Jewellery

The Great Imperial Crown made in 1762 for the coronation of Catherine the Great by the court jeweler J.Pauzie represents the height of creative imagination, lavish beauty and skilled workmanship. It is adorned with five thousand diamonds arranged in a splendid pattern of laurel wreaths and oak branches.
The glitter of the diamonds is enhanced by two rows of gleaming pearls and the crown is topped by a huge red spinel, the second largest in the world, which weighs almost 400 carats. The Scepter has the world's famous "Orlov Diamond", the largest faceted diamond weighing 189 carats.
Faberge CollectionThe 19th century brought changes in the organization of jewelry making. Many famous jewelers worked in Russia, and some, such as Faberge have become household names. Peter Carl Faberge, the son of French-German ancestors, ruled the world of jewels in the four decades prior to the outbreak of the World War I. The House of Faberge became world-famous. It produced inter alia, figurines made of semi-precious stones, snuffboxes, powder-boxes and items of jewelry.
Faberge. Snuffbox, Circa 1765, Hermitage Museum. A diamond-set enameled two-color gold Imperial presentation snuff-box applied with a deep gold hued enamel over guilloche sunburst patterns accented by Imperial eagles and defined by a gold chased trellis set with diamonds. At the center of the box, is the diamond-set crowned monogram of Tsar Nicholas II against an oval panel enameled white with a diamond-set border.
A gold-and silver-mounted diamond-set tiara, signed with initials KF for Carl Faberge.The House of Faberge was distinguished from other jewelers of the period by its beautifully made "Easter eggs with a surprise". For eleven years the firm received orders from the Imperial court for these eggs.
The Lilies of the Valley egg is a masterpeace in Art Nouveau style. The miniature of Tzar Nicholas II and his two daughters Olga and Tatyana painted within the body of the egg. The pictures pop up when a pearl knob is turned.When Kerensky's provisional government took power in February 1917, the egg was not listed in the inventory of the Imperial Treasury. Even today it is not clear how it came to the West. The Forbes Magazine Collection acquired it together with the Coronation egg in 1979 for 2.16 million US dollars.
Only six of the Imperial Easter eggs contained mechanism. One of the most famous is the Rooster egg, which the ruler, Nicholas II, presented to his mother on April 9 1900. At the push of the button, the lid opens, and a rooster appears, crowing and flapping his wings. The small rooster is decorated with real feather. In 1985 the egg was acquared by the Forbes Magazine Collection for 1.76 million US dollars.The Coronation Egg is enameled a deep gold hue over guilloche sunburst patterns and blanketed by a gold trellis marked by diamond-set Imperial eagles at the intersections. At the top of the egg is the crowned monogram of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna emblazoned in rose-cut diamonds and rubies. The date 1897, appears beneath a smaller portrait diamond at the bottom of the egg. When the egg is opened, the surprise fitted inside a velvet-lined compartment is a removable replica of a coach of gold, enamel, diamond and rock crystal.
Faberge: The Coronation Egg.Today in the museum of Faberge you can find the most exquisite and famous works of the house of Faberge from the Imperial Easter eggs collection to highly luxurious items for everyday use.