Constellation (Fabergé egg)

1917 Imperial Fabergé egg

Constellation Fabergé egg
Unfinished egg from Fersman Mineralogical Museum (the modern Plexiglass band joins the two halves of the egg)
Year delivered	Unfinished and undelivered (1917)
Customer	Nicholas II
Recipient	Alexandra Feodorovna
Current owner
Individual or institution	Fersman Mineralogical Museum
Year of acquisition	1925
Design and materials
Materials used	Glass and rock crystal

The Constellation egg is an unfinished 1917 Easter egg designed under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé for the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, as an Easter gift to his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. It was the last Imperial Fabergé egg designed.

History and description

According to Franz Birbaum, Fabergé’ workshop manager, the egg was conceived as a clock in the form of a celestial globe of dark blue glass encircled by a rotating dial, held above billowing rock crystal clouds surmounted by silver cherubs; the whole supported on a nephrite pedestal. The globe was to be decorated with a diamond studded engraving of the constellations under which Tsarevitch Alexei was born. Work began on the egg, but the 1917 February Revolution and subsequent events overtook its production.^[1]

In 2001, its unfinished clouds and globe were uncovered in the collection of the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow, where Fabergé's second son Agathon, left them in 1925. Experts believe it to be the unfinished 1917 egg by Fabergé.^[2] It is without the diamonds, nephrite base and silver putti intended to decorate it. Its authenticity is supported by numerous studies by Russian experts.^[3]

A false pretender

Russian art collector Alexander Ivanov claims that he owns the original (and finished)^[4] egg. In 2003–2004 he said that he acquired this egg in the late 1990s and affirmed that "the Fersman Museum erroneously continues to claim that it has the original egg." Fabergé experts do not agree and think his egg is a Fauxbergé.^[5] Ivanov's egg is in the Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden, which houses part of his Fabergé/Fauxbergé collection.

References

^ "The Imperial Constellation Egg by Fabergé"
^ Карл Фаберже и мастера камнерезного дела. Самоцветные сокровища России. // Carl Faberge and masters of stone carving. Russian gems. Catalogue of the exhibition in Kremlin, Moscow. 2011. P. 62.
^ Andre Ruzhnikov (2021), Forgeries in The hermitage
^ "See photo". Archived from the original on 2017-03-07. Retrieved 2011-04-06.
^ Andre Ruzhnikov (2021), Fakes in The hermitage

Sources

Faber, Toby (2008). Faberge's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6550-9.
Forbes, Christopher; Prinz von Hohenzollern, Johann Georg (1990). FABERGE; The Imperial Eggs. Prestel. ASIN B000YA9GOM.
Lowes, Will (2001). Fabergé Eggs: A Retrospective Encyclopedia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-3946-6.
Snowman, A Kenneth (1988). Carl Faberge: Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia. Gramercy. ISBN 0-517-40502-4.