1913 The Winter Egg

Maria Feodorovna

Purchase price: 24,600 rubles

The 1913 Imperial Easter Egg “Winter” for the Dowager Empress is one of several Faberge eggs lacking a commemorative aspect. At the same time, the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna was presented in that year with an Egg, commemorating the tercentenary of the Romanov rule. The Egg was designed by Alma Pihl, daughter of the jeweler Oskar Pihl, best known for her designs of a series of Faberge pieces featuring a snowflake motif, many of them commissioned by the famed businessman Emanuel Nobel.

From an entry in Faberge account book: “Egg made of rock crystal with snowflake designs in rose-cut diamonds set into the crystal; with a frame of brilliant diamonds, on a base of rock crystal resembling a block of ice with icicles of rose-cut diamonds. Inside the Egg is a platinum basket, covered with rose-cut diamonds, inside snowdrops of white quartz with nephrite leaves.”

In 1927 Antikvariat sold this Egg to the London dealer Emanuel Snowman. In 1948 it belonged to Sir Bernard Eckstein, and was sold in 1949 to Bryan Ledbrook. The Egg disappeared in 1975 after Ledbrook’s death. In 1994 it was discovered in a bank safe in London and sold at auction by Christie’s Geneva on November 16 of the same year. Eight years later, on April 19, 2002, the Egg was once again put up for auction by Christie’s in New York, where it was sold for a record 9.6mil USD to the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. 

In the private collection of Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Doha, Qatar.