Hot History - The Fabergé Eggs: Part 1

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

Hello divas! This week we're diving into one of my biggest Roman Empires... the Fabergé Eggs!From a tiny jewellery workshop in St Petersburg to the glittering halls of the Romanovs, this episode follows Peter Carl Fabergé's rise to become Imperial Jeweller and the creator of the most famous Easter gifts in history. We’ll also chat Tsars, Tsarinas, impeccable craftsmanship and of course, the very first Imperial Egg.This is also the perfect little warm-up for our four-part Romanov series coming this September, which I cannot wait to share with you all.Also as promised, here’s the ⁠Substack⁠ of my experience seeing an actual, real life Fabergé Egg with my own eyes at Christie’s last year (an experience I genuinely don’t think I’ll ever get over!).Shout out to our incredible researcher Grace McCamish for helping to pull this together, and if you're wanting more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and of course, right here!Til next week, Ainslie x

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Ready to take your investing knowledge to pro-level, this is Fidelity Connects, your daily edge in the markets. Get deep insights on real-time market topics that may impact your investment portfolio. Listen to Fidelity Connects on Spotify today and power your next move tomorrow. Now, I want to start out today, guys, with a little story time before we get into the episode, because, as you would have seen by the title, right, we're talking about the Fabjeet eggs. And I actually have had the prestigious honour of seeing one of these bad boys for myself last year. And my God, guys, it was genuinely one of the most insane experiences of my life. So, giving you a bit of a recap, right before we get into it.

It was a very, very fortuitous set of circumstances. The stars aligned for me to be sent to London very, very last minute at the exact same time that the Imperial Winter Egg, which was crafted in 1913, by Zarnichols' second, well, not by him, but commissioned by him for his mother, was going up for auction. So I'm thrilled, right? And I'd actually been invited by Christie's on TikTok, which is hilarious, to visit the egg and some other Faberje pieces. So I show up. I, like, fly into London two days earlier from this other event.

I'm going to go and see this egg. I'm pretty nervous, you know? Like, I spent so many of my years kind of researching and ogling over these kind of things. Like, they're definitely a big Roman empire of mine. It kind of felt like going on a first date with someone and I had a crush on for ages, you know? Like I'd admire it and I was finally going to see it. Anyway, so I go in, right, get taken into this room full of other Faberjeet items. There's necklaces, there's necklaces, there's many eggs, there's stationary, like bell presses, you name it.

It's all in this cabinet. And then these ladies come out and they're like, hi, diva, like, what would you like to see? And I'm going, excuse me? And she's going, yeah, like, what would you like to see and try on and sample? And I'm like, everything, please. So I'm literally sitting there in this room in Christy's London with a ring light and my phone set up filming TikToks like lip syncing being like, what's better than one cover girl with like one Faberj necklace on? Two cover girls.

Next to, right, picture that, just me filming a TikTok next to this gorgeous Indian man with the biggest ruby pinky ring that I have ever seen. like a stone on his pinky on one side with his little like jewelry thing. He's like there, you know, for business. And then on the other side, this big burly Russian man who is just on the phone the whole time speaking Russian like whispering into it. And I'm in the middle with my TikToks being like, hey, lip syncing, la la la la. Insane. So then I get, they're like, oh, you know, Miss Harvey, would you like to come see the egg now?

I'm like, yes. So I get taken. and I have to go through two metal detectors into this little black room with Margot, this incredible, you know, Faberjé expert. She was the one who was managing the sale of this egg. And, yeah, I mean, this black room. And all of a sudden, this light comes on in a little box in the wall. And there in front of me is the Imperial Winter Egg.

Guys, it was insane. And I have written the whole experience in detail for you all on Substack. So if you would like to read about it, then you can definitely go and do that there. If not, let's roll the tune and start this week's episode, which, FYI, is going to be two parts, guys. I'm really feeding you and treating you for this final episode of July. Roll the whimsical medieval tune.

Hi guys, and welcome back to Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. I'm Ainsley Harvey, your hot historian here, ready to chat about some, of the most expensive Easter presents in human history and, guys, one of my personal Roman empires, the Faberich. So you guys have been asking me for more Romanoff content and I wanted to drop this episode in your feed as a little treat, right? A little, a little kind of sample to tie you over because come September, my divas, we are doing a massive four-part series on the last imperial

family of Russia covering their rise, the family. itself, their fall and the fallout after their deaths. But for now, we're not yet there. Let's rewind it all the way back to 1846 in Chile, St Petersburg, where one baby boy comes screaming into the world. Son, of a successful Baltic jeweller, Peter Karl Fabergeret was born on the 30th of May 1846 as one of four children. And while not, you know, Romanov Rich, the family did have a pretty comfortable middle class life in Russia with his father, Gustav, working in his own jewellery shop, which he'd opened four years earlier. Now, to be honest here, there is really very little to

note of, you know, Carl's childhood in these years other than the fact that they were, like I said, of relative comfort and that he spent time split between the family's home and his father's jewelry workshop, where he marvelled at shiny diamonds and molten gold, a real sense. of predestination in these scenes here, right? But things really began to change when Carl turns 14, because it was then that the family almost overnight upped and moved to Germany, leaving the family business to be managed by trusted workers back in Russia. And it was here that Carl's education really began.

