Hen with Sapphire Pendant (Fabergé egg)

1886 Imperial Fabergé egg

Hen with Sapphire Pendant Fabergé egg
Year delivered	1886
Customer	Alexander III
Recipient	Maria Feodorovna
Current owner
Individual or institution	Lost
Year of acquisition	N/A
Design and materials
Workmaster	Unknown
Materials used	Gold, sapphire, diamonds
Height	82 millimetres (3.2 in)
Width	Unknown
Surprise	The egg's exact design is unknown, so it is not certain whether the pendant was the surprise or some other feature of the egg was

The Hen with Sapphire Pendant egg or Egg with Hen in Basket is an Imperial Fabergé egg, one in a series of fifty-two jeweled eggs made under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé for the Russian Imperial family. It was created in 1886 for Alexander III of Russia, who presented it to his wife, the Empress Maria Feodorovna. It is one of six imperial eggs that are currently lost.^[1]

Design

The exact design of this egg is not known as there are no known photographs or illustrations of the egg and written descriptions of the egg sometimes conflict with one another.^[2] The present is described as "a hen of gold and rose diamonds taking a sapphire egg out of a nest" in the imperial archive dated February 15, 1886 through April 24, 1886.^[2] The sapphire egg was loosely held in the hen's beak. The hen and the basket were both made of gold, studded with hundreds of rose-cut diamonds. The archive of the Russian Provisional Government describes the hen as being silver on a stand of gold, though this description is probably in error since the orders for the 1886 Tsar egg specifically stated the present was to be made of gold.^[2]

Surprise

The surprise was not documented and is unlikely to be discovered as the egg's current whereabouts are unknown.

History

The Sapphire Pendant Egg was sent to Tsar Alexander III on April 5, 1886 from Fabergé's workshop. The egg was presented by the Tsar to Tsarina Marie Fedorovna on April 13 of the same year. The egg was housed in the Anichkov Palace until the Revolution. The last documented location of the egg is from the archive of the provisional government's inventory in 1922 when the egg was held in the Armory Palace of the Kremlin. It is not known whether the egg was lost or is currently in private hands.^[2]

References

^ Get Download (January 2017). "(PDF) Fabergé: The Imperial "Empire" Egg of 1902. New York, 2017. | Dmitry Krivoshey, Valentin Skurlov, and Nicholas B.A. Nicholson". Academia.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-27. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lowes, Will; McCanless, Christel Ludewig (2001). Fabergé Eggs A Retrospective Encyclopedia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press Inc. p. 22. ISBN 0-8108-3946-6.

Sources

Faber, Toby (2008). Faberge's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6550-9.
Forbes, Christopher; Prinz von Hohenzollern, Johann Georg (1990). FABERGE; The Imperial Eggs. Prestel. ASIN B000YA9GOM.
Lowes, Will (2001). Fabergé Eggs: A Retrospective Encyclopedia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-3946-6.
Snowman, A Kenneth (1988). Carl Faberge: Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia. Gramercy. ISBN 0-517-40502-4.