A rare Fabergé masterpiece — the Winter Egg, crafted in 1913 from rock crystal and adorned with 1,660 diamonds — is set to reclaim its world record with an estimated sale price exceeding $27 million when it goes under the hammer at Christie’s London on 2 December.
Commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II as an Easter gift for his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, the exquisite egg was designed by Alma Theresia Pihl, one of only two female artists to ever design for the House of Fabergé.
Standing four inches tall, the Winter Egg opens to reveal a platinum trelliswork basket of carved quartz flowers, each delicately set with rose-cut diamonds and demantoid garnet centres, resting on a base of gold moss. The egg itself sits upon a rock-crystal plinth shaped like melting ice, symbolising the transition from winter to spring — a theme often celebrated in Fabergé’s Imperial creations.
The piece will be the centrepiece of The Winter Egg and Important Works by Fabergé from a Princely Collection sale. Christie’s confirmed the estimate is “in excess of £20 million” (US$26.9 million).
The Winter Egg has twice held the world record for a Fabergé piece sold at auction — fetching $9.1 million in Geneva in 1994 and $9.6 million in New York in 2002. The current record holder, the Rothschild Egg, achieved $11.9 million at Christie’s London in 2007, a benchmark the Winter Egg is now poised to surpass.
Between 1885 and 1916, the House of Fabergé produced 50 Imperial Easter Eggs, with 43 known to survive today. Most reside in museum collections, while only seven, including the Winter Egg, remain in private hands — making this sale a landmark moment for collectors and historians alike.