This seized yacht could house a millionaire jewel 0:47
(CNN) --
For more than a century, the Fabergé name has conjured up wealth, opulence and the world's most extravagant Easter eggs.
The intricately decorated small objects of art, which the Russian Royal House of Romanov commissioned from jeweler and goldsmith Peter Carl Fabergé are, still today, some of the most exquisite decorative works ever created.
Imperial Eggs, as they came to be called, were first designed as holiday gifts in the mid-1880s. They were crafted from gold, diamonds, and semi-precious stones such as emeralds and pearls.
Each of the one-of-a-kind designs featured richly pigmented layers of glass enamel, gold leaf, and filigree.
Fabergé eggs ranged in size from 7.5 to 12.7 centimeters in height, and took between one and two years to complete.
They could often be opened to reveal a surprise: a miniature portrait, a clock, or a tiny automaton.
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"They were magical objects, which explains why we are still so fascinated with them now," says British jewelry specialist Geoffrey Munn in a telephone interview.
"People have always thirsted for things done right, and Fabergé eggs quench that thirst perfectly. They are visually brilliant."
But the enduring fascination with the House of Fabergé may also come from the historical environment in which it operated.
The business, which made its name and fortune as the official supplier of jewelery to the Russian royal family and other European courts, was dissolved when the 1917 revolution brought a violent end to more than 300 years of Romanov rule.
When the tsar's family fled St. Petersburg, the 50 imperial eggs made by Fabergé over three decades were left behind.
Some disappeared: today only 43 of the royal collection are believed to exist.
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"The Fabergé story is almost like a Hollywood movie," Munn said.
"You have a beautiful fallen dynasty, a lavish court life, a tumultuous fall, and these stunning, sentimental, and very rare objects that testify to it all. No other jeweler has been a part of so much intrigue, mystery, and lavishness."
The peacock Easter egg was created by watchmaker Semion Lvovich Dorofeyev, according to a new book about House Fabergé collaborators.
Credit: Fondation Édouard et Maurice Sandoz
Objects from the House of Fabergé fell out of fashion in the 1920s and 1930s, as more geometric and less ornate styles like Art Deco grew in popularity.
However, the eggs, and Fabergé's other artistic creations, returned to the consciousness of collectors and decorative arts enthusiasts when, in 1949, British author Henry Bainbridge published the first monograph on the jeweler, Munn explained.
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A rich network of artisans
Much has been written about Fabergé since the Bainbridge study.
One of the most recent books on the subject, "Faberge: His Masters and Artisans," takes an unconventional approach to the jewelery house's work by focusing on the collaborators Fabergé surrounded himself with, from designers to masters. goldsmiths who helped bring his visions to life.
"The House of Fabergé ran an impressive operation," the book's author and jewelry expert Ulla Tillander-Godenheim said in a telephone interview.
"The jeweler employed up to 500 diverse craftsmen in all aspects of the firm's creations. The business occupied a five-story building in St. Petersburg, (with) four branches in Russia and one in London."
The workshop of one of Fabergé's "master jewellers", the goldsmith August Hollming.
Credit: Alexander Fersman Mineralogical Museum
"The connections that Fabergé created with the artisans he worked with were critical to the success of the 'brand'."
The inspiration for the book, he said, came from his own past: Tillander-Godenhielm's great-grandfather was a goldsmith for the Russian imperial court and worked around the same time as Faberge.
But the author also looked for material in her native Finland.
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"A large number of craftsmen in pre-revolutionary Russia were Finns," he said.
"After the revolution, they returned to their homeland. I personally went to look for their families, and collected their anecdotes and memories of the years their deceased relatives spent working for Fabergé."
The result is a beautifully illustrated tome that tells the stories of the artisans through letters, photographs, and images of the items they produced for the House of Faberge.
Faberge's workshop also produced other decorative items, such as this miniature sedan chair.
Credit: Private Collection / Katja Hagelstamc
"Although they are the eggs most people associate Fabergé with, they are only half the story," Tillander-Godenhielm said.
"The 'master jewelers' of the house created everything from cigarette cases to table clocks".
Tillander-Godenhielm describes Fabergé as a businessman ahead of his time.
For starters, two of his main designers were women: Alina Holmstrom and Alma Phil.
Their so-called "fabergé master jewellers" personally recruited and trained their own teams of artisans, and were allowed to set their own production schedules.
Fabergé also granted them the right to mark items with their own initials.
"Fabergé ran his house with an early prototype of 'industrial democracy,' despite living under one of the world's most ironclad autocracies," says the author.
"He was aware of the richest circles in Russia, but he worked with mostly illiterate and humble people, often giving them free rein to art. His objects are all the more remarkable for this: they tell many different stories (and) are a lesson in microhistory ".
continuous fascination
Fabergé egg prices have risen over the decades, now fetching huge sums at auction.
In 2002, the "Winter Egg" was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for $9.6 million at Christie's in New York.
Five years later, a gold and enamel egg with a diamond rooster sold for a record price of 9 million pounds (then $18.5 million) at the same London auction house.
"The scarcity of the eggs has clearly driven their sales at auction, as well as fueling our interest over the decades," Munn said.
Eggs rarely come up for auction, and today most of them are found in museums and public institutions, from Moscow to Cleveland.
The largest collections are held by the Kremlin Armory and the Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, which house 10 each.
Fabergé's Coronation Egg displayed at Sotheby's New York auction house in 2004. Credit: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
The missing eggs remain a source of ongoing intrigue.
In 2015, a golden Fabergé egg resurfaced when it was reportedly found by a junk dealer in a market in the American Midwest.
Inside was an intricate gold watch.
After purchasing the item for $14,000, the man was initially told the gold was worth less than what he had paid for it.
It wasn't until he Googled the name on the back of the watch, Vacheron Constantin, that he discovered he was in possession of the Third Imperial Easter Egg, designed by the House of Faberge for Tsar Alexander III in 1887 and estimated to be worth at $33 million.
"Their artistry, the variety of shapes and materials, and the fact that everyone has a story to tell means that the appeal of Fabergé eggs isn't going to wane anytime soon," says Munn.
"They are eminently collectible because they are unique in the truest sense of the word. I've been studying them for four decades and I haven't gotten tired of them. I don't think that's possible."
"Fabergé: His Masters and Artisans", published by Unicorn, is available August 15, 2018.
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