They inspired the Russian Imperial Family and James Bond’s Octopussy alike. No wonder the world’s gone mad for bejewelled Faberge Eggs – the ultimate royal Easter gift, writes JOSIE GOODBODY

Few treasures capture the imagination as much as the Russian Imperial Easter eggs.

Steeped in history and craftsmanship, Fabergé eggs have become synonymous with wealth and unparalleled beauty – the ultimate royal Easter gift.

Their appeal lies not only in their exquisite aesthetics, but also in the mysterious stories that surround them and the tragedies that befell the Russian Imperial Family, which commissioned these jeweled masterpieces in the 19th and early 20th centuries when House of Fabergé.

The Rose Trellis egg was given as a gift to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia on Easter Day.

Carl Faberge’s Mosaic Egg pictured in the Queens Gallery at Buckingham Palace.

The Apple Blossom Easter egg, part of the Faberge collection

For centuries, it has been a tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church to give painted porcelain or natural chicken or duck eggs as Easter gifts.

In Western Europe, gem-encrusted eggs have been donated by royal and aristocratic families since the 18th century; but in February 1885, Emperor Alexander III commissioned the then relatively unknown Carl Fabergé to make an egg for his beloved Empress, Maria Feodorvna.

Fabergé took as inspiration an egg from the early 18th century, the chicken egg, which belonged to the Danish royal family.

Maria was a Danish princess by birth and had had a happy, carefree childhood in Denmark.

At first glance the first egg appears to be a simple ornament of enamel and gold, but when opened it contained a golden chicken which itself, as a ‘surprise’, held a ruby ​​red pendant. The ‘surprises’ became smarter and more opulent, just like the eggs themselves.

When Alexander died in 1894, his son Nicholas II became Tsar and continued the tradition, giving birth to both his mother and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra, until the fall of the Imperial Family in 1917.

Indeed, the last egg of that year was never delivered. A total of fifty eggs were made, which were then seized by the Bolsheviks and subsequently sold, or even broken.

It was only during the revolution and the gruesome murders of the Romanovs in 1917 that these beautiful eggs became known beyond the palaces that had housed them since May 1885.

The imperial eggs were sent to the Kremlin weapons museum.

They were then sold and distributed around the world through various ‘sellers’, who had managed to create an element of trust with the authorities of the time and were able to choose from the Faberge treasures.

Among the most important were Emanuel Snowman, the son-in-law of Morris Wartski – whose jewelery business had been based in Llandudno since 1865.

It was his son Kenneth, however, who became the real expert, curating the first Faberge exhibition in Britain in 1977, on the occasion of Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee – also at the V&A, where there were queues of excited visitors desperate to get in wild ones.

The global hunt for Imperial Faberge Eggs looks like something out of a Bond movie. Indeed, the plot of Octopussy is based on the smuggling of a fake Faberge egg – the prop of which was made by Asprey.

Over the past decade, the remaining eggs have reached astronomical values ​​at auction, reaching prices in the millions and attracting collectors from all over the world.

Of the 50 created, seven are now missing and not known to have been destroyed. Not so long ago that number was eight.

The rediscovery of the 1887 Third Imperial Egg was once again thanks to Wartski director Kieran McCarthy, who had been contacted by a scrap dealer from the Midwest in the United States.

The dealer had bought the egg at a fair and planned to have it melted – until McCarthy proved that it was indeed an Imperial egg.

It was later sold for $33 million.

From Russian oligarchs to royal families, the appeal of owning a Fabergé egg never ends. Names like Viktor Vekselberg, who donated the nine imperial eggs he bought from another collector, Malcom Forbes, to his country: Russia.

King Charles III, who inherited the three in Britain’s Royal Collection, on the death of his mother, which had been purchased by his great-grandmother, Queen Mary, who was deeply passionate about Faberge and collecting their extraordinary treasures.

The 2021 – 2022 exhibition of Fabergé eggs at the V&A Museum was the first and probably the last time that so many of these beautiful artefacts have been brought back together.

The Swan Egg and the swan surprise it contains were featured in the 2021 ‘Faberge in London: Romance To Revolution’ exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum

The Alexander Palace Egg, with watercolor portraits of the children of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra and containing a model of the palace

The Basket of Flowers egg by Peter Carl Faberge Forms pictured in the Queens Gallery at Buckingham Palace

As Kieran McCarthy, curator of the V&A exhibition and world expert (who discovered the missing Third Imperial Egg in 2012), explains: ‘Fabergé eggs possess a magical quality that transcends mere materialism, they are a childlike treasure with a magical surprise inside .

‘Each egg is a testament to the skill and ingenuity of the artisans who painstakingly brought them to life.

‘From the delicate filigree work to the vibrant enamel details and the setting of the gemstones, every aspect of a Fabergé egg speaks to the passion and dedication of its maker, and the two women for whom they were created, where luxury knew no bounds. ‘