Faberge Egg in Easter: How was the main festive tradition of the Imperial family born?

April 20 Easter holiday. Traditionally, we have arranged the table where we set up the main jewelry today – blessed egg and cake. Today it is traditional and offers eggs to relatives and friends. This ritual emerged centuries ago, changes have been made, but so far has continued to exist.

Peopletalk columnist Ekaterina Andreeva said how Easter was mentioned in the Imperial Court. Indeed, egg -shaped gifts for crowned people were made by Karl Faberge, a legendary jeweler and craft master. But in the material, we will talk not only about them, but also about other presentations.

Ekaterina Andreeva is the Creator of Yaandart Art Project

At the end of the XIX – at the beginning of the XX centuries, Easter occupied the central place in the life of the Russian Empire. And the meaning of this holiday has gone far beyond the framework of the religious ritual. Cities were transformed, large desserts and jewelery manufacturers, small tradesmen were preparing for vacation that was not worse than today. Although the main symbol of the holiday more than 100 years ago was the usual red Easter egg, although Christ personalizes the resurrection of Christ (as one of the legends of the egg painting tradition in Easter: Mary Magdalene’s Bible, as the resurrection of Jesus, was not an egg, the egg and the egg. Ordinary colors (an egg in one color) were no longer surprised, so there were other solutions: there were other solutions:

1. Pisanka is an unusual technique to paint the eggs using wax used as a template to create a pattern.

2. Drarapanka is a complex technique in which the pattern on the egg is drawn.

3. Craps – Everything is simple here, these are specking eggs.

Easter also gained a political importance that showed the unity of the sovereigns: the Imperial Court prepared a few hundred eggs with imperial monograms for the restructuring, and the Emperor personally (Easter’s greeting with three -knic kisses). In one of Easter, he distributed 730 eggs and kisses as the Emperor said: “The cheeks were burning well.”

Therefore, it is not surprising that a simple painted egg begins to be missing. Since the mid -19th century, not only giving painted eggs, but also other presentations in Easter. Starting with flowers and chocolate desserts, switch to jewels, porcelain service and even silver dining rooms.

The most common gift was desserts: chocolate desserts and eggs, sugar and dried fruits, sugar bouquets, biscuits and all kinds of cookies – all of these were full of colored bonboniers. For ladies, there were “delicate souvenirs – – toilet boxes, wallets and tea pairs. Accept that no one will refuse from all of the above and today. Of course, in Easter, as on any holidays, women were accepted to give jewelry, but in this case small: brooches, hairpins and necklaces.

Men were presented with various accessories for clamps, tie bonds, photographs, coffins and desktops: pencils, press fad, table lighters.

Children also, for example, III. Alexander’s gifts were made: “Pope gave a brooch in Easter and my mother – a small inkwell.”

Before moving on expensive gifts, I will give you information about the cult gift of small necklaces in the early XIX – XX centuries in the form of Easter eggs. Many jewelers produced them, but Faberge was particularly distinguished.

They collected necklaces and bracelets from small necklaces, it was traditional to give them to girls from birth, so an unusual personalized decoration gathered for the girl at the age of 18. The price range was very large, only in Alexandra Fedorovna’s notebook ranging from 4 to 55 rubles (a rough recalculation for today, a ruble of the Russian Empire is 1000 rubles). Meanwhile, the empress has ordered several dozen necklaces every year and painted design for them while determining the price. Faberge has always made such a jewel, knowing that he would compensate for other orders. Apart from the foggy ears separated from the chain that the immigrants in Paris remembered in the 1920s, everything was good except for the ears of the fogs, saying that they repeatedly saw the Easter testicular shells in the Paris Metro. This confirms how popular such accessories are.

Let’s move on to more expensive gifts! During the fashion period, historicalism continued the tradition of giving old icons, but now supported by luxury salaries in Russian style. The XVI – XVII centuries were inspired by the works of Moscow masters, decorated with looking, firing and enamel.

The rich had their own oddities, for example, Prince Andrei Vladimirovich Matilda Ksheinskaya’s Easter gifts. He remembered this gift like this: “A big straw egg sent me a cheap appearance and many different bags were laid in it, wrapped the same thing into the paper. There was once simple things between these packages: I found great things from Faberge and a few diamonds.”

Time has come for the main Easter gift. In 1885, Karl Faberge, who was a well -known master at that time, created his first Easter egg for Emperor III as a gift to Maria Fedorovna’s wife. The inspiration was the French egg of the XVIII century from the collection of the Danish royal family of Princess Wilhelmin, who inherited their parents Maria Fedorovna. Faberge had the task to make a unique gift, so in the original shell of the ivory, then in the master’s version – a coarse hiding is covered with enamel that significantly reproduces a white peel. The gifts were also distinguished: In the version of Wilhelmins-A Ring, and Faberge, 4151 rubles prepared more than half of the price of 2700 rubles, which are more than half of the price of the whole work (we hit a very roughly 1000 to obtain a modern equivalent).

Thus, the tradition of Easter Easter Eggs was thrown for the next 30 years, during which 52 unique copies were created. And probably you wonder which one is the most expensive. Maybe “Crowning” or “Moscow Kremlin”? You will never guess! This is an egg for Alexandra Fedorovna in 1914 – “Mosaic”.

Keep a few minutes and see the photo, the base of the egg, the embroidery imitating diamonds, ruby, emerald, sauce, sapphire and grenade is a platinum grille with inlaying. And 28,300 rubles were worth the record (multiply by 1000). The apartment in St. Petersburg could then be purchased for 10 thousand rubles (almost three times cheaper). It was the last egg ordered without budget restrictions.

And finally I would like to congratulate Peopletalk readers on Easter’s bright holiday!