Spirit of Eggstasy: Rolls-Royce's Fabergé egg is the pinnacle of posh
It's going to a person who collects both, which sounds like quite the life.
In all my days writing about cars, I never thought I'd see a collaborative project between an automaker and Fabergé, but here we are, thanks to Rolls-Royce and one very discerning customer.
Rolls-Royce and Fabergé have teamed up to create one very special egg. It's the second such egg to be commissioned in Fabergé's "Imperial Class" since 1917, which is a term apparently reserved for the best eggs the long-standing company has ever constructed. The other, Pearl, was created in 2017 for a Qatari pearl collector.
It took seven people to create The Spirit of Ecstasy, which is not only the egg's name, but also the name of Rolls-Royce's unmistakable hood ornament. The egg sits atop a purple enamel base adorned with 18-karat white gold. It's about as opulent as humanly possible, sporting almost 10 carats of round white diamonds and more than 390 carats of amethyst. The whole egg measures just 6.2 inches in height, and it weighs less than a pound.
Fabergé eggs need to make a comeback as objects of desire in modern heist films. I feel like it's been a while.
Normally, its rose-gold arms protect the egg's innards, but moving a lever on the base opens the whole thing up, showing off the Spirit of Ecstasy inside, handmade from frosted crystal. The base hides the small mechanism that opens the egg, and Rolls-Royce says it's "probably" the most complicated opening mechanism of any Fabergé egg ever made. As one does.
The original "Imperial" Fabergé eggs were gifts. The House of Fabergé created 50 such eggs for the Russian czars Alexander III and Nicholas II between 1885 and 1917, and they were given out as gifts to the czars' mothers and wives. Only 43 survive, and they're currently split between the Kremlin, private collections, museums and Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch who owns multiple eggs.
Rolls-Royce's Fabergé egg will be on display at the House of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, England on Oct. 23, and as you might expect, the shindig is invite-only. After that, it will be on display in Fabergé's window at its London location through the holiday season. Eventually, it will land in the hands of its lucky owner, who happens to be a big collector of both Rolls-Royce vehicles and Fabergé eggs. Sounds like a pretty sweet hobby.
This is probably the closest you'll ever get to this egg. Unless you, dear reader, happen to be the person who will own it. If that's the case, email me, let's hang out.
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