Constellation (Fabergé egg)


The Constellation egg is one of two Easter eggs designed under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé in 1917, for the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II as an Easter gift to his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna. It was the last Imperial Fabergé egg designed. It remains unfinished.

Description

Due to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the egg was never finished or presented to Tsar Nicholas' wife, the Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna.
The egg, as it is known from a 1917 document, was made of blue glass with a crystal base, and the Leo sign of the zodiac is engraved on the glass. There are stars that are marked by diamonds, and there is a clock mechanism inside the egg.

First egg

In 2001, a similar item was discovered in the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow, and experts believe it to be an unfinished egg made by Fabergé. It is an unfinished item without diamonds. In recent years there have been several suggested sources of inspiration for the piece.

Second egg

Russian millionaire Alexander Ivanov claims that he owns the original egg. In 2003–2004 he said that he acquired this egg in the late 1990s and affirms that "the Fersman Museum erroneously continues to claim that it has the original egg." Western authorities do not agree. However, Mr Ivanov's egg is in the Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden, which houses part of his Fabergé collection.