The Fifteenth Anniversary Egg is an Imperial
Fabergé egg, one of a series of fifty-two
jewelled enameled Easter eggs made under the supervision of
Peter Carl Fabergé
Peter Carl Fabergé, also known as Karl Gustavovich Fabergé (russian: Карл Гу́ставович Фаберже́, ''Karl Gustavovich Faberzhe''; 30 May 1846 – 24 September 1920), was a Russian jewellery, jeweller best known for the fam ...
for the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n
Imperial family
A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term pap ...
.
It was an Easter 1911 gift for Tsarina
Alexandra Feodorovna from her husband Tsar
Nicholas II
Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...
, who had a standing order of two Fabergé Easter eggs every year, one for his mother and one for his wife.
Its 1911 counterpart presented to the Dowager Empress is the
Bay Tree Egg.
Design
The egg is made of gold, green and white enamel, decorated with diamonds and rock crystal. The surface is divided into eighteen panels set with 16 miniatures.
The egg's design commemorates the fifteenth anniversary of the coronation of Nicholas II on 26 May 1896.
There is no "surprise" in the egg— contrary to the Tsar's explicit instructions with regard to these eggs and without explanation, apparently none was ever made.
Provenance
It was owned by
Malcolm Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes (August 19, 1919 – February 24, 1990) was an American entrepreneur most prominently known as the publisher of ''Forbes'' magazine, founded by his father B. C. Forbes. He was known as an avid promoter of capitalism ...
in the Forbes Collection.
Viktor Vekselberg purchased nine Imperial eggs, as part of the collection, for almost $100 million. It is estimated that the individual egg cost $10 million to $15 million.
The egg is now part of the Victor Vekselberg Collection, owned by The Link of Times Foundation and housed in the
Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
References
Further reading
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External links
The Link of Times Foundation: Fifteenth Anniversary egg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fifteenth Anniversary (Faberge egg)
Imperial Fabergé eggs
1911 works
Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia