Christie’s London presents Fabergé’s Winter Egg – expected to exceed £20 million

Christie’s has announced a December auction featuring one of Carl Fabergé’s rarest creations – the celebrated Winter Egg. Crafted in 1913 for the Romanov family, it is considered among the most refined and valuable of Fabergé’s imperial Easter eggs. The story of this masterpiece and its journey is brought to you by Afisha.London, reporting directly from the British capital.

This article is also available in Russian here

London audiences will remember the piece well: the Winter Egg was one of the highlights of the V&A’s landmark exhibition Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution, which ran from November 2021 to May 2022. Then, it drew thousands of visitors, admired as the ultimate symbol of Fabergé’s artistry and imperial opulence. Today, you can encounter it once again – in our film, linked below.

The egg’s body was carved from a single block of rock crystal – a notoriously difficult material to work with – and is engraved with frost-like patterns and set with diamonds. Inside sits a platinum basket of anemones: petals carved from white quartz, stems and stamens fashioned from gold wire, and buds tipped with pink diamonds.

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The design was conceived by Alma Pihl (1888–1976), one of the very few women to work in Fabergé’s workshops. Her creations were marked by delicacy and refinement, blending the cold brilliance of stone with lyrical natural motifs. The Winter Egg stands as the pinnacle of her style – a union of wintry splendour and the fragile beauty of spring flowers.

See our video about the Fabergé’ exhibition in London here.

 

Commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II as an Easter gift for his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, the egg marked the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty in 1913. After the revolution, it entered the Kremlin Armoury before being sold off by the Soviet government alongside other treasures of the imperial family.

Read also: Fabergé — the legendary jewellery firm in London and St. Petersburg

Photo: Christie’s

The Winter Egg has already twice set auction records at Christie’s: in 1994 it was sold in Geneva for $5.58 million, and in 2002 it fetched $9.58 million in New York. Its most recent owners were the heirs of Qatari collector Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al Thani, who are now offering the egg for sale on 2 December in London.

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Experts suggest the Winter Egg could fetch tens of millions of pounds, with estimates already exceeding £20 million. Alongside this centrepiece, the sale will feature other Fabergé masterpieces – from jewelled snuff boxes and figurines to exquisite pieces once created for Russian emperors and the European aristocracy. The auction, to be held in London this December, is already being hailed as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see and acquire a legendary masterpiece.”

Cover photo: Afisha.London

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