Year delivered Unfinished (1917) Year of acquisition 2001 / late 1990s | Customer Alexandra Feodorovna | |
 | ||
Individual or institution Fersman Mineralogical Museum / Faberge Museum Materials used Glass, diamond, crystal Similar Tsarevich, Pelican, Standart Yacht, Alexander Palace, Peter the Great | ||
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. It was the last Fabergé egg designed. It remains unfinished.
Contents
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 1917 document, was made of blue glass with a crystal base, and the Leo sign of the zodiac is engraved on the glass. (The heir to the Russian throne, Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, was a Leo). 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 Faberge. 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 (and finished) 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. Experts and their research clearly support the Alexander Ivanov's egg as genuine." Russian museum authorities considered this as nonsense and fake. His egg is now in the Faberge Museum in Baden-Baden, which houses part of his Faberge collection.