I’m enjoying a couple of soft-boiled eggs right now, my every-other-day breakfast entrée. The timer I use to prepare them sits right in the pot of water, indicating when the eggs are cooked to perfection. I pay a little more than average for my eggs, to producer Vital who advertises “pasture-raised – tended by hand by farmers who care”. On the other hand, if I wanted to pay a lot more than average I’d simply go to a rare goods auction and buy one from Fabergé.
You wouldn’t have a Fabergé egg for breakfast, of course. No one would ever sink their teeth into a priceless work of art (well, maybe a banana), let alone one of only fifty that were ever created. One of the Fabergés – the “Winter Egg” – went under the auction block last week, with the winning bid confirmed in a mere three minutes. The buyer’s purchase of a single Fabergé for $30.2 million dollars is a new record; noteworthy considering how many times the eggs have changed hands in the last 140 years.
I can’t say why we Westerners even know about Fabergé eggs. Most hide in private collections or in museums you’ve never been to. The eggs were created in St. Petersburg, Russia in the late 1800s by jeweler House of Fabergé for the reigning tsars of the time. One or two eggs were produced every year as exquisite Easter gifts, from 1885 through 1917. Most are jeweled with diamonds and other precious gems, and hinge open to reveal delicate animals or scenes within.
The Winter Egg (1913) is described as “the most spectacular, artistically inventive and unusual” of all fifty Fabergés, which is quite a statement when any one of the eggs deserves the same praise. The Winter Egg took almost a year to design and create, and the value is evident in the details. 4,500 tiny rose-cut diamonds are married to a platinum snowflake motif to create the impression of a block of ice dusted with frost.
The Winter Egg hinges opens to reveal a hanging basket of wood anemones, made from white quartz and rare green “Tsavorite” garnets. I can’t imagine working with these expensive materials on such a small scale but maybe that’s because I don’t have the delicate fingers of a woman. The Winter Egg was designed and created by Alma Pihl, the only female jeweler in the House of Fabergé.
On a cruise around the Baltic Sea several years ago, my wife and I were fortunate to spend a couple of days in St. Petersburg, touring Catherine Palace and Peterhof among the cities other sights. When we returned to the ship we were greeted by a local jeweler, who offered replicas of the Fabergés (for less than $32M, thank goodness). We chose the Imperial Coronation Egg (1897), inspired by the color of Tsar Alexander III’s robe. The Coronation Egg houses a replica of the imperial carriage, made with gold and platinum and detailed with rubies and diamonds (the original egg that is, not ours).
After learning a single egg can set you back $32M, I now look at my breakfast eggs a little differently. $10.99 a dozen? That used to be top of the heap. Now it’s just pocket change.
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LEGO Trevi Fountain – Update #6
(Read about the start of this build in Brick Wall Waterfall)
There’s a moment in every LEGO build where you look at what you’ve constructed and think, Hey, I’m almost done! That moment was today. Bags 10 and 11 – of 15 bags of pieces – brought the structure of the Trevi Fountain to new, practically finished heights. The tiny, tiny pieces I worked through (so many of them I was afraid to count) resulted in the uppermost level of the backdrop you see in the final photo.
From my magic hat of Italian composers I somehow chose Claudio Monteverdi for my musical accompaniment today. You don’t know Monteverdi and apparently I don’t either. Had I realized his contribution to classical music was mostly opera (hard pass) I would’ve reached into the hat again. Alas, I was subjected to Monteverdi’s L’Arianna “lament” – equal parts sorrow, anger, fear, and so on. Those singers sure didn’t sound happy as I snapped together LEGO pieces, but honestly who knows? I don’t speak “sung” Italian.
Here’s an expectation with a symmetrical LEGO build. If you construct an element that goes on one side of the model you’ll be mirroring it on the other side before you know it. A hundred or more pieces went into the windowed wall you see here, and a hundred more went into its twin soon after. It’s repetitive yes, but at least you go faster the second time around since you just had practice.
