Famous Russian jeweler Karl Faberge: biography, creativity, memory. Faberge eggs. Secrets of history
Russian empire
Charlotte Jungstedt
Eugene, Agathon, Alexander, Nikolay
Peter Karl Gustavovich Faberge(May 18, St. Petersburg - September 24, Lausanne) - the most famous jeweler. Founder of a family firm and a dynasty of jewelery masters. He is the creator of Faberge eggs, which are highly valued by collectors around the world.
Biography
Peter Carl Faberge was born in Russia in St. Petersburg on May 30, 1846. His father, Gustav Faberge, came from a German family and was originally from Estonia, and his mother, Charlotte Jungstedt, was the daughter of a Danish artist. In 1842, Faberge Sr. founded a jewelry company in St. Petersburg.
Peter Faberge traveled to Europe and initially studied in Dresden, and then began to master the jewelry business under the Frankfurt master Josef Friedmann. At the age of 24, in 1870, he took over his father's firm.
In 1882, at the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Moscow, the products of his company attracted the attention of Emperor Alexander III. Peter Karl received the patronage of the royal family and the title of “jeweler of His Imperial Majesty and jeweler of the Imperial Hermitage”.
The Faberge firm was famous in Europe. Many relatives of the imperial family in Great Britain, Denmark, Greece and Bulgaria received items as gifts. In 1900 in Paris, Faberge received the title of "Master of the Paris Guild of Jewelers", and he was also awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.
In the years 1899-1900. in the center of St. Petersburg, the main building of the Faberge firm is being erected by the architect Karl Schmidt, the jeweler's cousin. The first floors house a shop and workshops. The rest of the building was occupied by the living rooms of the Faberge family.
A family
Faberge, Evgeny Karlovich(05/29/1874 - 1960) - The eldest son of Karl Gustavovich Faberge, a talented jewelry artist and portrait painter, studied in Petrishul from 1887 to 1892 and at the jewelry department of the University of Hanau in Germany, as well as with S. Seidenberg and J. Ollill in Helsinki. In 1897 he worked as an expert at an exhibition in Stockholm. In 1900, for an exhibition in Paris, he was awarded the officer's badge of the Academy of Arts and the Bulgarian Order of St. Alexander. From 1894 he worked at his father's firm, from 1898 to 1918, together with his father and brother Agafon Karlovich, the actual head of the firm in St. Petersburg. In 1923 he emigrated to Paris, where he founded the firm "Faberge and Co" with his brother.
Tomb of Agathon Faberge at the Orthodox cemetery in Helsinki
Faberge, Agafon Karlovich(01.24.1876 - 1951) - The son of Karl Gustavovich Faberge, he studied in Petrishul from 1887 to 1892 and at the commercial department of the Wiedemann gymnasium. In May 1895, he joined his father's business, since 1898, an expert in the Diamond Room of the Winter Palace, an appraiser of the Loan Office, an appraiser of His Imperial Majesty by his father's power of attorney. In 1900-1910s, together with his father and brother Evgeny Karlovich, he managed the firm's affairs. At the end of the 1900 exhibition in Paris, he was awarded a gold medal. He was unfairly accused by his father of stealing money, after which their relationship ended, and he did not leave Russia with his family (only many years later, a family friend himself confessed to theft). Since 1922 he was appointed an authorized Gokhran and appraiser. In 1927, together with his wife Maria Borzova, he crossed the border with Finland on the ice of the Gulf of Finland, having previously ferried through acquaintances and friends money and jewelry, which did not last long, and much was stolen. He ended up in extreme poverty. He settled in a bought and rebuilt four-storey house in Helsinki. He lived off the sale of part of his richest collection of stamps.
Faberge, Alexander Karlovich(12/17/1877 - 1952) - The son of Karl Gustavovich Faberge, he studied in Petrishul from 1887 to 1895 and at the school of Baron Stieglitz, then at Casho in Geneva. The head and artist of the Moscow branch of the firm, in 1919 he was appointed an expert of the People's Commissariat for Education. He emigrated to Paris, where he worked at the firm "Faberge and Co".
