A different kind of egg hunt
The challenges of being diamond encrusted in a world of quiet luxury
Another week, another report of a weird London crime: police are trying to recover a Fabergé egg and watch worth £2mn.
This wasn’t the result of a carefully planned heist, but a handbag theft that contained more treasure than expected. When the accused appeared in court, even the judge noted that “it must have been rather a surprise” when the thief found the egg.
More intriguing is why a Fabergé egg was in a handbag in a pub at all. It turns out that the victim worked for The Craft Irish Whiskey Company. Which brings us to an even more interesting fact: the brand had collaborated with Fabergé to create a bespoke Celtic egg. This raises some very interesting questions: is there really a market for diamond encrusted easter eggs these days? And why has Fabergé teamed up with a Whiskey company?
Cutting edge luxury?
The original Fabergé eggs were made as Easter gifts for the Russian royal family, who were so delighted that they commissioned fifty of them before being deposed in the revolution in 1917. To give a sense of just how opulent the eggs are, one covered with 4,500 diamonds, sold at auction for £23mn last year.
To a Victorian emperor, handcrafted masterpieces made from gems and precious metals represented cutting edge luxury. To millions of starving Russians, they were a symbol of a detached and opulent elite. After the revolution, the workshops closed and the business languished until the family reclaimed the name in the 2000s.
But a hundred and twenty five years later, time had marched on. The eggs were still exquisite, but decidedly old-fashioned-looking, and no longer sent the same signal. The very rich still want cutting edge technology, hand craftsmanship and luxury, but today, an electric supercar fits the bill far better.
Yet abandoning a stellar reputation and all that name recognition would have been a huge waste. Fabergé started collaborating with brands instead: Rolls Royce, James Bond, Game of Thrones, The Craft Irish Whiskey Company and a cruise company, Seven Seas.
Commissioning a Fabergé egg as an individual would look ridiculous today – even billionaires want quiet luxury not gilded excess. But for a company, the optics are different. If you commission an egg, you can frame it as an investment in heritage, craftsmanship and the arts. It works for Fabergé, too. Every time a brand promotes its custom egg, Fabergé looks relevant. For a company famous for making Victorian Easter eggs almost 150 years ago, that is pretty good going.