An extremely rare Fabergé egg from the Kelch family collection is being exhibited for the first time in the permanent collection of the Liechtenstein National Museum in Vaduz, the museum’s management announced on Friday. This egg is of “inestimable” value and “is undoubtedly the largest Fabergé egg in the world,” stated Mr. Rainer Vollkommer, the museum director.
The egg on display in Vaduz measures 14 cm in length and rests horizontally on a stand. “Traditional Fabergé eggs are the size of a hen’s egg and are smaller; this one resembles an ostrich egg,” he added.
This egg was donated to the Museum in 2010 by a lawyer and patron of the Principality of Liechtenstein, Adulf Peter Goop (1921-2011). Mr. Goop had purchased it at auction in Geneva in 1996, at a Sotheby’s sale for $1.12 million. It had been admired by the public in exhibitions in 1939 in New York, in 1995 in Hamburg, and in 1997 in Stockholm. “Its value today far exceeds the amount” paid in 1996, the museum director stated.
This piece, called the Apple Blossom Egg, was created in 1901 and reflects the Art Nouveau trends and Japanese style in vogue at the time. It is composed of two hollow shells made of nephrite, a type of jade extracted from a mine in Siberia. The egg rests on four feet shaped like apple tree branches, in rose gold. The apple blossoms are made of enamel and diamonds.
Between 1898 and 1904, the immensely wealthy Russian industrialist Alexander Kelch gave his wife Barbara an egg commissioned from Fabergé every year, which was more beautiful and larger than those of the Tsar. After divorcing in 1904, Barbara Kelch left for Paris, taking her seven Fabergé eggs with her. In 1920, she sold them to the Parisian jeweler Morgan, who sold them off one by one. One of these eggs now belongs to the Queen of England. Alexander Kelch remained in Russia, where he died in the early 1930s, shortly after his arrest by the Russian secret services.
© 2013 LaPresse.ca. Original article (source).
Photo Garden Palace Evening © Liechtenstein. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna