A look at the history of the amazing Faberge Eggs and the Romanov family behind their creation.

The book starts with the origins of the Faberge family and the creation and operation of his workshop and then quickly moves on to delve much more deeply into the history of the Romanov family and how the tradition of the Faberge Easter Eggs got started.
In and out of the authors coverage of the Romanov's there is some discussion of the work that went into the eggs but mostly this book was about the Romanov's and how the eggs fit into their lives.
If I were to have a serious complaint about this book this would be it. While I did learn more about the Faberge family and the eggs than I had ever known before, way, way more time was spend on the Romanov's that I wish had been spent more on the eggs themselves or what went into their creation

My secondary complaint is the lack of color plates of the eggs themselves, it was so frustrating to read descriptions of these wonderful eggs but not be able to see more than a few of them. I do understand how expensive color plates can be and I have no idea how restrictive with the images of the eggs the current owners might be. It was still very frustrating.

My last complaint would be the last few chapters where it just became a listing of who bought them and how and when and while I expect that is interesting to true scholars, I found it tedious.

All that said I did really enjoy this book and looked forward to getting back to reading it when I had to put it down. It was well written, had more details then I had read before about either top but never really felt dry and scholarly (the last few chapters aside) and I got a feel for these historical figures as real people.

This would be a good starting point for anyone interested in either Faberge or the Romanov’s. ( )

This was a fascinating look at some of the world's most famous objets d'art, the Faberge Eggs. Toby Faber gives us an intriguing book that is meticulously researched. The book starts out by telling us about the provenance of the eggs, for whom they were given and why. For me this was the most interesting part of the book. The second part of the book tells us what happened to the eggs after the Revolution. It's an amazing story that finally sees a large amount of these famous eggs returning to Russia.

For me one of the biggest drawbacks of the book was the lack of photographs of the eggs themselves. Of course, there are a few pictures but nothing that really lets us see the eggs in their full glory. ( )

An excellent, concise history of some of the famous pieces of jewellery of all time. The sections prior to the events of 1917 are really the best, with the revolution dealt with in frank, somewhat moving terms, with some non judgemental comments on some of the Bolshevik intellectual vandalism. After the Romanov's were killed, the stories become somewhat more murky and at times I found the trail of their ownership difficult to follow. Perhaps it's how my mind worked, but perhaps the subject could have been dealt with in graphical form at the start of each eggs story. How they ended up predominantly in the West is interesting but at times difficult to follow. A gratifying conclusion, particularly given that the eggs are now returning back to their native Russia. Recommended, with the caveat that the last quarter can be harder to follow ( )

Incredibly impressive and intricate examples of high kitsch, the Easter eggs Fabergé created for the Russian Imperial family have acquired mythic status: Toby Faber gives a fascinating account of the eggs, their life and times.

Although he employed over 1500 people and was a prolific jeweler, producing thousands of pieces ranging from cigarette cases to parasol handles, Fabergé will always be associated with the 50 jeweled eggs he made for the Romanovs.

Any history of the eggs must be a history of the doomed dynasty: Faber does a superb job of bringing the period and personalities to life. The only complaint is that there are not enough illustrations of the objet he so enticingly describes. ( )