Fabulous Faberge: Exquisite enameled eggs are Easter treasures

In 1885, Alexander III, czar of Russia, wanted a special Easter gift for his wife, Maria Fedorovna. For Orthodox Russians, Easter was the year's most important holiday, a joyful celebration of rebirth and renewal marked by the exchange of decorated eggs and other presents.

For his gift, the czar went to a young jeweler named Carl Faberge, who was beginning to make a name for himself in Russian society.

Even now it is possible to imagine the delight of the czarina, as she received what seemed to be a simple, white enameled egg. The egg opened, and inside was a yolk of gold. The yolk opened; inside was a jeweled hen. And inside the hen was a tiny replica of the royal crown and a tiny ruby egg.

Such was her delight, in fact, that Alexander commissioned Faberge to deliver a new Easter egg each year.

And thus was launched what has become one of art world's unique legacies and one of history's fascinating stories, filled with its own triumph, tragedy and cycle of rebirth.

After Alexander's death in 1894, his son, Nicholas II, continued the Easter tradition, ordering Faberge eggs for both his mother and his wife.

In all, some 54 Imperial Easter eggs were made between 1885 and 1916, each more ornate and exquisite than the last. Other clients began to want Faberge eggs, as well.

But times change, and with them the fortunes of the Russian ruling family. After the Russian Revolution, the Romanov family was deposed, exiled and eventually assassinated.

To the incoming Bolsheviks, anything that represented Imperial opulence was anathema. The palaces were ransacked and their treasures removed. The House of Faberge was nationalized, and the Faberge family fled to Switzerland, where Carl died in 1920.

Some years later, to raise needed capital, Stalin began selling off the Faberge eggs and other treasures that had been looted.

Of the original Faberge eggs, only 69 are known to have survived. Some of those are in museums; many have ended up in private collections.