Faberge, Nikolay Karlovich(05/09/1884 - 1939) - Son of Karl Gustavovich Faberge. A graduate of Petrishule, he studied from 1894 to 1902. Jewelry designer, studied under the American painter Sarzhant in England. From 1906 he lived in England, worked in the London branch of the Faberge firm.
Faberge works
Carl Faberge and his firm's jewelers created the first egg in the city of It was ordered by Tsar Alexander III as an Easter surprise for his wife Maria Feodorovna. So called "Chicken" The outside of the egg is covered with a white enamel that imitates the shell, and inside, in the “yolk” of matte gold, is a chicken made of colored gold. Inside the chicken, in turn, is hidden a small ruby crown (cf. the tradition of folding nesting dolls) - later lost.
Faberge egg
The idea for such a piece of jewelry was not original:
The Faberge Easter egg was supposed to be a free interpretation of an egg made at the beginning of the 18th century, 3 of which are still known today. They are: in the castle Rosenborg(Copenhagen); in the Museum of Art History (Vienna) and in a private collection (previously - in the art gallery "Green Arches", Dresden). In all the aforementioned specimens of eggs, a chicken is hidden, opening which, you can find a crown, and in it - a ring. It is believed that the emperor wanted to please his spouse with a surprise that would remind her of a well-known product from the Danish royal treasury.
The Empress was so fascinated by the gift that Faberge, who had turned into a court jeweler, was ordered to make an egg every year; the product had to be unique and contain some kind of surprise, that was the only condition. The next emperor, Nicholas II, kept this tradition, giving each spring, in turn, two eggs - one to Maria Feodorovna, his widowed mother, and the second to Alexandra Feodorovna, the new empress.
It took almost a year to make each egg. As soon as the sketch was approved, a whole team of the firm's jewelers took over the work, the names of some of which have survived (so one should not say that the author of all of them is Carl Faberge). The contribution of the master Mikhail Perkhin is especially great. Also mentioned August Holstrom, Henryk Wigstrom, Eric Collin, etc
Today we can name two jewelry brands that are well known in the West and at the same time, in one way or another connected with Russia. The first is the term "Russian Cut" in relation to the cut quality of a diamond. It is possible to call it a full-fledged world brand with a certain stretch, because it is not "promoted" so much that almost any consumer, if the means allowed, would like to have a stone cut in Russia. A similar product from other countries with a highly developed cutting industry, for example, from Holland and Israel, successfully competes with Russian-cut diamonds.
The second famous brand with Russian roots is the word "Faberge". Without a doubt, any more or less educated person on the planet knows him. Primarily due to the booming sales of historic Easter eggs at auctions. But the paradox is that even after such a stir in the media, not every consumer unambiguously associates the word "Faberge" with a jewelry theme in his head. This is especially true in America, due to the fact that in the 30s of the XX century the Faberge trademark was registered there, producing perfume. The second circumstance that must be taken into account when considering the name of Faberge as a visiting card of jewelry Russia is that today this trademark does not belong to Russian jewelers and the property rights to it are decided in courts. The third circumstance is the fact that Karl Faberge was both by birth and by education a European of Franco-Danish-Estonian-German blood. He even led the German community in St. Petersburg, which speaks volumes without further comment. However, it was this person who, having worked in Russia all his life, laid the foundation for the Russian jewelry school, which is based on an extremely important principle: any, even the most inexpensive, product must be made ideally with great taste and artistic imagination. After all, the Faberge firm produced a huge range of products intended not for the elite, but for ordinary people. And the attitude to the quality of the soldier's cigarette case was the same as when making gifts for the royal relatives.
Jewelry in the Traditions of Carl Faberge in the USA and Canada
This approach continues today with the release of jewelry at modern jewelry factories. 
