Fabled Trove of Fabergé Eggs Goes to Auction, Jewels and All

he last pieces of a legendary collection, the nine Imperial Fabergé Easter eggs from Czarist Russia acquired over a lifetime by Malcolm Forbes, the publishing magnate, are to be sold at Sotheby's in New York in April, the auction house announced yesterday.

The collection, second in size only to the 10 in the Kremlin, will be offered along with 180 other Fabergé objects from the Forbes holdings. Together they are expected to sell for at least $90 million, at a time when the market for them seems receptive.

Many Americans are passionate collectors of Fabergé, but there is also a growing number of newly rich Russian collectors who, thanks to a booming oil industry in their country, have added to the strength of this market. Another potential buyer is the Kremlin, which might want to add to its trove of Imperial eggs. Britain's royal family also has important Fabergé holdings, which are on view in Buckingham Palace.

The extraordinary materials and workmanship that went into these eggs, coupled with their size (most are no more than six inches tall), make them perhaps the most luxurious, over-the-top baubles ever produced.

Among the treasures is the fabled Coronation Egg, which Czar Nicholas II gave Empress Alexandra for Easter in 1897 to commemorate his ascension to the throne. The egg reveals a velvet-lined compartment containing a replica of the coach in which Alexandra made her grand entry into Moscow. George Stein, a master in the House of Fabergé, spent 15 months working 16-hour days to complete this composition in gold enamel, diamond and rock crystal. Sotheby's expects it to sell for between $18 million and $24 million.

Christopher Forbes, vice chairman of Forbes, said he and his siblings began seriously considering selling the rest of their father's collection in 2002, when Christie's auction house sold another Fabergé work, the Imperial Winter Egg, on behalf of an unidentified collector for a record price of $9.5 million. Shortly afterward, Mr. Forbes said, the family began receiving offers from collectors all over the world willing to pay handsomely for their eggs.

The Forbes family is "taking advantage of ripe times," said Peter Schaffer, an owner of À la Vieille Russie, an antiques gallery on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. "It's a good moment."

Malcolm Forbes's five children have been selling portions of the Fabergé collection, but none of the Imperial eggs, since 1990, when Forbes died. (He had divorced his wife of 39 years in 1985.) But the selling, through Sotheby's and its archrival, Christie's, has increased in intensity in the last three years.

Also during the last three years Forbes Magazine, the family's chief holding, has experienced a 50 percent drop in advertising pages. But Christopher Forbes said yesterday that the drop in company revenue was not the reason that he and his brothers and sister had decided to sell the last of the collection, including the Imperial eggs.

"We're trying to make sure that the real jewel — Forbes and Forbes .com — stays within the family," Mr. Forbes said. He added: "None of us are getting any younger. It was a great passion of Pop's, and we have had a great time owning these objects."

For Sotheby's, the chance to show and sell the best of the Forbes Collection, which has been exhibited around the world as well as in a special gallery in the Forbes Building at 60 Fifth Avenue, at 12th Street, is a great coup. The objects will be on public view at Sotheby's York Avenue headquarters from April 12 to 20. The sale is to be on April 20 and 21. Sotheby's expects the kind of crowds that lined up outside in 1988, when it held a 10-day sale of art and objects belonging to Andy Warhol, and again in 1996, when it sold the contents of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's houses and and her jewelry.

The public showing could be the last time that the Forbes eggs will be seen together. "We're expecting this to be one of those extraordinary events," Bill Ruprecht, Sotheby's chief executive, said. "Fabergé eggs have always had an amazing pull on the world. The arc of history they embody is amazing. It's the kind of thing that doesn't exist in today's world."

The first of the eggs was commissioned from the House of Fabergé by Czar Alexander III in 1885 as an Easter present for his wife, the Czarina Maria Feodorovna. His son, Nicholas II, later commissioned treasures for his wife, Alexandra, and for his mother, the Dowager Empress, continuing what became an Imperial Easter tradition lasting more than 30 years.

The first Imperial egg, the Hen Egg, has a plain white-enameled exterior with a band of gold around the center that twists open to reveal a gold yolk holding a gold hen. Sotheby's estimates it will sell for $3 million to $4 million. Also for sale will be the last Easter egg commissioned by Czar Alexandra III, made for presentation in 1894. It consists of an egg-shaped box carved from white agate and mounted with a trelliswork of gold and jewels. Sotheby's said it expected this one would bring $5 million to $7 million.