A word about the little devils in this photo. Because they’re cylindrical they can roll. Because they roll they can hide under something. Something like a LEGO instruction manual. Once again I was fooled into thinking I was missing pieces… until I thought to look under the manual. Sure enough, there they sat just smirking at me. So I promptly arrested and cuffed them, hauled them away, and now they’re jailed in the backdrop you see here, without possibility of parole.
We’re just four bags of LEGO pieces from “turning on the water” of the magnificent Trevi. I’ll admit to peeking into the box at those upcoming bags. They are small, all four of them. Perhaps I’ll wrap the fountain construction in a single go next week. Even if not, conveniently, the final block of travertine would be laid the following week, just in time for Christmas. Now that’s what I call a gift!
Running build time: 5 hrs. 42 min.
Total leftover pieces: 32 (tiny, tiny pieces)
Some content sourced from the CNN Style article, “Faberge egg fetches record $30.2 million at rare auction”, and Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.
Life In A Word 
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond holds five Faberge eggs along with a fabulous collection of other Russian decorative arts, and admission is free: Fabergé and Russian Decorative Arts – Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. If you are ever in the area, it is worth a visit. And don’t overlook their expansive the Ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian galleries.
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I should’ve noticed this in the Wikipedia article. There are a few eggs scattered around U.S. collections and museums but Virginia may have the most in one place. Good to know!
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Wow, $32M?!? Yes, I’ll stick with the 10.99 version.
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I would love to know the buyer’s net worth (!)
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I like the first egg better – the one with the palace, so intricate. Did they announce who bought the Winter Egg? If you’ve ever read the Maid series by Nita Prose (murder mystery trilogy about an autistic Molly the Maid), a Fabrege egg features largely in the last book in the series, as Molly has no idea the “trinket” she inherited from her grandmother is a Faberge egg…and then of course it gets stolen….it’s a cute series. The fountain is coming along nicely.
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The buyer remains anonymous, like I would if I won the current round of Powerball 😉
Maybe you’ve hit on the reason most of us are familiar with Fabergé eggs. They’re referenced enough in books and elsewhere to get you wondering, “Huh. What’s a Fabergé egg?”
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I have heard the Powerball can get very big! It would be a nice Christmas present.
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In one of the books I read to Violet a Fabergé egg gets stolen and the little mouse finds it. Now I know what it is ha! They were selling those Vital farm eggs for $15 at Whole Foods during the shortage. I just couldnt’ do it.
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Would not have guessed a Fabergé egg would show up in a children’s book! I’m guessing AI could give us a good list of books and other places where these famous eggs are “hiding” 🙂
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I’m a breakfast egg a day person – over easy on peanut butter toast. Eggs truly are very versatile when you think of all the ways they can be eaten and used! (I blow the egg out of some of them and decorate the shells at Easter!)
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We just had a plate of the “deviled” kind last night at a restaurant. When we moved down here we found it curious to be eating eggs as a dinner appetizer, but they’re really good! A “Southern U.S.” thing… among many other curiosities.
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Trevi Fountain is looking great. Can you actually put water in it??
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Ah, now that would’ve been a neat trick, huh? Somehow seal the LEGO blocks so they hold water, build in a little pump, and then let the fountain do it’s thing just like the real one? If that were the case LEGO should also include teeny, tiny coins you could throw – ha. But no, at least for this version, you’ll have to imagine those glorious, rushing waters. Better yet, go visit the real fountain.
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LOL – yes, tiny coins, how fun!
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That is a beautiful and ornate Faberge egg … I like the frosted glass on it. Did you hear about the diamond-encrusted Faberge egg pendant that was stolen from a New Zealand jewelry store a few weeks ago? The thief swallowed it, but he was apprehended and the pendant, worth about $19,000.00 was recovered (naturally) … I guess the thief was not as clever as those that did the Louvre heist.
