There are only two Fabergé eggs known to have survived that were crafted by Finnish/Russian designer Alma Theresia Pihl, one of the most gifted designers in the atelier and the granddaughter of Fabergé head jeweler August Holmström. Her “Winter Egg,” pictured above, and swiftly coming up for sale swiftly in Christie’s London rooms on Tuesday, December 2, is composed of a rock crystal shell, platinum edging, and 4500 diamonds, is one of them. For comparison’s sake, the second “sister” egg, so to speak, designed by Pihl, known as the Mosaic Egg, and is owned by the British Royal Family.
All of that and more is what we might call the buttressing for the eye-watering $27-million estimate that the house has put on the ingenious piece. Wintry on the outside with its finely worked rock crystal shell, laced with a snowflake motif in platinum and the 4500 diamonds, the egg opens to reveal a tiny bouquet of spring flowers in quartz, rather like a Kinder egg surprise, a witty simile authored by no less an aficionado than Christie’s Russian Department head Margo Oganesian, who was also swift to note that the egg was “the Mona Lisa” for the decorative arts.
Below, a side view of the platinum closure with the quartz bouquet outside the egg.