Karelian Birch (Fabergé egg)

The egg is made out of Karelian birch panels set in a gold frame. This is a departure in design from previous eggs, which were far more ornate and gilded. The change was due to austerity measures taken as a result of World War I, both by the Russian Imperial family, and the House of Fabergé.{{cite web|last=Mieks|title=1917 Birch Egg|url=http://www.wintraecken.nl/mieks/faberge/eggs/1917-Birch-Egg.htm|publisher=Mieks Fabergé Eggs|date=2016-05-30|access-date=2016-05-30}} A number of the Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs created during the war (those ordered by the Tsar as Easter gifts for members of the Russian Imperial family, as opposed to other eggs produced by Fabergé), utilized unusual and less costly materials. However, the Karelian Birch egg was the only one to use an organic substance (wood) as a primary construction element. Its "surprise" was a miniature mechanical elephant, covered with tiny rose-cut diamonds, wound with a small jewel-encrusted key.{{Cite web|last=Farnham|first=Alan|title=Egg Hunting, Pro Division|date=2004-04-12|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2004/0412/233.html|work=Forbes.com|access-date=2007-12-08}}

File:Karelian Birch (Fabergé egg) - invoice.jpeg

The Birch Egg was created in 1917, and was due to be completed and delivered to the Tsar that Easter, as a present for his mother, the Empress Maria Feodorovna. Before the egg was delivered however, the February Revolution took place and Nicholas II was forced to abdicate on March 15. On April 25, Fabergé sent the Tsar an invoice for the egg, addressing Nicholas II not as "Czar of all the Russias" but as "Mr. Romanov, Nikolai Aleksandrovich". Nicholas paid 12,500 rubles and the egg was sent to Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich at his palace, for presentation to the Empress, but the Duke fled before it arrived. The egg remained in the palace until it was looted in the wake of the October Revolution later that year.{{disputed-inline|date=July 2020|reason=This last sentence is troubling: Grand Duke Michael had two properties in Russia, a villa in Gatchina and his country estate at Brassovo. His visit to Brassovo at Christmas 1916 was his last and he lived at Gatchina until he was arrested on March 7th 1918 and sent into internal exile in Perm. He was murdered there on the night of 13th June 1918. While it is possible that the egg was sent to Brassovo and then forgotten it seems unlikely, given that he was known to be living in Gathina. If you were intent on delivering anything to the Grand Duke you would naturally send it to Gatchina. Furthermore, his wife, Countess Brassova, continued to live at Gatchina until about September or October 1918. Had the egg been within her control she would, it is suggested, have recognised its value and taken it with her on her escape to Britain. Her daughter’s account of their life in exile make no mention of it.}}

After the October Revolution the egg was acquired by the Rumyantsev Museum in Moscow. It disappeared once again after the museum closed in January 1927 and was presumed lost. In 1999 Fabergé's great-granddaughter Tatiana published drawings of the designs for the Birch and Constellation Eggs, but it was assumed that they were both incomplete. The Birch Egg publicly reappeared in 2001 when a private collector from the United Kingdom, the descendant of Russian emigrants, sold it to Alexander Ivanov, the Moscow collector who owns the Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden. The complete purchase, which cost the museum "millions of dollars", consisted of the egg itself, the case, the wind-up key for the surprise, 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 and was likely stolen by soldiers during the October Revolution.

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

Likewise, this egg was included in the catalogue (though 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 fakes, so-called Fauxbergé.[https://www.ruzhnikov.com/forgeries-in-the-hermitage-the-wedding-anniversary-egg/ Ruzhnikov (2021), Forgeries in The Hermitage, 'Wedding Anniversary Egg']{{Cite web|title=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) |url=https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-56033898|access-date=|website=bbc.com/ru|language=ru}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Faber|first=Toby|title=Faberge's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire|publisher=Random House|year=2008|isbn=978-1-4000-6550-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/fabergeseggsextr00fabe}}
• {{cite book|author-link=Christopher Forbes|last1=Forbes|first1=Christopher|first2=Johann Georg |last2=Prinz von Hohenzollern|title=FABERGE; The Imperial Eggs|publisher=Prestel|year=1990|asin=B000YA9GOM}}
• {{cite book|last=Lowes|first=Will|title=Fabergé Eggs: A Retrospective Encyclopedia|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2001|isbn=0-8108-3946-6}}
• {{Cite book|author-link=Kenneth Snowman|last=Snowman|first=A Kenneth|title=Carl Faberge: Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia|publisher=Gramercy|year=1988|isbn=0-517-40502-4}}

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Category:1917 works

Category:Imperial Fabergé eggs