The Russian Orthodox Church has strong Easter traditions in which families exchange decorated eggs. In 1885 the 20th wedding anniversary of Russian Czar Alexander III fell at Easter. He commissioned Peter Carl Faberge to create a decorative egg for Empress Maria Fedorovna.
The first Faberge Egg was delivered on Easter morning 1885. The first egg was made of plain enamel and contained a golden yolk, which also contained a golden hen. Inside the golden hen was a miniature version of the royal crown and a small egg-shaped ruby.
Czar Alexander was impressed by the egg and commissioned Faberge to create an egg in a unique design each year for the empress.
The Russian city of St. Petersburg was home to Carl Faberge's company, the House of Faberge. The company became so successful that a store was opened in London, England.
Faberge was born in 1846 in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he worked and lived until the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917. Faberge left Russia after the revolution for Switzerland, where he died in 1920.
Fifty Faberge Eggs are known to have been created. Of those, 42 are accounted for in museums and private collections.