Saint Petersburg · 1885 · Imperial Easter
Fifty eggs. Each contains a surprise. The mechanism of the surprise is as jewelled as the exterior. The Tsar gave one to the Tsarina every Easter. The craftsman spent a year on each one. This is what opulence actually means: a year of a master craftsman's life, given as an Easter gift.
Fabergé's workshop employed specialist workmasters — each a master of a single technique. Henrik Wigström: the gold and enamel. August Hollming: the miniature mechanisms. Michael Perchin: the overall design direction of the great eggs.
The guilloché enamel — transparent enamel over an engraved metal surface — required up to six layers of enamel, each fired separately, each ground smooth before the next application. The final surface is a depth of translucency that no photograph can capture.
Peter Carl Fabergé himself was not primarily a craftsman. He was a designer and businessman who understood quality with supernatural precision and hired better craftsmen than he could ever have been.
Guilloché: a hand-cranked lathe (the rose engine) cuts geometric patterns into the metal surface. When covered with translucent enamel and lit, the pattern shimmers beneath the surface. The depth of color is a function of the depth of the engraving.
Champlevé: cells carved into the metal are filled with enamel paste, then fired. The metal remains visible between the colored fields. It is an ancient technique — the Celts used it. Fabergé made it imperial.
The color range of Fabergé's enamel was extraordinary — over 140 shades documented. The recipes were held by the individual workmasters as trade secrets. Many are now lost. The precise oyster white of the Hen Egg's exterior has never been successfully replicated.