Russia, whose products are traded by our company in the USA and Canada. You can be sure that the classic $ 30 silver earrings and the ultra-modern $ 3,000 necklace are made in Kostroma, Moscow or St. Petersburg with the same love and diligence. This order, which has not changed in a hundred years, connects the masters of the firm of Karl Gustavovich Faberge and modern Russian jewelers, turning his name into a national jewelry symbol already in the 21st century. It is no coincidence that we decided to start our digest of little-known facts related to the life of the Great Jeweler with his words on this topic.
What is the Real Value of a Jewelry?
Faberge in 1914, with justified superiority, told newspaper reporters: “If you compare firms such as Tiffany, Boucheron, Cartier with my business, they probably have more jewelry than I do. you can find a ready-made necklace in 1.5 million rubles (about 65 million dollars in today's prices). But these are merchants, not jewelers-artists. I am not interested in an expensive thing if its price is only in the fact that a lot of diamonds or pearls are planted ".
International Business Faberge
Faberge's London store served not only an English clientele, but also served as a center for trade with France, America and the Far East. Representatives of the London branch of the company made trips there, bringing goods to these countries and taking orders from there, which were transferred to St. Petersburg. For example, the Siamese (Thai) royal family was the most significant customer in the Far East. Perhaps because Prince Chakrabon lived in St. Petersburg for a long time, graduated from the page corps and married a Russian.
Why Faberge Store Closed in London
The British government, under pressure from local jewelers, who were concerned about the presence of Faberge in the British market, introduced an amendment to the assay regulations. The amendment required the Russians to first bring a semi-finished product made of precious metals to London for branding, then take it back to St. Petersburg for finishing work, and then take the finished product back to London again. This circumstance, as well as the outbreak of the First World War, which reduced consumer activity and greatly hampered the delivery of goods from Russia to England, forced the Fabergé trading house to close a store in London in 1915.
How Faberge Created Easter Eggs
Carl Faberge and his brother Agathon Faberge discussed the project of the next Easter egg in the year of the birth of the heir to the throne. Agathon proposed to play up the fact that the heir had already been appointed chief of the rifle units in the composition. "Yes," Karl agreed, "I'll just have to portray dirty diapers, since these are the only results of his shooting so far."
"Our Father and So Beyond"
Karl Gustavovich's haste sometimes had curious consequences. Behind one small icon it was required to engrave the prayer "Our Father". Having drawn the font of the first words, he wrote: "and so on." And the working engraver, instead of the full text of the prayer, engraved according to the drawing: "Our Father and so on." "After all," remarked Faberge, our priests did not think of this before such a simple reduction in the service time. "
Elbow Feel at Faberge Firm
When Faberge himself took any order, he was often distracted and it happened that he soon forgot its details. Then he turned to all the employees, looking for the one who was closer to him at the time when he spoke with the customer, and wondered how he (his employee) stood nearby and did not remember anything. Therefore, among the employees of the Fabergé firm, it has become a custom to say that it is not the one who accepts the order that answers, but the one who is standing next to him.
Faberge's exactingness: "You don't scold yourself, nobody scolds"
If the original drawing was not at hand, then in a huge amount 
of the manufactured products it was difficult to recognize by the appearance of the object, which of the fashion designers conceived the project. When Faberge came across an unsuccessful thing, he made fun of the unknown author. However, there were cases when the author turned out to be none other than himself. Then, looking at his own sketch, which his assistants brought him as evidence, he smiled guiltily and said: - "That's what it means there is no one to scold, so he scolded himself."
Paradoxes of Big Business
Once a sugar refinery from Ukraine with a fortune of 21 million gold rubles (about 1.1 billion dollars in terms of current prices) by the name of Koenig complained to Faberge, bargaining for a necklace: - "Every year, the losses." "Yes, yes," replied Faberge, "every year we have losses, but it's strange how we get richer from these losses."