So despite becoming this kind of key figure in Russian, you know, jewelry and heritage, he did a lot of his training outside of Russia. particularly in the city of Dresden, where he took courses at the city's University of Fine Arts, and in 1864, around 18 years old, he undertook what can only be compared to Blair and Serena's Parisian summer, right, which the Victorians called the Grand Tour. But instead of shopping or, you know, sleeping with artists and princes, Carl bounced from jewelers to goldsmiths all across Germany, Italy, France and the UK, spending what free time he had wandering around Europe's best galleries and museums until 1872,

when at age 26, Carl returned to Russia to marry his wife, Augusta Julia Jacobs, and, of course, to inherit his father's business. So a continental man who's learning lots of stuff kind of, like I said, outside of Russia. Now, many, many great creations came out of this 1872 year, right? a really important year here, with five sons between he and his wife and a decade of intense training under his father's most skilled jeweller, a man named His Gaius Pendon. And by 1882, now in his mid-30s, Carl was matured and skilled enough to take on sole responsibility for the running of his father's company as master Goldsmith, so he spends a lot of time kind of training

and raising his family before really taking it over. But he was not alone in this, guys, and people always forget this. He had a brother called Agathon, not to be confused with Aragorn, aka, like the constant vision of my tween years, if you know, you know. And he was actually a really major part of this success too, largely, because it was his idea to attend the all-Russian exhibition in Moscow. Now, this is basically a giant version of the Sydney Royal Easter show, right? Which displays all like the very finest of Russian craftsmanship and splendour and art. And Ah, and my, my, my, did these two make an absolute splash, guys. Winning, like in this same kind of, like, show, both the gold medal for the entire exhibition

and the medal of Stanislaw, which wasn't, you know, even the best part of this guys, because shiny medallions are one thing, right? A medal, yeah, we get it like it's nice. But there is one thing in the world, which is greater than all. the honour of Zarina Maria Fyodorovna, noticing you. Wife of Zara Alexander III, mother of Futur-Nicholns II. Her kind of coming up to you and going, that's hot, was basically the equivalent of Anna Wintour giving you like a subtle nod on the runway.

Right? It is life-changing, and Faberger's display at the 1882 exhibit caught more than her eye. It caught her purse strings too. You see, instead of displaying extravagant diamond jewelry like many of his competitors did, as was the trend in Russia at the time, the Faberges decided to showcase their exquisitely crafted reproductions of ancient Scythian jewelry alongside original works that they'd kind of developed after, you know, their training abroad. The craftsmanship in these was so precise and so detailed that many visitors struggled to distinguish the modern reproductions for genuine things.

like ancient artefacts. They're like, what's real, what's fake, right? Something which even stumped the Tsarina, who herself was a big kind of enthusiast and collector of these pieces. So she's struck by the detail and reportedly purchased a pair of cufflinks for her husband on this spot. Taking the small Russian firm from the streets of St Petersburg to the very heart of the Winter Palace, with the Tsar loving these cufflinks so much that he appointed Faberje as the supplier by special appointments. to the Imperial Court in 1885. Now streaming on Disney Plus, the Hulu original series Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black,

played by Emmy Rossum, on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur. New episodes week over week. Watch the Hulu original series Furious, now streaming only on Hulu. This was the highest honour, guys, but it also was kind of slightly politically motivated here by the Tsar, who, in making Faberier this kind of renowned jeweller, put him in direct competition with the Swedish House of Bollon, which was like all the rage amongst the various courts of Europe at the time, but not alone.

You see, Faberge's creations of enamel, diamond, gemstones, gold and silver alike was so unique that they caught the eyes. of both royalty and aristocracy the world over. Blending modern methods with ancient styles, Faberje treasures started popping up in the royal courts of the UK, in Norway, in Sweden, and even guys, interestingly here, in Thailand. But only the Russians got the truly special pieces, the ones which would embed the Faberje name as one of the finest in history. The eggs.

