Imperial Fabergé Eggs in Photos

From 1885 to 1916 the House of Fabergé made a series of jeweled Easter eggs for the Russian imperial family. Alexander III gave one each Easter to Empress Maria Feodorovna. After his death Nicholas II gave one to his mother and one to his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, every year except 1904 and 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War. Most held a surprise, and many still do: a gold hen, a coronation coach, a clockwork train, a singing bird. This gallery shows the surviving imperial eggs in the order they were given, one photo per egg. Each caption names the year, the giver and recipient, the owner today and what the egg holds or once held. Eggs lost since the Revolution are left out, as are the two eggs of 1917 that were never delivered and the eggs Fabergé made for other patrons. A few surviving eggs, among them the Swan, Peacock and Pansy eggs, are missing because no sharp photograph of them could be found.