Fabergé Exhibition

During the Easter holiday Honey and I went to Sha Tin to watch the Fabergé exhibition at the Hong Kong Cultural museum. Although I normally don't like museums I must admit this was a great way to spend a few hours. Honey's teacher friend Joyce was with us. Considering there are only 42 known Fabergé eggs left (over 50 from the beginning, eight was lost during the Russian revolution), I was mighty impressed to see four of them. They are absolutely beautiful, and so detailed. We weren't allowed to take any pictures, but they show the eggs in the information leaflet we got. 

"Memory of Azov" Easter egg. 

The basic history behind the Fabergé eggs are that each year the Russian Tsar Alexander III ordered a spectacular Easter egg for his wife the Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna. Each year the egg was to astonish the Royal family with innovative design and splendid craftsmanship. The eggs also showed a different event or theme in the Russian history, for example making of the Transiberian railway. As this Fabergé Easter egg continued after the death of Alexander III, they started to make two eggs per year, adding one for Tsar Nicholas II's wife, Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna. When the Russian empire collapsed, so did the  making of the Easter eggs. Eight imperial eggs disappeared after the 1917 revolution and 42 remained, whereof 10 of them are stored in the Armoury Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin. 

Ornament from the House of Fabergé. 

Fabergé didn't get just make fantastic Easter eggs. The exhibition also showed jewelry and other ornaments that they had made. Everything was so beautiful. 

It cost just 20 HKD per person to enter the museum. It's ridiculously cheap, and a good way to spend a rainy day.  

"The Moscow Kremlin" Easter egg.