So what are they? How did they come about? and, you know, why would anyone need an egg that's not edible, right? Well, in 1885, so the same year that Fabergeté was made Imperial Jewelor, Zal Alexander III, wanted to surprise his wife, Zarina, Maria Fyodorovna, with an Easter present. But, you know, where most years he'd kind of done necklaces and diatoms and earrings and bracelets and like all the usual rich people accompaniments, this year,

he really wanted something different, right? something on theme and as such approached Faberjé with one simple task. Make me a jeweled egg. Now, this wasn't really too far afield here, you know, after all, Christians have chocolate eggs, the Greeks do boiled eggs, but the idea of a jeweled egg was something, you know, kind of else entirely. So Faberge goes away with this brief, right, and he sits on it, he's thinking, okay, how am I going to do this?

He starts looking at all different kinds of eggs, duck eggs, quail. eggs, ostrich eggs, is going to be big, is it going to be small, he's kind of going through these catalogs. And then he remembers something very, very important. Hang on, this has actually been done before. That's right. In fact, the jewelled egg dates back all the way to the French court around 1720 during the reign of Louis 15th. Made by an unknown French goldsmith, this egg wasn't created as an Easter gift, but rather as an object for the king's renowned cabinet of curiosity. So basically, you know, just like a fashionable aristocratic toy, which let's be so fucking real, guys, all the, like, all the eggs are like this, you know, it's not just this one French one.

Historians then believe this egg was given by Charlotte of Orleans to Queen Caroline of Great Britain, where it was then passed through inheritance before eventually entering the Danish royal family in the late 18th century, which, rather coincidentally, was the three. royal family that Maria Fyodor Rolfner was born into when she was known back then as Dagmar of Denmark. So this is kind of like a family thing, right? The Tsar wants to give her this, this jeweled egg, but he's also doing so, kind of being inspired that there's, there is a family connection here. So knowing this, Faberje goes, right, I'm going to ditch all the other egg designs.

And I am going to do an interpretation of this Dutch egg, which was very literal. Like when we say egg, you picture this kind of ivory out of shell. It's got this round gold yolk. There's a hen inside, along with a small crown and a ring. That's the Dutch version. But Fabasier's version, known as the hen egg of 1885, took this idea and put a real Russian twist on it, right? With a white enamel exterior, one of his signatures in this kind of gorgeous, shiny enamel. The same hen surprise, right?

So a little tiny hen, something which has really become. a fixture of all the future eggs is like a mini surprise. And instead of a ring, it was a mini imperial crown with a ruby. So same same as the Dutch, just Russian. With letters between the Tsar and his brother suggesting that it was actually Alexander's own idea to replace the ring with the mini imperial crown, which by all accounts he was very proud of. Which I love that for him. You know, it's like those memes that you see online where a guy goes shopping with his girlfriend or wife or whatever and suggests like an avocado or a paint color or something. And the wife's like, yeah, that's good. Here, Alexander's fist pumping himself, we love this for him, King.

Anyway, so Faberjé gets to work on this hen egg and presents it to the Tsar who in turn surprises Maria with the egg on Easter morning. Now, she doesn't actually detail her response to receiving this in her diary, which is pretty uncharacteristic. Maria was a like prolific writer, all of the Romanovs were, how we have a lot of the information we have about them. But by accounts of the servants who were present for this, she absolutely loved it, guys. After all, this was a perfect symbol, like we said, of both her homeland and her new land. This blending of Russian and Danish traditions, which was so eloquently made and treasured. And again, was just like really deeply personal for her.

So this is a big win for Alexander, a big win for Faberje. Again, he's being made imperial jeweler in this year. And it's this first hen egg that kicks off a tradition, which would see the Russian imperial family commission. The commission over 50 eggs from the famous house between 1885 and 1916. Also, just FYI, if you are listening on Spotify and you can watch this, definitely do so if you're driving. Obviously, do not my divas. But I will be including like all of the images of the eggs as we go throughout so you can kind of have reference to what it is that I'm explaining. But for my audio divas, for all my listeners, I am going to do my very, very best to explain them to you.

you know, in a way that makes sense, but if you are a visual learner, then I would say, switch over to the video feet, right? This sweet little hen, which is currently on display at the Faberjeet Museum in St. Petersburg, but the 50 that followed, or the 49 that followed, are anything but sweet. Okay, getting more and more extravagant as the years go on, which begs the question. What's next? Well, having been proven a very good gift giver, Alexander commissioned another Easter present the following year in 1886,

which was yet another version of the hen egg, this time with a sapphire pendant, which is, very sadly, now lost. So we don't know for sure what it looked like, but a description on the invoice tells us it was a, quote, hen of gold and brilliant diamonds picking a sapphire egg out of a wicker basket. So again, very sweet, very on theme for Easter, right? Which is the last kind of cutesy one. because in 1887 we get the third imperial egg.

