The Faberge Museum is one of the major attractions of St. Petersburg that you should not miss during your travel to Russia. It is located inside the Shuvalov Palace and is considered one of the main attractions on tour to St. Petersburg. We at the Star Travel Group recommend visiting this museum for various reasons, but particularly the Easter Eggs. However, besides the Easter Eggs, there are several other items that you should not miss the chance to visit, and even among the Easter Eggs, there are some that are more significant than others. If we have to choose between these items, this should be how our list looks like, and it will start with one of the Easter eggs.
Imperial Easter Coronation Egg
One of the essential items that you should not miss when you visit the Faberge Museum during your tour to Russia is the Imperial Easter Coronation Egg. This egg was a gift from Emperor Nicholas II to his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna in 1897. Nicholas II commissioned Faberge firm to create this magnificent Easter Egg for his coronation ceremony, and later, he gifted it to his wife. The Imperial Easter Coronation Egg contains a surprise inside it, a replica of the coronation carriage, or Catherine the Great’s Carriage, with every little detail, even the moving parts. After the October Revolution, this Easter Egg was kept in Moscow’s Kremlin Armory building until 1927 when Bolshevik had decided to sell it. However, in the 1970s, this beautiful easter egg had found its way back to Russia and is currently displaying in Shuvolov Palace’s Faberge Museum. It’s one of the many items that you should not miss the chance to visit during your Russia tour.
The Hen Easter Egg
Among the items inside the Faberge Museum, the Hen Easter Egg is probably the most interesting one you may see during your travel to Russia. The Hen Easter Egg was the first one of the many easter eggs that later produced by the Faberge firm. Alexander III had commissioned the Faberge firm to create this fantastic easter egg for his wife, Maria Fyodorovna. Even Emperor himself collaborated in the design of this egg with Faberge. The Tsarina and Alexander III enjoyed the egg so much that they immediately ordered another egg from the Faberge firm. If you’re interested to learn about these easter eggs during your travel to St. Petersburg, the Hen Easter Egg is the first one that you should see inside the Faberge Museum.
The Order of St. George Egg
If the Hen Easter Egg was the first-ever Easter Egg created, you should also see the last one made for the imperial family in the Faberge Museum during your tour to Russia. The Order of St. George Egg was the last imperial egg created during the first world war. This egg was Nicholas II gift to his mother, Maria Fyodorovna. The Order of St. George Egg contains two buttons on each side, which, when they were pressed, the picture of Emperor Nicholas II and his son Alexei appeared. It’s been said that this egg was the only item from the imperial collection that Maria Fyodorovna had taken with herself when she emigrated. However, today, you can see this egg when you visit the Faberge Museum during your St. Petersburg tour.
Lion’s Head Bracelet
Before Carl Faberge took the family business, he went to Europe to study jewelry making. When he returned to St. Petersburg, he took the job to restore the jewelry inside the Hermitage Museum. After that, he created a series of Scythian gold replicas with inspiration from his work in Europe and the Hermitage Museum. One of his models was the Lion’s Head Bracelet, which you can see inside the Faberge Museum on your tour to Russia. However, Cark was only supervising this project, and the master of this work was Erik Collin.
Necklace-bracelet
The Faberge firm had many other works besides the Easter Eggs. The firm had commissioned to create many more items from the nobles of St. Petersburg. One of those items was a Necklace-Bracelet that Emanuel Nobel, nephew of the inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel, commissioned the firm to make. The necklace was made of rock crystal plates, and each plate was placed into a platinum rim. The owner could take apart the necklace and use it as two bracelets. You can see this beautiful work of art by visiting the Faberge Museum during your St. Petersburg tour program.
Enamel objects in jockey colors
When Faberge Firm had entered the UK market, it attracted influential customers from English aristocrats and even royal families. One of those customers was Baron Leopold de Rothschild, who became one of Faberge’s regular clients. Each one of Baron Leopold de Rothschild’s orders had followed a particular coloring, a combination of yellow-gold and dark blue stripes. You can find several of those items in Faberge Museum’s collection when you visit it during your tour to Russia, including a cigar box, a clock, a pencil case, and a blank for printing.
The figure of an elephant with a tower
One of the items inside the Faberge Museum that you will see when you visit it during your tour to St. Petersburg is the figure of an elephant with a tower on top. This figure was bought by the royal couple (Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Fyodorovna) for their journey to Copenhagen, the Empresses’ motherland, in 1890. The elephant implies to the iconography of Denmark’s highest state honor, the Order of the Elephant. The elephant figure made with gems and the tower on top of it is made out of gold. That is one of the items that you should not miss the chance of visit during your tour to Russia.
Tea and coffee service from the Sazikov Company
Although it’s called Faberge Museum, not every item inside the collection is created by the Faberge firm. One of the things that you can see during your visit on your travel to Russia is a Tea and Coffee service produced by one of Faberge’s rivals, the Sazikov Company. The company created this Russian style tea service to mark Nicholas I’s son, Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich’s wedding. That was the first wedding service commissioned from the Russian jeweler; before that, these sorts of assignments were given to the English firms.
You can learn more about the Faberge Museum, its magnificent collection, and other major attractions in St. Petersburg tour on our weblog. You can also see which places you should visit during your travel to Russia and many useful tips and pieces of information about Russia in general.