The Trevi Fountain is looking very impressive! I’m glad you are going to be finished in time for Christmas. I have embarked on an Advent Jigsaw Puzzle journey – 24 small puzzles in 24 days. And I have been taking a photo of each one to use in a Christmas Eve blog post. I’m also dealing with tiny pieces for it, but my fingers are not sore from pushing pieces together like you are experiencing from the Legos. So this is a fun project for me, done to Christmas music, although half the time, I’ve shut it off if a “screamy” Christmas song comes on the radio.
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I did know about the thief and the pendant, Linda (too much information and “unattractive” detail for a single blog post 🙂 ). I’m surprised those pendants aren’t valued higher if they really are Fabergé originals.
I’m probably building the same puzzle as you right now (as is blogger Brilliant Viewpoint: https://wordpress.com/reader/feeds/33477455/posts/5890873381 ). I find I have to build each section on our kitchen counter, separate from the growing puzzle on our dark wood dining table. I can see the little pieces better when I have a lighter background!
Christmas music is a constant challenge. We use Spotify to build playlists, but there’s so much of it out there it’s hard to create a reasonably short list where you’re able to listen to everything you want to. Sometimes I think we should just return to what Time-Life used to issue on CD’s. Those collections were wonderful – timeless classics from generations gone by.
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The Faberge pendant thief was something else – it was all over the news here (so at first I thought it was one of the locals given how many strange things happen here in the Mitten State).
Thanks for the link Dave. I just popped over to Brilliant Viewpoint’s post to take a look and left a message. I like that master puzzle and the different days idea. Mine is actually 24 different daily puzzles, each 5 X 5 inches and 50 pieces. If you Google Eurographics Advent Puzzle “Christmas Paws” you will see it. I am glad it is separate puzzles as I don’t have room on the table I’m using and it is the table I use for painting as well. I bought an Advent puzzle for 2026 the same day which consists of 100- piece mini puzzles but just 12 days. I’m thinking I may make this an annual holiday tradition.
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I forgot to add about the music – I don’t like the jazzed-up versions of any of the Christmas songs I listened to since I was a child. I don’t use Spotify, but I do have an old CD of traditional Christmas songs downstairs and will probably have to resort to using that on the old laptop – this HP Win 11 has no CD player and only has two USB ports (which USBs I understand are becoming obsolete down the road).
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Dave, I finished The Widow by John Grisham….and liked it very much. The first half was a bit slow, but necessary to establish the background, but the second half was very good, especially the courtroom part. I think this novel was a natural progression from his non-fiction book last year called Framed: True Stories of Wrongful Convictions, which I did not read. It must be an awful feeling to be convicted of something you didn’t do because of a corrupt or inept court system. On the other hand it must be equally awful for the justice system to know that someone got away with something because the evidence is non-existent or at best only circumstantial.
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Thank you, Joni! Grisham is so good with courtroom drama (dozens of examples from his earlier books), which makes me want to give “The Widow” a go. I have some airplane time coming up when we visit our son next week – good timing. I appreciate the recommendation.
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I hope you enjoy it…..just remember the first half is a bit slow but worth it for the court case. I would appreciate your thoughts after you’re done.
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If I had a burning interest in Faberge eggs, I think I’d rather have a large book of photos and info about each one. Then I could enjoy all of them! We DO own twenty Christmas ornaments made out of eggs by my husband’s aunt back in the late 60s and 70s. She cut an oval out of the side, covered the whole thing in pearlized glitter, created a small scene inside with miniature figures, animals, flowers, etc., then decorated the outside with small braid and other trims. THESE are the eggs that are very precious to us!
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I admire any artist, but especially those who work in miniature. I would’ve loved to have seen your husband’s aunt’s technique in motion, including cutting the oval out of the egg shell. As the psychology goes, I am left-brain, so naturally less creative (but more logical) than most!
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