The Rolls-Royce of Easter Eggs

As the Easter Bunny will soon be making rounds, here’s a look at an egg the likes of which isn’t going to be in a basket: a Fabergé Egg that is a collaboration between the jeweler and Rolls-Royce:

(Images: Rolls-Royce)

The two companies joined for the creation of this egg in 2018.

It is an “Imperial Egg,” only the second of this caliber crafted since 1917, when the Romanovs fell.

(Quick history lesson: in 1885, Emperor Alexander III of Russia wanted to give Empress Maria Feodorovna, his wife, something a little special for Easter, so he commissioned St. Petersburg jeweler House of Fabergé to make something a little special (with “little special” for an emperor and the rest of us being entirely different). The result was a gold egg with an opaque white enameled shell. Inside the shell is a yellow-gold yolk, and in that a golden hen, and in that a diamond replica of the Imperial Crown, including a small ruby pendant. Alexander, not surprisingly, had to continue this (what was he going to do after that—Peeps wouldn’t cut it), so he had nine more made, and his successor, Tsar Nicholas II had 40 produced. Most of these eggs have disappeared.)

The Rolls egg is 6.3 inches high and weighs 14 ounces.

There is an engine-turned, hand-engraved, purple enamel (speaking of purple, know that Nicholas II had an Imperial purple Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud) guilloché base of 18-carat white gold. There are rose gold arms that feature nearly 10 carats of diamonds that create the shape of the egg.

When a lever at the base of the stand is activated (according to Rolls, this is the most complicated mechanism ever created for a Fabergé egg and necessitated the use of computer-aided design software to manifest it), the shell opens. Inside there is a Spirit of Ecstasy figurine hand-sculpted in frosted rock crystal. There are more than 390 carats of natural amethyst on the rose gold vanes, as well, which provides the purple coloration.

And you thought that giant chocolate Easter bunny was something special.