Are there records of all Fabergé imperial eggs that were made?

1. The canonical number: “50 Imperial eggs” and where that figure comes from

Scholarly and commercial Fabergé narratives — including the Fabergé company site and museum summaries — identify a 31‑year run (1885–1916) of commissions from the tsars that produced 50 Imperial Easter eggs; that figure is repeated in recent news coverage of the Winter Egg sale ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Reuters, Christie’s and art press reporting echo the “50” total when describing Imperial provenance and rarity ^{[6] [7]}.

2. Survivorship: why counts differ between 43, 44 or 43–44

Modern reports around the Winter Egg auction cite different survivorship totals: several outlets say 43 surviving Imperial eggs, others 44 ^{[8] [9] [10]}. News organisations and auction houses explain seven are “lost” since the revolution, yielding roughly 43–44 extant examples; slight differences reflect whether partial/fragmentary pieces or disputed identifications are counted as “surviving” ^{[3] [7]}.

3. Are there “records of all” the eggs — lists, catalogues, and museum holdings?

Fabergé’s own materials and major museum catalogues present a named series of Imperial Eggs with dates and provenances, and news coverage treats the 50‑egg series as a discrete, well‑documented canon ^{[1] [11]}. Available sources do not present a single, universally agreed public registry listing every commission, maker, delivery record and current location in one authority; instead, reporting relies on Fabergé scholarship, auction records and museum inventories to reconstruct provenance and survival ^{[1] [2]}.

4. Disagreements and gaps: lost eggs and disputed attributions

Reporting notes unresolved cases: some Imperial eggs remain “lost” or were separated into parts, and a small number once attributed to Fabergé later proved controversial or non‑imperial ^{[3] [4]}. Forbes and other outlets stress that Fabergé produced additional non‑imperial eggs (for private clients) — bringing total Fabergé‑made eggs to numbers larger than 50 — and mention two further Imperial designs that were never delivered, underscoring that simple tallies can mask provenance nuances ^{[5] [4]}.

5. Why precise public records are imperfect: revolution, dispersal and private ownership

The Bolshevik revolution, subsequent dispersal of Romanov property, decades of private collecting and occasional rediscoveries make a definitive, contemporaneous imperial ledger incomplete in public view; auction houses and scholars reconstruct lists from sales, museum records and archival fragments ^{[2] [6]}. Recent high‑profile rediscoveries — such as pieces surfacing after decades — demonstrate the record is partly forensic and partly ongoing ^[2].

6. Practical takeaway for researchers and collectors

If you ask “are there records of all Imperial eggs?” the short, evidence‑based answer is: the 50‑egg imperial series is the accepted canonical list and is extensively documented in Fabergé literature and reporting, but public counts of survivors vary (43–44) and no single public registry in these sources claims to list every administrative detail for each egg and every change of ownership ^{[1] [3] [4]}. For provenance or ownership verification, sources repeatedly point to specialist scholarship, museum catalogues and auction provenance notes as the working records used by experts and dealers ^{[2] [7]}.

Limitations and competing viewpoints: Fabergé’s official materials and auction houses present a clear canonical story (50 Imperial eggs), while some journalistic and art‑market sources offer differing survivorship totals and note designed-but-undelivered items or extra non‑imperial eggs — all found in the cited contemporary reporting and Fabergé materials ^{[1] [5] [3]}. Available sources do not supply a single, definitive public ledger listing every Imperial egg with unbroken archival documentation and current location; researchers must rely on multiple specialist sources ^{[4] [2]}.