Carl Faberge Jewelry School
One of the members of the imperial house was very interested in the jewelry craft and wanted to personally learn it. To this end, he turned to Faberge to make him a register of all the necessary tools and equipment for the workshop. The old master who was entrusted with this task was a great original. He included "a flat belt of sufficient thickness" in the list of tools between hammers, mints, graders. When the customer asked what the belt could be used for in jewelry work, the old man replied: "Your Highness, this is the first and most necessary tool, without which no student has yet learned the art of jewelry."
The princess is the "protector"
Among the persons of the imperial family, the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna was especially patronized by foreign jewelers. They enjoyed this all-powerful protection and, bypassing all customs and assay fees, traded their goods throughout the country. It would seem, what is not the present-day Russia? However, there are still differences, because tricks with illegal "protection" at the highest level were discovered and proven by Faberge and some other St. Petersburg jewelers. They secured the suspension of trade in these essentially contraband jewelry and the payment of legal duties on them. And I must say that they did not go to jail for this, were not killed in the gateway, and their firms were not ruined by the sovereign family. Rather, the opposite is true. Is it possible to imagine such an outcome if someone dared to spoil the business of a close relative, for example, some Putin or Nazarbayev? 
Continued on the next page: Nothing human was alien to him ... or adultery of a great jeweler.
Nothing Human was Alien to Him ... or Adultery of the Great Faberge
Karl Gustavovich Faberge, 56 years old, the owner of a famous Russian jewelry company named after him, while in Paris in 1902, fell in love with Ioanna Amalia Kriebel, a café singer, who was born 21 years ago in the Czech Republic. He divorces his wife Augusta Bogdanovna, a beautiful woman who gave him 4 children, he wisely did not want to, but he did not refuse Amalia either. Our hero found the next "jewelry" way out. Every year, for about 3 months, he traveled to Europe on commercial business, and Mademauselle Krieber brightened up the loneliness of the traveling salesman on these trips. The remaining 9 months she led a free life. Sometimes, however, she visited St. Petersburg, and, not being embarrassed by mutual acquaintances, showed everyone the Faberge jewelry from the stages of the entertainment establishments of the Russian capital. Everything would be fine, but the established order of relations, which suited him, did not suit her, which, as it became clear later, needed a marriage with a subject of the Russian Empire, to which the family man Karl Gustavovich was not inclined in any way. Therefore, in 1912, she suddenly married an illiterate 75-year-old Georgian prince Karaman Tsitsianov from the village of Satsibeli, whom she left without tears the day after the wedding and never returned to him again. An important result of this fleeting operation was the replacement of the German surname with, let's say, more familiar to Russia, the princely title and, of course, Russian citizenship.
At this point, it is necessary to pause the story and note that the Germans and Austrians, even before the outbreak of hostilities, began to recruit female actresses of an adventurous warehouse and good external data, so as not to rush, in case of a future war, to legalize them in various ways in Russia and in other countries. opponents as agents ...
The war in 1914 found Madame Tsitsianova in Germany. She began to ask her famous lover, with whom she did not interrupt the connection, to help arrange her in Russia. I must say that it was a difficult task. Because in connection with the war, persecution of people with German surnames began. Faberge himself teetered on the brink of expulsion, which is why he even partially re-registered the company's shares to trusted workers with Russian names. In such a situation, asking for a former citizen of Austria was risky. But Karl, like a real knight, did not flinch and, using connections at the Court, helped his passion move to St. Petersburg, where she settled in the "European" hotel, where representatives of the Russian military command, as well as senior officers of the military missions. From the certificate filed by the police with her case, it is clear that she paid 18 rubles a day for the room (about $ 800 in today's prices). Here's what else you can read in the report of the security department dated March 24, 1916: - "In the" European "hotel since April 1915, a certain princess Ioanna-Amalia Tsitsianova (born Kribel) lives, she is Nina Barkis, 32 years old, Roman- of the Catholic faith, drawing attention to itself by its wide life and trips to Finland.It was gathered by secret information about Tsitsianova that she was a former Austrian citizen ... She speaks good English, French, German and Russian (with a Polish accent) a cunning and cautious woman ... At the present time, she allegedly cohabits with the famous manufacturer-jeweler Faberge and, despite this, has constant meetings with other persons, moreover, these meetings are designated by her special conspiracy. The director of the "European" hotel Wolflisberg tries for some reason to hide inner life and relations of Tsitsianova, which gives reason to conclude that the administration of the "European" hotel, referring to sympathy especially to persons of German origin, assists Tsitsianova, apparently engaged in espionage ... "
Here I would like to show what this mysterious woman looked like. However, we could not find photos of Amalia. It looks like it's true that the ladies were trained by good professionals. But we managed to find her verbal portrait from 1915, compiled by outdoor surveillance fillers. They had it under the nickname "Georgian". 