Now, this thing was fucking wild for the time, guys. It basically features this gold fluted design on the whole shell. So the whole, like, egg itself is gold, with the surprise inside being a watch by Vashrin Constantine. Like, it really puts the head eggs to shame here. They're so cute. But in terms of execution and detail, plus, of course, the present.

Mw. Chef's kiss here for the third imperial egg. And this one has a bit of an interesting history as well because it went missing and was thought lost for many, many years until it was actually rediscovered in 2011 when an American scrap metal dealer found this Faberget egg in a pile of junk and purchased it to melt it down. But just before throwing it into the forge, he recognises this small little emblem and pulling out an old book on the Russian Revolution believed it was Faberje.

After verifying its identity, which was, in fact, the lost third imperial egg, he sold it to a London jeweller named Watsky for an estimated $33 million US dollars. Now, guys, I like to think, okay, that I'm a pretty good thrifter. I'm at flea markets. I'm on eBay. I'm on vinted. I'm digging through the op shop shelves. but to thrift a Faberget egg, that is some god-tier behaviour.

So what's next? Well, we have the 1888 cherub with chariot egg, which could be our chance for the Thrift Olympics because this baby is also missing, all right? So keep your eyes peeled. Now, we don't know much about it, only again what the invoice says, which is broken up into two line items, the first noting there is a cherub picking a chariot with egg, which was 1500 roubles and a cherub with a clock in a gold egg, 1,600 rubles. Again, very hard to imagine what that kind of looks like.

But this did go on display in 1902 at the von dervis exhibition, which resulted in this hilariously blurry photo, which shows us barely anything. And what we don't really have a clue where this is today, we do have a catalogue from Lord and Taylor, which is a jewelry brand from 1934, which describes something extremely similar here. It says, a miniature silver amore, cherub, holding wheelbarrow with Easter egg made by Faberjeet court jeweller.

So this very likely could have been the 1888 egg. We just have no idea where, you know, it's kind of gone. Next, we have yet another lost egg, which is the 1889 Necessa egg, which Faber researchers say was made of gold and completed in the Louis X style, with rockily relief decorations containing articles of a lady's toilet as the surprise. Now, again, we do know that this egg was held in Anshikov Palace in St. Petersburg in 1917 during the revolution, but we don't really have any idea what happened after this. You know, if it kind of went to the Kremlin Armory, if it was sold overseas. Again, you could, you know, be on for a good thrift day if you found this one.

So Alexander's next gift to his darling wife was then in 1890. And this one was even more personal than the hen egg because Faberjee made the support. prize a ten-panel screen of the various Danish palaces of Maria's childhood, painted in watercolours on Mother of Pearl. Now, this one is found by the way, guys, so we do have good photos of this. And according to the Met Museum, this egg has one of the most sophisticated palettes of all the imperial eggs, with the outer shell, so like the egg itself, being an opalescent pink enamel, which opens to reveal a ten-panel gold screen, which was wrapped in a crimson velvet pocket.

So this is like pure nostalgia for the Empress, right? Basically the equivalent of those digital photo frames for old people in retirement homes. You know, like, oh, that was our house there. And that was this place we stayed at on holiday. Like, I think this genuinely is one of the most romantic eggs in the collection between Maria and Alexander, at least. Because it was this like really sense of home for her. And it currently does live in the Met Museum in Gallery 545 for end.

anyone heading stateside soon. And again, I want to reiterate, if you get the chance to go and see these eggs, even if it's like a little way out of your journey, please go and do it. It gives you such an incredible insight into this world and this like kind of level of craftsmanship. So that brings us to 1891, which is when we find the memory of a Zov egg, which is the first surprise that's super, super sculpturally detailed here, holding a replica of the Imperial Russian and cruiser, Pamietozova, which two of Maria's son, so Nicholas and George, took on journey to the east between 1890 to 1891. So this kind of was made as a commemoration to that trip. As for the outer egg, it measures seven centimetres and is carved from a single piece of heliotroped

Jasper, making it the first egg to be made of semi-precious stone, which is adorned with a ruby and two brilliant diamonds, and this one is currently in the Kremlin Armoury Museum in Moscow. next is the 1892 diamond trellis egg which is very very much more kind of minimalistic than some of the others here but still super super elegant it has this as it kind of suggests this diagonal lattice of platinum bands set with diamonds the interior is then lined with white satin and is all set on a base of jade so kind of like a stand which is circular on the bottom and then it has three gold cherubs that kind of act you know as the arms if you're can imagine holding the egg up. So this base is now lost, but the egg, the surprise are fine.

