The Faberge: Imperial Easter Eggs

On a frosty Easter morning in 1885, Tsar Alexander III presented his wife, the Empress Maria Fedorovna, with an exquisite gift of a golden Easter egg. The Tsar had called upon the extraordinary talents of the gifted jeweller, Carl Faberge, to design and create this first keepsake. It was the beginning of a collaboration that would result in a magnificent legacy for all the world to marvel at. Much has been written about the legendary Imperial Easter eggs, but the inability to access essential archival material meant that Faberge scholars were previously unable to authenticate their work. Letters written by the Tsars, Faberge's invoices, Cabinet documents and Bolshevik inventories had all been hidden away within Russia since the Revolution. It was not known exactly how many of the Imperial Easter eggs had been commissioned by Tsar Alexander III and his son, Nicholas II. Nor was it precisely known which Empress received which egg and in which year. This remarkable book...