On April 26, 1916, Amalia was arrested. During interrogations, she, as expected, denied everything, and at that time her lover (who was then already 70 years old) began to bother for her, since he had connections at the very top of the Russian state. (Looking ahead, let's say that they did not help, and Amalia went into exile in Siberia). This is how the report of the head of the counterintelligence department looked to his high superiors on this topic: “It doesn’t hurt to note that Faberge himself, who during interrogation vouched for Tsitsianova’s reliability, is far from being a person whose statements the military authorities could take with due confidence .. . the fact of Tsitsianova's cohabitation with Faberge, in any case, does not speak in favor of her reliability, and any of his statements about Tsitsianova cannot be taken into account. " Point. Even direct exits to the king and queen did not help. After Tsitsianova was exiled to Siberia, the couple broke up forever. She returned to Austria a few years later, and he, completely robbed by the Chekists and some employees of the Swiss embassy in Petrograd, a beggar (having lost about $ 500 million in today's prices overnight, not counting the value of all the real estate he owned), left Russia with great difficulty. and through Latvia and Germany, broken morally, he got to Switzerland, where he died in September 1920 in the circle of his wife and son Eugene, who was not prudently abandoned by him.
The last photo of Carl Faberge. July 1920, Lausanne, Switzerland. From left to right: wife of August Bogdanovna, son Eugene Karlovich and Karl Gustavovich himself. 
(Huguenots) who left Picardy (France) in the 17th century. First, they moved to Germany, and then settled in the Baltic province of Russia - the Livonian province (now the territory is divided between Latvia and Estonia).
Carl Faberge's father, Gustav Faberge, was born in the city of Pärnu (Estonia). His mother, Charlotte Jungstedt, was the daughter of a Danish artist. Faberge Sr. in 1841 received the title of "jewelry master" and in 1842 opened a small jewelry company under his own name in St. Petersburg on Bolshaya Morskaya Street.
Carl Faberge showed early artistic talent and interest in jewelry. The father was able to give his son an excellent education: he studied at the German private school of St. Anne in St. Petersburg, then attended the Dresden Handelschule, studying commerce. After that he traveled to Europe, studied jewelry art, improved his jewelry skills with the German jeweler Joseph Friedman, the owner of a firm in Frankfurt am Main.
Having enriched himself with the culture of Western European countries and the technical knowledge of jewelry production, as well as having studied the management of the enterprise, Carl Faberge returned to Russia at the end of 1864 and began to work in his father's workshop.
In addition, he was engaged in research and restoration work, studying and restoring works for the departments of antiquities and treasures of the Hermitage, and he did this for fifteen years completely free of charge.
In 1872, Carl Faberge became the head of the firm; the father officially transferred his powers to him.
At first, the change of owner did not affect the assortment of the Faberge workshop in any way; it continued to produce a standard set of all kinds of women's jewelry, made in the then popular French style. Gradually, transformations began, and the company began to stand out from its competitors. With the expansion of production and the growth of orders, independent workshops for gold, enamel, silver products, a stone-cutting workshop and a workshop for the manufacture of signs, tokens and orders were allocated.
Thanks to the fine artistic taste and commercial vein of Carl Faberge, a small jewelry workshop turned into the largest enterprise in the Russian Empire with a large staff of craftsmen and artists (more than five hundred people), with modern technical equipment and one of the largest in the world. The firm had branches in Moscow, Odessa, Kiev and London.