The surprise of this egg, however, was a figurine of an elephant with a small gold turret and a key to wind a mechanism so that it could walk, which does make this at this point in time the most technological egg so far. As for the egg, it was sold a bunch of times after 1920 before finally being acquired by the McFerrin family and it is now in the McFeran Collection in the Houston Museum of Natural Science. while the elephant is currently housed in the Royal Collection in London as property of the Royal Family. After that, we have the 1893 Corkas Egg, which is another absolute banger here, guys, especially for the earlier eggs.

It has flaming red enamel and four oval doors bordered with pearls that bear a diamond set, which is one, nine, eight three, so to form the year. And then as you open each of these little doors, they reveal a different view of the Imperial Hunting Lodge in the Caucasus Mountains, which was painted by court miniaturist Constantine Kazitsky because, you know, guys, obviously, like, every household needs a live-in miniature painter, right? Like, what else are you doing if you don't have a live-in miniature painter? This one, as well, you can see at the Met Museum, so definitely go if you can. Next is 1894, which was a big year for the Romanovs, because Tsar Alexander III dies at the

age 49 from kidney failure, which meant that his 26-year-old son, Nicholas the second, became Zah. Now, obviously, you know, this is a huge moment in the history of Russia and for the future revolution, which would follow because Nicholas was absolutely nothing like his father. Again, we'll cover this in September when we do our big series, but to give you a bit of an idea here, where Alexander was quite bullish, right, and hard. Nicholas was softer, more in touch with the thoughts and opinions of those in his inner circle and really dedicated to preserving the legacy of his father, which meant carrying on with a lot of the traditional policies that Alexander had instituted, all of which, guys, meant that Russia

was not moving ahead with the modern times, and instead yearning for this kind of, you know, drive back to a time of even greater autocratic rule, which is what the Faberianian eggs have largely come to symbolise as the years have passed since this point. You know, these kind of frivolous, bedeweled symbols of an ancient raging. So what happens with Faberje then, with Zara Alexander III's passing? Well, Alexander actually didn't die until November, so he managed to get one more Easter egg in for Maria, which was the 1894 Renaissance egg, which Faberjé took an 18th century casket by the Dutch master LaRoy as inspiration for him.

This egg was made of this translucent milky agate resting on its side. So most of them are standing upright. This is on its side. On an oval gold base, which rather strangely, we don't know the surprise for this one. Yes, my devas, you see, this is one of like the real great mysteries of the Faberjé collection. For when the egg was inventoried after the revolution, there's no surprise inside. We also don't have like any real written records. And while most Faberjah scholars today believe the missing surprise was perhaps the resurrection egg,

a small rock crystal egg depicting the resurrected Christ emerging from the tomb, there's little proof of this. This is just kind of a guess, which makes this final gift from Alexander to Maria all the more mysterious, which you can see for yourself, if you dare, as part of the collection at the Faberjay Museum in St. Petersburg. So what now? Summer heats up. in FX's The Shards. Set in 80s, Los Angeles,

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Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.cair, every style, every home. Now, guys, again, right, with Alexander dead, will Nicholas carry on Faberjay's imperial patronage? Well, of course he will. As I said, guys, he's just a big copycat. Like, whatever his dad does, he just does, including the Easter presents.

And now he had not one to order but two. For in 1894, so the same year that Alexander III dies and Nichols II becomes Tsar, he also marries his wife. So Russia's getting a new Zarina, German princess Alexandra of Hess, who became known as Zarina Alexandra Fyodorovna. Now, we are not going to cover every one of the eggs because we would literally be here all day, which I would love to do, but we've got to move on with our lives here. But we are going to going to cover kind of the main ones. So again, there's two every year after this. So we're going to cover kind of the key ones. So what do the eggs of 1895 look like then? Well, for Alexandra,

her very first Babbage egg was the rosebud egg, which was covered with red enamel and decorated with wreaths of very coloured gold. Now, for listeners at home, imagine if you cut an egg into, you know, kind of four ways from the top down, so quarters from the top down, and along those cuts, They were all encrusted with diamonds, and that kind of gets you close to the outside of the rosebud shell, which was topped off with a miniature portrait of Nicholas II himself at the centre. As for the surprise, well, I'm sure you probably guessed it. It was a rose in bud, which was enameled in opaque yellow, while its stem was a light green. But this was a double surprise, because the yellow rose also opened to reveal an imperial crown made of diamonds and two rubies. which, you know, again, kind of bears this strong resemblance to Maria's first egg as Empress,

where she got the little, the little mini crown as well. And this one, again, can be seen at the Faberjian Museum in St. Petersburg. As for Maria, well, she got something a little different this year. So the first one from her son, you know, kind of in this new era of Romanov rule, she gets the blue serpent clock egg, which rested on a pedestal of opalescent white enamel, while the egg, which, as the name suggests, is a bright blue, which features a gold and diamond serpent kind of coiling around the pedestal, which connects to the egg.

