Lilibet
Southern Oregon
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Now if you were thinking 'Meh' to the idea of discovering long, lost (or not-so-long lost for the stolen tiaras!)jewels & treasures you may just wanna think again...
Third Imperial Easter EggEaster is the most important of all Russian Orthodox festivals and it's a long-established tradition to exchange Easter eggs...
Created by Karl Fabergé from 1885 to 1916 the Eggs are his most prized creations and have become bywords of luxury and craftsmanship.
This egg was last seen in public over 112 years ago, when it was shown in the Von Dervis Mansion exhibition of the Russian Imperial Family's Fabergé collection in St. Petersburg in March 1902.![]()
The Fabergé Egg, which is beautifully crafted and contains a Vacheron Constantin watch inside, is sitting on an elaborate, jewelled gold stand
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Von Dervis Mansion Exhibition Of The Russian Imperial Family's Faberge Collection In St. Petersburg, 1902
Designed by Karl Fabergé for Tsar Alexander III in 1887, seized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution it's fate after this point was unknown, feared it could have been melted for its gold and lost forever...
It was only in 2011 that Fabergé researchers discovered that the Third Imperial Egg survived the revolution,
... provenance had been unknown and so it was sold at auction on Madison Avenue, New York on 7th March 1964 as a 'Gold watch in egg form case' ...
This discovery started a worldwide race to discover the whereabouts of the egg which was now worth tens of millions of dollars.![]()
Is this £20 million nest-egg on your mantelpiece?
A search is under way for a Fabergé Imperial Egg, worth up to £20 million, which is believed to be in Britain but whose owners have no idea of its true identity or value.
The newly discovered image of the egg has prompted a frantic search by Sotheby’s to trace its whereabouts. Kieran McCarthy, a Fabergé expert from the Mayfair jeweller Wartski, said: “This is an extraordinary discovery. Identifying one of the missing Imperial eggs is incredibly exciting, and even more exciting that whoever has this piece will have no idea of its provenance and significance – nor will they know they are sitting on a royal relic which could be worth £20 million"![]()
Left to right, the lost egg from the 1964 catalogue; and The Cuckoo (Cockerel) Egg
“There is every chance this egg is somewhere in this country, because even though it was not sold as Fabergé in the 1964"
Is this £20 million nest-egg on your mantelpiece?
...In the meantime the egg was bought in the Mid-West of America at a bric-a-brac market. The buyer lived a modest live and tried to make extra money by buying gold and selling it for its scrap metal value. When he spotted the egg, he thought he could make an easy $500, although they had to pay $14,000 for its scrap metal value.
But what had worked on many occasions, did not work this time. He had overestimated its worth and couldn’t sell it. No one spotted its potential and luckily no one offered more than the owner had paid for it, hence it was saved from the melting pot...
The egg became a financial burden to its unknowing owner. One evening in despair the owner tapped 'Egg' and 'Vacheron Constantin' into Google...
Recognising his egg in the article the owner was unable to sleep for days. He got on a plane to London to find Kieran and to show him images of the egg. Kieran was left speechless
...to confirm its identity and ensure it was not a very clever fake, he travelled to the US.
When he arrived in a small town in the Mid-West, he was shown into the kitchen of the owner’s home and presented with the egg, which was slightly smaller than the large cupcake positioned next to it.
... he confirmed that it was indeed the lost Imperial treasure. It had travelled from the hands of an Empress in the grandeur of Imperial St. Petersburg to a scrap metal dealer in modern day America.![]()
A Cupcake, a FABERGÉ Egg, and a kitchen work-top, somewhere in the Mid-West
Third Lost Imperial Egg
The £20m Fabergé egg that was almost sold for scrapA scrap metal dealer bought an ornament to be melted down for its gold - until he read a Telegraph article revealing it to be a £20 million Fabergé egg
The £20m Fabergé egg that was almost sold for scrap
What a fabulous story!!