The first success came to Karl Faberge in 1882 at the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Moscow, where he presented copies of the Scythian treasures found in the Crimea, stored in the Hermitage, as well as samples of modern jewelry art in the form of elegant ladies' adornments, brought him a gold medal.
Since 1883, Carl Faberge began to receive orders from the Russian imperial court.
In 1885, he received the right to be called the Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty with the right to use the image of the state emblem on the signboard.
In 1890, Carl Faberge was awarded the title of Appraiser of the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty, which gave the right to unhindered entry into the palaces. He was invited to accurately determine the worth, quality and value of stones, and he never refused to be an appraiser for purchases.
The Fabergé firm produced traditional jewelry, cutlery, all kinds of precious trinkets and "useful items" like cigarette cases, jewelry boxes, key rings, photo frames, bells, handles for walking sticks and umbrellas, bonbonnieres, perfume bottles, watches, writing instruments, etc. The firm's craftsmen also made miniature figurines of animals, figurines of people, and flower arrangements. Precious and ornamental stones, gold and silver were used as materials, multi-colored enamel coatings, miniature painting on bone, witty mechanical "secrets" were widely used.
Faberge Easter eggs-souvenirs stood out with special luxury and decorative sophistication. They have become a symbol and feature of the company. In 1885, Alexander III presented such an egg to his wife Maria Feodorovna for the first time, and from that time on, giving Easter eggs to Faberge became a tradition in the Russian imperial house.
Until 1917, the company's craftsmen created over 250 thousand pieces of jewelry, distinguished by their skillful performance and high artistic level. Designed in a variety of artistic styles, richly decorated with precious stones, metals, enamels, they were often purchased by members of the imperial family and were used as diplomatic gifts.
International recognition for Carl Faberge came in 1885, when the company took part in the international exhibition in Nuremberg, where copies of Scythian treasures made in his company were awarded a gold medal. At the Northern Exhibition in Copenhagen in 1888, Faberge was also awarded a gold medal and an honorary diploma for the presentation of out-of-competition products.
According to the results of the Northern Art and Industrial Exhibition in 1897 in Stockholm (Sweden), he received the title of Supplier to His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway, as well as to the imperial and royal houses of Europe, Asia and Africa.
At the 1900 World's Fair in Paris (France), he received the title of "Master of the Paris Guild of Jewelers".
Carl Faberge was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd (1896) and 3rd degrees (1889), St. Anna 2nd degree (1892), a gold medal on the Stanislavskaya ribbon (for an exhibition in 1882 in Moscow), the Bulgarian Order for Civil Merit (1902) and the French Order of the Legion of Honor (1900).
In 1890 he was granted honorary citizenship, and in 1910 he was awarded the title of Manufactures Counselor.
Married to Augusta Julia Jacobs - the daughter of a master of the Court Furniture Workshops - he had four sons: Eugene (1874-1960), Agathon (1876-1951), Alexander (1877-1952) and Nikolai (1884-1939), who also worked in a family company.
The dramatic events of the 1917 revolution forced the Faberge firm to close in 1918. Peter Karl Faberge himself went to Riga, and from there to Germany, where he fell ill. In June 1920, his wife and eldest son transported him to Lausanne (Switzerland). On September 24, 1920, Peter Carl Faberge passed away. Later, his ashes were transported to France and buried in Cannes.
After the death of Peter Carl Faberge, his sons Alexander and Eugene opened a small business in Paris, which traded in the company's old products, and also engaged in the manufacture and design of new ones. It closed in 1960, when the last of the family members who worked there, Eugene Faberge, died.
Many Faberge products from museums and nationalized collections were sold abroad by the decision of the Soviet government in the 1920s and 1930s.
Scientific interest in Faberge products was renewed in Russia in the late 1980s; in 1989 the first exhibition in the USSR "Great Faberge" was held in the Elagin Palace.