So you have this block, then this kind of egg stand, and then the egg is kind of held in this. Now, this one doesn't have a surprise in the traditional sense, so the egg didn't open, but was rather, like the name suggests, fit out with a clock, right? So there's Roman numerals with gold handles on either side of the egg, something which came in handy for none other. Then the next owner of this egg, Princess Grace of Monaco. This egg was purchased by the Monagascar royal family after the revolution,

and Grace loved this so much that she reportedly kept it on her desk as one of her most prize possessions. Something which following her death, her husband refused to move or put on public display. It does, however, today remain as part of the family collection and is on display. I'm not sure what museum, though. Or if it's just kind of like in the palace. but yeah, this one was a Grace Kelly owned object, which is kind of a, you know, if you're Grace Kelly and you're going to be a part of a royal family, like, that's a pretty good perk. All right, so next we have the 1896 12 monograms egg, which was presented to Maria by Nicholas

as a memorial to the marriage and reign of his parents following Alexander's death. Framed and set in gold and rose-cut diamonds, the shell consists of six panels made from translucent blue enamel, which featured the imperial crown, and the join monogram of Alexander III and Maria, which are also in diamonds. As for the surprise inside this one, it features yet another folding screen, with six framed portraits of Alexander in different uniforms with ten sapphires, or real testament to their rule of Tsar and Zarin Zarina, which Maria kept at the Anichkov Palace and till her exile,

after which the egg and surprise was split up with her grandson, Prince Demetri. putting the surprise up for sale through Christie's London. Meanwhile, the egg was sold by the Soviet government in the 1930s to Hillwood Estate, the current house for the egg. That same year, Alexandra got the rock crystal egg, which is probably, I would say, the most unique of the bunch here, because it is totally see-through, literally like a piece of glass, like kind of like a snow globe in many ways.

But instead, this egg was made from white rock crystal, which displayed the inside surprise. Six small-framed screens of various palaces mounted on a gold-faceted column, which all revolved when the central column is turned by the giant emerald at the top of the egg. So basically, like, if you imagine a snow globe, but it had kind of like a music box

which you spun at the top and then the panels inside kind of moved around. Something you can see for yourself at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in the US of. A. All right, next up is a big one, guys. Okay, arguably the most famous of all the Faberjé eggs and Star of Oceans 12, the coronation egg gifted to Zarina Alexandra by her husband Nicholas I 2nd in 1897 to mark the coronation of Nicholas and Alexandra was made, making it the first egg dedicated to an important political event. The main shell of this egg is the unmistakable,

translucent yellow galosh enamel, which is designed to look kind of like little suns branching out, which Faberjé actually got the idea for when he saw Nicholas and Alexandra's gold brocade mantles that they wore during the right of holy coronation. So it turns out in Faberet's case, you know, inspiration lies anywhere, especially when you get a front row seat to big events like this. As for the other elements of the egg, it obviously needed to be deeply, deeply patriotic, right? Again, this has political significance. at this point. So the yellow enamel was paired with teeny tiny black enamel and diamond-encrusted Eagles, which was the Romanov crest, arranged in a lattice pattern and all topped off by a large

flat rose-cut diamond on the top. As for the surprise, well, it has a tiny, super, super-realistic copy of the carriage that pulled Alexandra into the capital of Moscow on May 9, 1896 for the coronation of itself, which was built in 1793 for Catherine the 2nd. So this surprise is both personal and historic. Now, it was created by George Stein, a young jewelry master who regularly visited the court stables in St Petersburg to ensure the miniature could be as accurate as possible here, which, by the way, was super common with Faberjay eggs. They weren't all made or designed by Peter Carl Faberjay, but rather a variety of different masters who we will talk about later, which really brought the full collection to life. Something which, when you look at the kind of different designs

and skills needed to build each of them, makes sense. But back to the coronation egg here. This mini kind of gold carriage inside, right, is not only fit out with red enamel and diamonds, but it is actually functional. Yeah, this tiny little mini carriage has wheels which turn and roll in accordance with all the rules of its real life version, including doors, which open via teeny tiny little gold handles and steps. So you open the door and little steps come out. So super intricate and detail-orientated here. And as I said, is largely the most famous thanks in part to its many owners, who included Malcolm Forbes, who purchased the eggs via Armand Hammer, grandfather of disgraced actor Army Hammer, who acted as a fence for the Bolsheviks after the

revolution, which I do just want to slightly deviate from the Faberjne eggs for a minute, guys, and talk about here, because this is a wild story, okay? So the Hammer family actually have deep roots in communism, with Armand's father Julius Hammer becoming a founder of the Communist Party in the USA, naming his son Armand after the party's emblem, the Arm and Hammer. Now, Armand was an American businessman and oil executive who made a fucking shit ton of money throughout his life, and as I said, thanks to the communist ties, was deeply linked with the Bolsheviks after the fall of the Romanoff family, becoming one of their most important Western buyers of imperial artefacts which he obtained while living and doing business in the USSR.

