1906 The Swan Egg

Maria Feodorovna

Purchase price 7,200 rubles.

The Easter egg “Swan” — or rather its mechanical miniature — was inspired by the Silver Swan created by the British jeweler and inventor James Cox, who is also responsible for the famous Peacock clock, now in the State Hermitage Museum. In two years’ time, Faberge would produce an Easter Egg featuring this other work by Cox.

The Imperial Easter Egg “Swan” by Faberge is covered in matte mauve enamel, its two sections divided along a jagged “breakage” line. The exterior of the Egg is applied with a broad ribbon trellis of rose-cut diamonds. Inside is a surprise: a mechanical swan inside a basket of flowers of white, yellow and pink gold, framing a block of aquamarine. The miniature mechanical swan, made of silver-plated gold, rests on the large block of aquamarine, as though on a lake. A tiny winding mechanism is concealed beneath one of its wings: once wound, the swan spreads its wings, wiggles its feet and tail, and proudly raises it neck and head.

In a letter dated June 5, 1943, Eugene Faberge wrote to H.C. Bainbridge, “As I saw it, the brothers H[ammer], who have lately paid us a visit, are very good and affable people. Perhaps in the next issue of the Connoisseur you will publish [an article] about the handsome egg of matte mauve enamel, with the Swan, that you mention in your book.”

In the collection of the Fondation Edouard et Maurice Sandoz, Lausanne, Switzerland.