Faberge's The Winter Egg, considered one of the most beautiful creations by the legendary jeweller of Imperial Russia, could smash records when it goes under the hammer in London.
The bejewelled egg, estimated to be worth more than £20 million (€22.7m), is set to go on sale at Christie's on Tuesday this afternoon.
The price tag has not deterred international collectors, some of whom expressed interest well in advance of the sale, according to the London auction house.
Commissioned by Russia's Tsar Nicholas II for his mother in 1913, the delicate crystal egg created by Carl Faberge has changed hands and broken sales records multiple times over the last century.
It is expected to surpass the previous sales record for a Faberge egg -- set in 2007 when the Rothschild Egg, which was not made for the imperial family, was sold for nearly £9 million to a Russian collector.
Faberge created 50 Imperial Easter Eggs for Russia's then-ruling Romanov family over a 31-year period, making them incredibly rare and valuable, Margo Oganesian from Christie's said.
They were commissioned as Easter gifts in a tradition started by Tsar Alexander III in the 1880s.
His heir Nicholas II had an annual standing order for two Easter Eggs to be made for his mother and his wife, until the fall of the Romanovs in the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Today, only 43 of the Imperial Easter Eggs remain, with seven missing.
"The Winter Egg is truly one of the rarest items that you can find," Ms Oganesian said ahead of the sale.
4,500 diamonds
Carved from delicate rock crystal, the icy-looking orb is studded with some 4,500 rose-cut diamonds and stands at only 14cm tall.
Beyond its opulence, it is the "technique and craftsmanship" that makes it exceptional, according to Ms Oganesian.
"It's really hard to comprehend how Faberge created it."
The egg and its base are sculpted from crystal featuring diamond-encrusted platinum snowflakes.
Inside, it contains a delicious secret: a bouquet of flowers made of white quartz anemones held by gold wire stems, gathered in a platinum basket.
Like many other Romanov possessions, the egg bears witness to Russian history. It was transferred from Saint Petersburg to Moscow in 1920 after the revolution.
As with many other Imperial Eggs, it was sold by the Soviet government to generate foreign currency and was acquired by London jeweller Wartski between 1929 and 1933, according to Christie's.
The Winter Egg was subsequently part of several British collections but was considered lost from 1975, the auction house said in an essay attached to the sale lot online.
"For 20 years, experts and specialists lost sight of it until 1994, when it was rediscovered and brought to Christie's for sale in Geneva," said Ms Oganesian.
Eight years later, in 2002, it was sold again for a record $9.6 million in New York.
The imperial eggs have been enjoying renewed interest on the art market in recent decades, mainly among wealthy Russians keen to acquire a piece of their country's history.