Now, we do know for certain that he purchased numerous Faberjé objects directly from the Soviet government as part of this arrangement, which he later sold off for mass profit, including around 10 imperial Faberjeet eggs, although the exact number is debated, because some did pass quickly through his hands into others, but 10 is kind of, you know, roughly agreed to as the number here. Now, given the communist ties alongside various other unsavory business dealings and the fact he was in no uncertain terms, guys, a predator to both women and beyond, Armand has a very, very complicated legacy. Okay, on one hand, some historians do. who argued that he actually saved many of the Faberjean masterpieces,

which the Soviets may have just broken down and sold the parts, or had remained locked up in the Kremlin vaults with little documentation until they could be sold off anonymously and kind of vanish, which is probably what happened to those first couple of eggs, right? But others argue he really did profit from the liquidation of Russia's cultural heritage, buying these extraordinary treasures at rock-bottom prices from a government desperate for foreign currency, who carried out tragic acts on their own peoples that he essentially helped fund, right, through these sales.

Plus, of course, his various dealings with Russian imports and exports, including but not limited to drugs. So a weird and wiry guy at the heart of many of these acquisitions, which will come up. But back to the Coronation Egg, which, as we said, was sold to Malcolm Forbes of Forbes magazine in 1979 for $2.16 million US dollars, which he really kept as the crown jewel in his expanding collection of Faberet eggs, which he displayed in his office. Today, however, it is more safely and carefully cared for by the Faber Shea Museum in St. Petersburg. So now let's look at 1898, where Maria got something a little smaller and certainly more unique in the Pelican egg. So the year before, the Dowager Empress oversaw the centenary of charitable institutions,

which the Pelican, which kind of rested on the top of this egg, represents in Russian, culture. But what did it look like? Well, it was made of white enamel with gold and diamond wings, which as I said was kind of mounted on top of this golden egg and stand. The engraving, which is very, very detailed for this egg, notes 1797 to 1897. So again, the centenary of the charitable institutions marked here. And he's paired with more engraving of a wreath and other kind of decorative laurels and vines and things, which, you know, make the gold egg look more fancy. As of the surprise, it was more oval miniatures of institutions in St. Petersburg and Moscow, which included various charities, colleges, hospitals, orphanages and societies that Maria Theatre-Rovna championed, which she did a lot of, guys. She was actually quite beloved. Now, this egg is rather peculiar, like it's different from the lot, for sure, but it did end up making its way across the Atlantic Ocean to the US to join Armandhammer's collection, and is now housed in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in the USA. Now, in that same year, so 1898, Nicholas gave Alexandra perhaps my second, maybe,

favourite egg out of the 50 here, the lilies of the valley egg. Now, my divas, if you haven't been blessed with seeing this egg before, then I may change your life today because it is nothing less than whimsy porn. Okay? Picture this, for those of you listening along. Look at the screen and feast your eyes for those of you watching, right? We have the shell of the egg, which is covered in a translucent pink galosh enamel,

decorated with vertical rose-cut diamonds and handmade, hand-sculpted, replica lilies of the valley. So the flower, right? Replica lilies of the valley, with the white petals being priceless pearls and diamonds. It's fucking gorgeous, okay? It then has various crisscross bands of rosecut diamonds, which, you know, is all topped

off by another kind of mini imperial crown and two rubies. Like, genuinely, guys, this is nothing short of a masterpiece here. It is so detailed and feminine and romantic and has this kind of gorgeous natural movement to it, which genuinely does look like flowers. It's just an incredible, objective piece of human invention, which was done in the art-nevo style, something which the Empress really loved. So knowing this, Faberier kind of, you know, channeled the colours and the flowers of her home in Lower Dhaka, in Peterhof, again, Germany, to really tap into that sense of nostalgia, which I do love here. Like, you know, despite the fact that these eggs are kind of pointless bourgeois absurdities, you know, there are often like, deep. very personal here for the various ladies' homes.