Only 50 Imperial eggs are thought to have been produced. Besides the 9 Forbes eggs, 8 are missing, 28 are in museums and 5 are in private collections.

Other Fabergé designs in the sale include a miniature watering can carved from a single piece of jade, and a pink carnelian rabbit with diamond eyes, which was once owned by the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.

The news that Sotheby's won the sale of the Imperial eggs has prompted much speculation as to why the family chose that house over Christie's. While both auction houses were willing to offer the family comparable financing, Mr. Forbes said, Sotheby's "came with a very good offer and an aggressive plan of attack."

While no one at either auction house would speak about the deal for attribution yesterday, it is believed that Sotheby's has given the Forbes family a guarantee — an undisclosed sum regardless of the outcome of the sales — on four eggs. Sotheby's employees said it totaled less than $50 million.

While it might seem that selling all their eggs at once would devalue the collection, Mr. Forbes and Mr. Ruprecht said that they were hoping for just the opposite. "It's going to be an event," Mr. Forbes said. "It will bring the market to a whole new level."

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg	Freepers/Avg	Monthlies
42	Kuwait	100.00	1	100.00	3	33.33

FRom a PBS.org documentary.. Treasures of the World


	...fragile remembrances

By 1901, Nicholas and Alexandra had been blessed with four daughters, and in 1904 an anxiously awaited boy and heir to the throne was born. As the family grew, paintings of the children became a recurring theme, and the best loved surprises were souvenirs of family memories. "Fabergé knew that miniatures were always going to be a crowd pleaser," says Fabergé collector Christopher Forbes. "The family was very sentimental and very close, and they loved pictures of each other. And what better place to put them than in a little trefoil frame hidden inside an egg, or literally decorating the whole shell of an egg. So portrait miniatures are probably – in terms of the whole history of the eggs – the single most popular surprise."

The Lilies of the Valley egg (1898) is a translucent pink-enameled treasure covered with gold-stemmed flowers made of pearls, diamonds and rubies. One flower, when turned, releases a geared mechanism inside to raise the fan of tiny miniatures from the top – portraits of the Czar and his first two daughters, Olga and Tatiana. Every spring, Alexandra had the rooms of the palaces filled with beautiful floral bouquets. Fabergé knew that pink was the favorite color of the Empress, and lilies of the valley her favorite flower.

The jade Alexander Palace egg (1908) contains a perfect replica of their favorite royal residence in the country – only two and one half inches long. And sailing on the clear rock crystal sea of the Standart egg (1909), is a replica of their royal yacht – reproduced to the last detail –

where many happy days were spent together. "I think that was where Fabergé differed so much from all the other jewelers of the period," adds author Lynette Proler. "Where they were only interested in large gemstones, Carl Fabergé was interested in the ultimate effect that a piece would have, a lasting effect so that every time you looked at a particular object, you would have this great sense of sheer enjoyment and pleasure from it."

Fabergé knew both the joys and sorrows of the Romanovs. According to Proler, "It wasn't very well known, of course – the Imperial family kept it very quiet – that the Czarevich had hemophilia. He was dying; he was very close to death, so close that the Imperial Court had already written out his death notice. But Alexei survived, and Fabergé designed a special tribute. The Czarevich egg (1912) was Alexandra's most cherished.

In 1900, the railway that would link European Russia with the Pacific coast was near completion, an accomplishment that brought Nicholas great satisfaction and the support of his country. Fabergé devised an ingenious offering to celebrate the event.

Etched on a belt of silver encircling the Trans-Siberian Railway egg (1900) is a map of the railway line, the stations marked in precious stones. And inside is a little train just one foot long.

"It's made out of gold and platinum, and its headlights are diamonds, and its rear lights are rubies, and the coaches are individually labeled for gentlemen, for smoking, for ladies. There was a restaurant car, and at the end there was the traveling church, which was appended to the Imperial train. It winds up, and I've tried it myself," says author Géza von Habsburg. "The mechanism is a bit rusty, and it moves slowly, but it's like a sort of old 'dinky toy.'"

But most Russians had no time for toys. The zeal to expand the empire led to a disasterous war with Japan and further demoralized the country. Hopeless wars, famine, disease and despair were unraveling the fabric of faith the Czar's people once had in the divine right and benevolence of the monarchy. Choosing to believe in the unfailing devotion of his people, Nicholas became a prisoner of his self-delusion.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.