FABERGE Russian Imperial Presentation Miniature Egg Pendants with Gold Cipher of Empress Maria Feodorovna
These miniature eggs are linked directly to the Tsarist family, making them very rare and highly important. Such eggs, decorated with the cipher of Empress Maria Feodorovna, were given personally by the Empress to female members of the Royal family and ladies-in-waiting at Easter time.
Very few have survived.
Both eggs came from the same family and said to belong to a lady-in-waiting of Empress Maria. made in St Petersburg between 1908 and 1917
A carved golden chalcedony miniature egg pendant
mounted with gold suspension rings and applied with the cipher of Empress Maria Feodorovna (mother of Nicholas II) – interlaced Cyrillic letters ‘ ? ? ‘ beneath Imperial crown.
height 19 mm (3/4 in.)
The egg is marked with workmaster’s initials ‘E.H.’ for Edward Helenius, and 56 zolotniks gold standard (14K-583). Edward Helenius, Faberge’s goldsmith, owned a workshop at 9 Demidov lane in St. Petersburg (recorded in 1910). The same address belonged to the workshop of Erik Kollin who died in 1901 (see A. Ivanov Gold And Silversmiths In Russia 1600-1926, Nr. 4531). It is not clear if Helenius took over the Kollin’s workshop after his death or just shared the same address. For some reason, objects by Helenius are extremely rare. Coincidently, an Imperial presentation brooch by Faberge with Edward Helenius mark is currently for sale at Wartski, London.
A carved rhodonite Faberge egg pendant with gold cipher of Empress Maria Feodorovna. In reality, the color of the rhodonite is more pinkish than pictured here. Siberian Rhodonite (Orletz) was one of the favorite stones of Carl Faberge. This particular egg has a solid pink color with no major inclusions. The egg is bigger than regular Faberge eggs – height 22 mm (7/8 in.) sold
A carved rhodonite Faberge egg pendant with gold cipher of Empress Maria Feodorovna.
Marked with 56 gold standard only. No workmaster’s initials.
Below are two Faberge hardstone eggs with gold cipher of Empress Maria which were sold from this site in the past. A hardstone egg with gold cipher, height 11/16 in. (17,5 mm), no marks.
Below are two Faberge hardstone eggs with gold cipher of Empress Maria which were sold from this site in the past.
Provenance:
Maria Vladimirovna Chatelain, Lady in Waiting of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (sister of Nicholas II and daughter of Empress Maria Feodorovna)
Ex-Christie’s sale, London, 30 November 2005, Lot 186.
A carved nephrite egg, height 3/4 in. (1,9 cm), workmaster Anders Nevalainen.
Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna
