Faberge easter egg to be presented to Petersburg

On Monday, August 4, a ceremony of presenting the Easter egg, named "The 300th Anniversary," to the former capital of the Russian Empire, to which its historic name (instead of Leningrad) was returned only in the post-Soviet time, will take place in Petersburg. The egg was made by British jeweler Theo Faberge, the grandson of famous Karl Faberge, for the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg.

The egg is made from cut glass and covered with gilding. Engraved on it are the profiles of Russian emperors, the views of nine most well-known palaces of St Petersburg and its suburbs. The egg bears the tsar crown with a ruby, said a spokesman for the St Petersburg association of international cooperation which acted as the organiser of this event.

"The 300th Anniversary" egg, just as other Easter eggs, which made the Faberge jewelry firm famous all over the word, has a surprise: it has a small gilded model of a sailing vessel, the symbol of St Petersburg, inside. The egg stands on a marble support.

"The 300th Anniversary" egg is another one in the "St Petersburg Collection" of Easter eggs the work over which Theo Faberge started in 1985.

Earlier, Theo Faberge already presented several eggs from this collection to the State History Museum of St Petersburg, to the Hermitage, the museums of Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo.

The egg will be presented by representatives of the jeweler, and it will be kept in the collection of the Peterhof State Museum-cum-Reserve.