 | Peter Carl Fabergé and his brother Agathon were Russian jewellers of French descent based in St. Petersburg. They became famous for the quality and beauty of their work. In 1885 Tsar Alexander III (House of Romanov) commissioned the production of the gold and enamel 'Hen Egg' for his wife the Empress Maria. |  |
 | The tsarina and the tsar enjoyed the egg so much that Alexander III ordered a new egg from Fabergé for his wife every Easter thereafter. Fabergé was made ‘Goldsmith by Special Appointment to the Imperial Crown’ and over the next 33 years 52 eggs were made for the Russian Royal Family as well as a further 15 for other private buyers. |  |
 | The 1917 Russian Revolution toppled Tsar Nicholas II who was executed along with much of the royal family in July 1918. The Fabergé eggs and many other treasures of the Royal family were confiscated and stored in the vaults of the Kremlin Armoury. Some were sold to raise funds for the new regime. Over time eight of the original 52 Imperial eggs vanished and their whereabouts remained a mystery. |  |
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 |  |  Imperial Coronation Egg |  The Rosebud Egg |
 | A $14,000 sale find turned into millions of dollars for a man who'd been thwarted in his attempts to turn a quick profit by selling the tiny ornament to scrap metal dealers. The man overestimated what the tiny golden egg would be worth once melted down. He'd been hoping to make $500. He typed "egg" and the name engraved on the clock it contained,"Vacheron Constantin", into Google. His search brought up a 2011 article in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper describing a "frantic search" for the object: the Third Imperial Easter Egg, made by Faberge for the Russian royal family and estimated to be worth millions. The Third Imperial Easter Egg is one of 50 delivered by Fabergé to Emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II from 1885 to 1916, and until its recent discovery was one of eight lost eggs. Only two others of the lost eggs are thought to have survived the revolution. |  |
