First Hen (Fabergé egg)
1885 Imperial Fabergé egg
The First Hen egg or Jeweled Hen egg is an Imperial Fabergé egg. It became the first in a series of more than 50 such jeweled eggs made under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé for the Russian Imperial family. It was delivered to Tsar Alexander III and given to his wife Maria Feodorovna in 1885. The tsarina enjoyed the egg so much that Alexander III quickly placed a standing order with Fabergé to create a new egg for his wife every Easter thereafter, requiring only that each egg be unique and that it contain some kind of "surprise" within it. This particular egg is now a part of the permanent collection of the Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Design
While Fabergé was the owner of his workshop and while all of the eggs produced there are considered "Fabergé eggs", Fabergé himself is not known to have ever participated in the actual construction of any of them, even the first. The crafting of the first Imperial egg is instead attributed to Erik Kollin of Fabergé's workshop. It is made of gold completely coated with opaque white enamel to look like a real egg. A thin band of gold where the two halves of the shell are joined is visible around the middle of the egg.
Surprise
The two halves of the outer shell fit together in a bayonet-style fitting which opens when twisted to reveal the egg's "surprise", a round "yolk" of gold with a matte finish.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “First Hen (Fabergé egg)” is 1885 Imperial Fabergé egg. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through First, Fabergé and Imperial, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1885 Imperial Fabergé egg” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q2504735. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1885.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “First Hen (Fabergé egg)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow First Hen (Fabergé egg) primary sources, First Hen (Fabergé egg) archive and First research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “First Hen (Fabergé egg)”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “First Hen (Fabergé egg)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.