Will go tothis next Tuesday from Christie’s a London a precious, yet rare, crystal egg and diamonds made by Peter Carl Fabergé per i Romanov before Russia’s ruling family was overthrown by revolution of 1917. Winter Egg one of seven in private hands, was valued at more than £20 million quasi 23 million euros ABC reports. But it is difficult to say where the offers will stop and a new record.
10 centimeters tall, the egg is made in rock crystal finely carved to simulate the ice and is covered with a delicate a pattern snowflake in platinumcon 1,600 small diamonds set. Inside, a tiny removable basket of quartz flowers which symbolize the primavera.
An imperial gift
One of only two created by the designer Alma Pihlthe egg had been commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II for his mother, theDowager Empress Maria Feodorovnacome Easter gift In the 1913. The other Pihl egg is owned by the British royal family.
The tradition of Fabergé eggs
Fabergé and his company have created more than 50 eggs for the Russian imperial family between 1885 and 1917of which 43 survived at the fall ofRussian Empire. The tradition began there Tsar Alexander III giving an egg to his wife in the Easter in 1885 and then every year to follow. His successor, Nicholas IIdecided to bring one a year as a gift to his mother too, before being executed with his entire family in 1918.
The egg’s path through the decades
Purchased in the twenties yes one London art dealer per 450 poundswhen the communist authorities short of money they decided to sell some treasuresthe egg changed hands several times. For two decades it was believed that it was disappeareduntil it was put intothat’s what Christie’s gave in 1994 for approx 5.6 million dollars. In the 2002 changed hands again for 9.6 million dollars.
A new record on the horizon
It is expected that theWinter Egg will surpass the record of 18.5 million dollars (16 million euros) always paid by Christie’s nel 2007 for a Fabergé egg created for famiglia Rothschild.