Karelian Birch (Fabergé egg)

History and description

Fabergé's eldest son, Eugène, told Henry Bainbridge (author of Peter Carl Fabergé. Goldsmith and Jeweller to the Russian Imperial Court, 1949) that as far as he could remember, the dowager empress’s 1917 Easter egg was to be of Karelian birch. This one-line reference was all that was known of it until Tatiana Fabergé uncovered new evidence in her family files. She found a letter from Franz Birbaum, Fabergé’s chief designer, to Eugène Fabergé in August 1922. It says:

Likewise, Birbaum says in his memoirs in 1919:

Surprise

Virtually nothing is known about the possible surprise. A wooden egg with surprise inside is described in an inventory made of treasures taken from the palace of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, brother to Tsar Alexander III, five days after the 1917 October Revolution. However, this is probably a different egg, since it appears to be finished and did not belong to the dowager empress:

Birbaum states in the abovementioned memoirs written in 1919 that the two Easter eggs for 1917 were both unfinished.

On the other hand, in August 1922 Birbaum mentions in a letter to Fabergé's eldest son, Eugène, what may well be the Karelian Birch Egg and its surprise:

A questioned authenticity egg

In November 2002, it was announced that the 1917 Karelian Birch Easter Egg by Fabergé had been purchased by the privately owned Russian National Museum in Moscow (a group of Russian collectors), which has no premises. Alexander Ivanov, the director of the Museum, declined to name the Egg's previous owner, who he said lived in London and descended from a family of Russian emigres, saying only that the Egg cost the museum "millions of dollars".

For several years now, this questioned Egg has been on display at Ivanov's so-called Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden, which houses his Fabergé/Fauxbergé collection. The complete purchase, consisted of the egg itself, the case, the wind-up key for the surprise (a mechanical miniature elephant), Fabergé's "original" invoice to Nicholas II, and a letter from Fabergé to Alexander Kerensky complaining about not being paid and asking that the egg be delivered. The surprise itself was not in the collector's possession.

In an article published in 2005 in The Art Newspaper, experts were not convinced about the authenticity of this and another "Imperial" Easter egg (Constellation Egg) owned by Ivanov.

Likewise, this egg was included in the catalogue (although not exhibited) of a controversial exhibition held in the Hermitage Museum titled "Fabergé: Jeweller to the Imperial Court" (25 November 2020 – 14 March 2021), along with five other eggs from Ivanov's museum in Baden-Baden, all of which were identified as Fauxbergé by experts.

References

Sources

References

1. "Fabergé Imperial Egg Chronology".
2. "Franz Birbaum’s memoirs, 1919, Part I".
3. Mieks. (2016-05-30). "1917 Birch Egg". Mieks Fabergé Eggs.
4. [https://www.ruzhnikov.com/forgeries-in-the-hermitage-the-wedding-anniversary-egg/ Ruzhnikov (2021), Forgeries in The Hermitage, 'Wedding Anniversary Egg']
5. [https://www.wintraecken.nl/mieks/faberge/diversen/ArtNewspaper2005.html John Varoli (2005), Have two new Imperial Fabergé Eggs surfaced in Russia? (Leading jewellery experts are not so convinced, but refuse to say so publicly]
6. [https://www.ruzhnikov.com/forgeries-in-the-hermitage-the-wedding-anniversary-egg/ Ruzhnikov (2021), Forgeries in The Hermitage, 'Wedding Anniversary Egg']
7. "Роковые яйца. История скандальной выставки Фаберже в Эрмитаже и тех, кто за ней стоит (Fatal Eggs. The Story of the Scandalous Fabergé Exhibition and Those behind it)".