THE HEIGHT OF EGGCELLENCE

As the Fabergé Winter Egg is set to smash records at auction today with an estimate of £20million, DOMINC BLISS reveals why the former Easter gifts for Russian Tsars' wives are more prized than ever

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Tsar Nicholas II, seen with his doomed family, commissioned the egg

TWENTY million pounds for an egg just six inches high. If Christie's auctioneers reach their estimated price when they sell it today in London, it will set a new record. Called The Winter Egg, the jewelled ornament was created by Fabergé in Saint Petersburg in 1913 as an Easter gift from Tsar Nicholas II to his mother, the former Empress of Russia.

Its original price was 24,600 roubles, a staggering amount back then. Look at it closely, though, and you realise why it's expected to fetch so much when it sells as part of Christie's auction of Fabergé works.

Finely carved from rock crystal, the egg features delicate engravings on the inside and rose-cut, diamond-set, platinum snowflake motifs on the exterior. The whole work sits on a rock-crystal base resembling a melting block of ice.

But it's when you open up the hinged egg that you understand its true value. Inside, suspended from a platinum hook, is a tiny trelliswork platinum basket, set through with flowers made from diamonds, gold and gemstones.

Christie's says it is "richly imbued with clear Easter symbolism, representing the idea of resurrection and capturing the shift from winter's harshness to the vibrant renewal of spring".

Margo Oganesian, who is head of Fabergé and Russian works of art at the auction house, tells the Daily Express: "The Winter Egg is arguably the most valuable of all the eggs that remain in private collections.

"It was the third most expensive egg Fabergé ever created."

The two more valuable eggs, she says, are The Mosaic Egg and The Catherine the Great Egg, both made in 1914. But they are both housed in museums and therefore unlikely ever to be up for sale.