As for the surprise, it was three portraits of Nicholas II and two of their daughters, Olga and Tadiana, which popped out of the egg when a pearl button at the top was pushed, again with this sense of kind of modernity, meeting antiquity with all of these mechanical and moving parts, which really, I think anyway, sets Faberje apart, right? He's not just a visual genius, but he's an engineer too. lucky for us, this is still around today. Lucky for us, though, it's in the Fabrysame Museum in St Petersburg. Although I do like that, you know, there is so many of these kind of eggs that have been reunited as part of this collection.

They're kind of lost family members which have all been spread across continents and reunited and are now kind of inner space to be honored. So even though we're not going to St. Petersburg anytime soon, I do like the sentimentality of the fact that they're all kind of reunited again. or these nine anyway. Which brings us to 1900. Guys, the turn of the century. One, which would not prove fruitful for the Romanovs or really any of the Russian people. Not that any of them knew this at the time, though.

But by this point, we have to admit Russia and its empire were begrudgingly modernising. Embracing technology in different ways, 1900 marked yet another political achievement, the construction of the Grand Siberian Railroad well and truly underway. An effort which was really beloved by Alexander III, whose dream it was to link the European and Asian halves

of the Russian Empire by a single railway line, construction began in 1891, and while not finished until 1916, the turn of the century felt like the right time to celebrate this great modern marvel, which is why Nicholas gifted the trans-Siberian railway egg to Alexandra. Now, before we carry on with the egg,

I do just want to go, like, train nerd for a minute back onto this railway, which still to this day is the world's longest continuous railway line spanning about 9,289 kilometers through the Russian nation with the main tract connecting Moscow and Vladivostok, which Vladivostok is such a fucking cool word to say. Like, every time it comes up in this, I just want to like, it does something to my brain. Anyway, the main track, connecting Moscow and Vladivostok, spanning eight time zones and taking about seven days to travel in total again, right, with this goal of kind of expanding Russian influence to East Asia and capturing global trade from the British at this point. So it is no wonder it became the egg choice for 1900. So what does it look like then? Enough train talk back to the egg.

Well, the egg rests on a pedestal of white onyx and supports three golden griffins who again hold the egg up with their wings, so kind of like a stand. From there, the egg is made up of this green enamel, but the middle part, like this kind of middle band around it, is silver-plated metal, which was engraved with a map of Siberia, saying the Great Siberian Railway in the year 1900 topped with a crown. So very much a kind of testament, right, to the span of this kind of new marvel. As for the surprise, the interior lined with velvet, held a mini replica of a train, which had five rail cars and a locomotive. This thing, guys, could not only be set in motion using a golden key to wind it up, but was so detailed. It featured a ruby lantern, diamond headlamps. It had direct service to Siberia, ladies only, smoking. carriage, non-smoking carriage, first and second-class carriages, all detailed and engraved into it.

Right? Crazy. Like, to have these eggs and then these little mini surprises and for the surprises to be so detailed is wild. And this one is in the Kremlin Armoury Museum in Moscow, so the Bolsheviks held on to this one after the revolution. So what about Maria? What did she get in 1900?

Well, for this, she received the cockerel egg, which was yet another. clock design. This diva had so many of these fucking Faberjeet egg clock things over the time, like it's kind of wild. Anyway, the egg had a round clock face at the centre, which was covered in iridescent white galosh enamel, with diamond Arabic numerals and filigree gold arrows, while the actual shell itself was an incredible purple gloss enamel, all of which was supported yet again by a series of pillars and a base, which was done in the French 17th century style, which largely became the Russian 18th century style. So kind of very, very on brand. As for the surprise, as the name suggests, it was a small singing cockerel bird with natural

feathers that came out at the top of the clock, opened its beak, flapped its wings. So, you know, quite like a bit of fancy, fancy bit of tech impediting to this clock here, which also did have great symbolism with this little bird timed to follow the sun. And as Nicholas himself described it, sing the dawn of the coming century, which, it turns out, would be less of a song and more of a scream, something which none of the Romanov's truly saw coming at this point in history, especially as they approached 300 years of imperial rule, an ignorance, which seemed both ironic, but also, of course, devastating, which does bring us to the end of this first part of today's episode by Divas, like I said, there's simply so many eggs and so little time.

so I have to split the episodes into so we can give proper kind of credence to each of these marvellous creations and their varying fates. But because I love you all, right? I am nothing, if not a benevolent, hot historian. I'm not going to make you wait. So you can go ahead and watch or listen to the next part right now because I've just decided to give you double the wisdom instead today. So head over there for part two. Otherwise, it's been a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you. You can find us on Instagram and substack at Hot History Club and on TikTok and YouTube as hot dot history. Love you bye guys, although let's be real, not for long because I'll see you in a jiffy in part two. Make sure you go and watch it right now.