The works of the Faberge firm are still famous all over the world. Many of them are kept in the largest museums in the world; The State Museum of the Moscow Kremlin has one of the most interesting collections.
In 2013, a non-state Faberge Museum was opened in St. Petersburg, which included a collection of Faberge works collected by the American tycoon Malcolm Forbes and acquired by Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg in 2004.
In 1996, a monument to Karl Faberge was unveiled in St. Petersburg, in 1998 the square on which it was installed was named "Karl Faberge Square".
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Emperor Alexander III was very fond of his wife, and she loved luxurious things, especially jewelry. The king pampered her and often gave exquisite gifts. Once the famous jeweler Carl Faberge was summoned to the palace and received an urgent order. By Easter, he had to "create a miracle" - to make an egg of extraordinary beauty.
The jeweler did his best. I made the shell of white enamel, worked everything inside with yellow gold, and put a chicken in this "yolk". It was made of colored gold. Not only the egg and yolk itself opened, but also the chicken. It contained a crown, skillfully carved from ruby.
The imperial family was delighted, and Karl Faberge received not only a huge salary - the emperor did not stint and more than paid for the skillful work. The title given by grateful Alexander turned out to be more expensive than money. "Jeweler of His Imperial Majesty" and "Jeweler of the Imperial Hermitage" - this is how Faberge was called from now on.
The Faberge jewelry house was already well known by this time. Then there were awards and world recognition. “Master of the Parisian Guild of Jewelers” and “Order of the Legion of Honor” - Fabergé was proud of them most of all.
After making the first egg, the Empress instructed Charles to "create" the next miracle every Easter. There are 15 Easter eggs in total. A whole team of craftsmen prepared them according to the owner's sketches, so the term "Faberge eggs" is fundamentally incorrect. There is no evidence that, other than the first, they were his doing.
Such famous artisans as Mikhail Perkhin, August Holstrom, Henrik Wigstrom, Eric Colin worked in the jewelry house. Thanks to them, the ladies' jewelry was famous throughout Europe.
And the workshop produced not only exclusive products for the imperial family and court ladies. There were no mass products, that is, stampings. Every item, even an ordinary "soldier's" cigarette case, was made to perfection.
Among the products of Faberge were such items that can be called a "joke of a genius". One of them is the famous still life. In 1905, Faberge exhibited The Gentlemen's Set. It is a gray stone on which lies scrambled eggs, casually thrown directly on the table. Next to her is an ordinary faceted glass with half-drunk vodka in it. In addition to scrambled eggs, there is also a sprat. A half-smoked cigarette is lying near her.
Seemingly ordinary picture. But it is made of precious materials. The white of the egg is a white stone and the yolk is amber. There is quartz and jasper, a glass and vodka in it are carved from rock crystal. All other items are silver.
The unusual still life amazed and shocked the audience. Maybe he was no exception, but such works have not survived.
Faberge's jewelers made pendants and bracelets, rings and necklaces, tiaras and figurines. All this was exquisite, beautiful and very expensive. Fabergés grew rich, their fame became truly worldwide.
Everything collapsed in 1917. The revolution swept away everything in its path without pity, Fabergés were no exception. The Bolsheviks could not miss such a tidbit as the richest jewelry house. Expropriation, ruin, arrest and flight from Russia. Then emigration and wanderings.
In 1920, Carl Faberge passed away. He was never able to recover from the shocks, he believed that Russia was gone and would never again become a great power.
Ruin did not oppress the great master. Money is a real deal. Very soon he and his sons opened branches in France and England and lived comfortably. The thought of the Motherland and the trampled monarchy killed me.
Carl Faberge had four sons, they continued their father's work, but did not achieve such fame as their father had in the world of jewelry.
The merit of the Faberge jewelers is that it was they who were honored to found that famous Russian jewelry school, the principles of which were the obligatory presence of taste and artistic imagination in any product. These principles are still the basis of work and a guide to action of the best masters.
