| Bay Tree | |
| Year Delivered: | 1911 |
| Made For: | Nicholas II |
| Recipient: | Maria Feodorovna |
| Owner: | Viktor Vekselberg Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia |
| Acquisition Year: | 2004 |
| Materials: | Gold, green and white enamel, nephrite, diamonds, rubies, amethysts, citrines, pearls and white onyx |
| Height: | 273mm when closed, 300mm when opened |
| Surprise In Egg: | Feathered songbird |
The Bay Tree egg (also known as the Orange Tree egg) is a jewelled nephrite and enameled Fabergé egg made under the supervision of the Russian jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé in 1911,[1] for Nicholas II of Russia who presented the egg to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, on 12 April 1911.[2]
Its 1911 counterpart, presented to the Empress, is the Fifteenth Anniversary egg.
Turning a tiny lever disguised as a fruit, hidden among the leaves of the bay tree, activates the hinged circular top of the tree and a feathered songbird rises and flaps its wings, turns its head, opens its beak and sings.[1]
Based on an 18th-century French mechanical orange tree,[3] it was incorrectly labeled as an orange tree for some time, but was confirmed as a bay tree after the original invoice from Fabergé was examined. Fabergé charged 12,800 rubles for the egg.[1]
In 1917, the egg was confiscated by the Russian Provisional Government and moved from the Anichkov Palace to the Kremlin.[1] It was sold to Emanuel Snowman of the jewellers Wartski around 1927.[1]
In 1934, Wartski sold it to Allan Gibson Hughes for £950, buying it back from his estate in 1939 after his death. The egg has a fitted case inscribed with the initials A. G. H. which is probably attributable to this period of ownership.[4]
In 1947, it was sold by Sotheby's in London for £1,650 and then passed through several different owners, ending with Mrs. Mildred Kaplan. She sold it to Malcolm Forbes in 1965 for $35,000, equivalent to $212,634 at the time of the 2004 sale of the Forbes Collection to Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg purchased some nine Imperial eggs, as part of the collection, for almost $100 million [5]
The egg is now part of the Victor Vekselberg Collection, owned by The Link of Times Foundation and housed in the Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
. Christopher Forbes. Forbes. Christopher. Johann Georg . Prinz von Hohenzollern. FABERGE; The Imperial Eggs. Prestel. 1990. B000YA9GOM.
. Kenneth Snowman. Carl Faberge: Goldsmith to the Imperial Court of Russia. Gramercy. 1988. 0-517-40502-4.