Which specific Imperial Fabergé eggs remain unlocated and what are their last documented sightings?
Executive summary
There is no single authoritative roster of "still-missing" Imperial Fabergé eggs because contemporary sources disagree about how many of the Imperial series remain unlocated and which specific examples are lost; different counts — six, seven or eight missing — appear in reputable reporting [1] [2] [3]. However, surviving scholarship and photographic records repeatedly point to a small set of named Imperial eggs as unaccounted for — the Hen with Sapphire Pendant, the Cherub with Chariot, the Nécessaire, and several others known only from early photographs or inventories — and the last formal sightings for most of these are early 20th-century Kremlin or exhibition inventories and occasional private exhibition photos [4] [1] [3] [5].
1. Why the count varies: competing tallies and modern discoveries
Different institutions and historians publish differing totals because Fabergé scholarship has been punctuated by periodic rediscoveries and revisions; for example, one widely cited account says 52 Imperial eggs were made and that whereabouts for only 46 are known (six missing) [1], while Fabergé’s own foundation and some specialists reported that 50 Imperial eggs were delivered and that 43 were known in 2014 (seven missing) [2], and press reporting around rediscoveries has at times described eight as “lost” before identifications reduced that number [3]. The recent rescue and identification of the 1887 Third Imperial Egg from a US scrap-dealer, which was last publicly exhibited in St. Petersburg in 1902, is a reminder that the roster of “missing” eggs changes when items reappear [3] [6].
2. Hen with Sapphire Pendant — last documented in Kremlin inventories
One of the earliest Imperial eggs now unlocated is the “Hen with Sapphire Pendant” of 1886; according to inventories it was listed in the Armory of the Kremlin in 1922 and thereafter drops from the public record, so the Kremlin inventory is the last solid documentary sighting cited in scholarship [4].
3. Cherub with Chariot — survives only in a single blurry photograph
The 1888 “Cherub with Chariot” egg survives to researchers only as a single, low-quality black-and-white image and line references in Fabergé’s and imperial accounting records describing a gold, gem‑set clock egg pulled by a chariot and cherub; no later physical sighting has been confirmed in modern collections or inventories [1] [4].
4. Nécessaire Egg — inventoryed, then dispersed amid Bolshevik sales and foreign purchases
The so-called Nécessaire Egg (often linked to the late 1880s and to Empress Maria Feodorovna’s group) appears in pre‑revolution inventories and photographs from private exhibitions, and scholars trace its trail into the chaotic Bolshevik sales and foreign dispersals of the 1920s; Wartski and Fabergé researchers have spotlighted the Nécessaire among items recorded in the von Dervis and Kremlin lists that later left the country through unofficial channels and remain unlocated in public collections [5] [7] [8].
5. Eggs known only from exhibition photographs — “Danish”/Alexander III commemoratives and others
Several Imperial eggs are known only from period exhibition photographs (for example, items labelled in early 1900s displays as the “Danish Egg” or an Alexander III commemorative), and for these the last documentary sightings are those early 20th‑century exhibition images and the Imperial Cabinet account ledgers; without subsequent inventory entries or provenance trails these eggs’ physical fates are unresolved [4] [6].
6. Why records stop: theft, Bolshevik commercialization, and private sales
The principal break in the provenance for multiple eggs comes after the 1917 revolution and the subsequent Bolshevik seizure and sale of imperial treasures to raise foreign currency; many objects were inventoried at the Kremlin in the early 1920s and then sold, smuggled, or otherwise dispersed, creating gaps that modern cataloguers and dealers try to close through photography, invoices, and auction traces [5] [7] [3].
7. Bottom line and limits of reporting
The most consistently named unlocated Imperial eggs in the sources examined are the Hen with Sapphire Pendant (last in Kremlin inventory, 1922), the Cherub with Chariot (only a single photograph and cabinet records), and the Nécessaire (documented in pre‑revolution inventories and exhibition photos but thereafter dispersed), alongside several eggs known only from early exhibition images or sparse account‑book descriptions [4] [1] [5] [6]. Exact lists and counts vary by source because of discoveries (e.g., the Third Imperial egg’s recovery) and differing definitions of the Imperial corpus, and the available reporting does not provide a single, definitive catalogue of the current “missing” eggs beyond these repeatedly cited examples [3] [2].