is with a torch and remove by hand. Avoid slug pellets as they are harmful to wildlife, though there are some eco-friendly versions available.
I HAVE A CAMELLIA WHICH IS IN FULL BLOOM AT THE MOMENT BUT THERE IS LOTS OF BLACK STUFF ON ALL OF THE LEAVES. SHOULD I PRUNE IT?
NO there’s no need to cut or prune your camellias. The foliage is suffering a common problem of sooty mould which is a fungus that grows on the excretions of aphids and scale insects.
You can clean the mould off with water but really you want to prevent the pests that are feeding off your camellia.
Cushion scale insect is often the culprit – check the undersides of the leaves to see if there are any eggs or insects.
You can spray in June to break the cycle of these little pests – organic sprays are available if you don’t like using chemicals.
WHEN SHOULD I PRUNE MY HYDRANGEAS?
YOU can remove old flower heads now and prune just above the top pair of healthy buds.
If it’s old, rejuvenation pruning will help as well. Completely remove about one-third of all stems right back to the ground and remove any dead or diseased growth.
HOW DO I GREEN UP MY LAWN? HOW DO YOU REMOVE MOSS FROM A LAWN?
Potato plants need a really rich soil
I WANT TO GROW POTATOES IN POTS. WHAT SOIL SHOULD I USE?
USE a multi-purpose peat-free compost mixed with some garden soil. Add farmyard manure as well if you can get it – spuds are heavy feeders so the richer the soil, the better.
ANY nitrogen-based feed will green up your lawn. General lawn maintenance commences at this time of year so scarify to remove thatch and dead moss, and commence mowing.
THE traditional method for treating moss on lawns is sulphate of iron – when applied the moss will go
black which you then rake up.
I work with a company that has developed a non-biocide treatment, Moss Off, that is safe to apply if your lawn is used by children and pets.
Spray it on a dry day and an biodegradable micro-coating forms to stops moss and algae growth and it’s harmless to other plants.
MY DAFFODILS ARE NOT FLOWERING THIS YEAR – WHY?
THEY are probably congested, so they don’t have enough room to form a strong bulb.
You should dig them up, pull them apart, and replant with more space.
Importantly, you should allow foliage to die back naturally so the bulb can be replenished.