It is difficult to find a jeweler better known than Carl Faberge. Easter eggs, created by him for the imperial family, are now valued at millions of dollars and are considered unsurpassed examples of jewelry craftsmanship. The jeweler himself lived a difficult life: he had both carefree years at the zenith of fame and hard days of emigration, oblivion and poverty. We publish the most interesting facts from the biography of Carl Faberge. 
Caucasian, Faberge egg, 1893 
Coronation, Faberge egg, 1893 1. The idea of creating Easter eggs came from the Emperor Alexander III century. 1885 year. It was then that the emperor ordered an outlandish thing to a jeweler for a bright holiday. Carl Faberge made the egg "Hen" covered with white enamel. Inside it, as you might guess, was a "yolk" of gold, which, in turn, contained a chicken with ruby eyes. 2. The first craft made a splash at the court, and since then Faberge has produced more and more curiosities every year. A total of 71 eggs were created (of which 52 for the emperor's family). The Faberge jewelry company began to work exclusively at the court, in addition to Easter souvenirs, Karl the master created caskets, jewelry and all kinds of accessories. 
Lilies of the valley, Faberge egg, 1898 
Moscow Kremlin, Faberge egg, 1906 
Gatchina Palace, Faberge egg, 1901 3. Faberge products were sold in the largest cities of Russia, it seemed that a carefree future awaited the outstanding jeweler. These illusions were dispelled in 1917 when the Bolsheviks came to power. At first, the revolution did not concern Charles, although treasures in the amount of 7.5 million gold rubles were kept in his house. For safety, the jewelry was kept in an armored elevator-safe, which was connected to electrical voltage. 
Renaissance, Faberge egg, 1894 
Fifteenth anniversary of the reign, Faberge egg, 1911 4. In addition to his own jewelry, jewelry of foreigners that could not be taken out of Russia was kept in the house of Carl Faberge. When it became obvious that the Bolsheviks would get to Faberge, the jeweler rented out his house for the residence of the Swiss mission (at that time there was a law on the protection of foreign property). He packed all the jewelry in 7 suitcases, and their complete inventory took 20 pages! The cache existed until May 1919, then the Bolsheviks, contrary to the law, searched the house. 
Order of Saint George, Faberge egg, 1916 
Memory of Azov, Faberge egg, 1891 
Egg with a rosebud, Faberge, 1895 5. There are several versions about the further fate of the treasure. According to one of them, all the jewelry was confiscated by the Bolsheviks and was later sold abroad, according to the other, several suitcases were taken in advance to the Norwegian embassy, but from there they were stolen along with archival data, according to the third version, Carl Faberge and his sons were able to hide part precious items in hiding places. 
Egg with a lattice and roses, Faberge, 1907 6. After the incident, Carl Faberge had to leave Russia, everything was taken away from him - his beloved business, and a million-dollar fortune, and his native land. Having moved to Switzerland, he eked out a miserable existence, yearning for his former life. Karl died in 1920, in the same year the jewelry he created has depreciated incredibly. 
Hen, Faberge egg, 1885 
Peacock, Faberge egg, 1908 7. After the October coup, the Bolsheviks, trying to replenish the treasury of "the world's first communist state", sold Russian art treasures. They plundered churches, sold canvases by old masters from the Hermitage Museum and took on crowns, diadems, necklaces and Faberge eggs that belonged to the Emperor's family. In 1925, the catalog of the values of the imperial court (crowns, wedding crowns, scepter, orb, diadems, necklaces and other jewelry, including the famous Faberge eggs) was sent to all foreign representatives in the USSR. Part of the Diamond Fund was sold to the English antiquarian Norman Weiss. In 1928, seven Fabergé eggs of little value and 45 other items were withdrawn from the Diamond Fund. However, it was thanks to this that the Faberge eggs were saved from being melted down. Thus, one of the most incredible creations, the Peacock egg, has been preserved. Inside the masterpiece of crystal and gold was an enameled peacock. Moreover, this bird was mechanical - when it was removed from the golden branch, the peacock raised its tail like a real bird and could even walk.