Happy Tycoon

There are so many and precious things ahead, Yang Jing is numb from looking at them. But when he opened the last mouthful of the small wooden box, the contents inside immediately caught his attention.

Compared with the previous boxes containing sculptures and oil paintings, this box is much smaller in size, and it is about the same size as the boxes containing jewelry and gemstones. When Yang Jing opened it, the boxes inside were about ten centimeters to fifteen centimeters long. Yang Jing's interest was immediately aroused by the centimeter, colorful and different eggs.

Damn, these aren't all the legendary Russian eggs, are they? Even though he had already recognized the identities of these eggs, Yang Jing still couldn't believe that there were as many as sixteen of them in front of him. Russian eggs.

Russian eggs, also called Easter eggs, are unique in the world because they were made by the famous Russian jeweler Peter Karl Faberge, so this kind of eggs are called Faberge eggs to commemorate this outstanding Jewelry Master.

All over the world, eggs are loved and worshiped by many peoples, but painting eggs is a unique traditional custom of the Slavic peoples, and the Russians are the people who have preserved this artistic custom to this day.

Russians describe their love, dreams and longings on Easter eggs, which is the cohesion of Russian soul and art. For Russians, easter eggs can bring health, beauty, strength and abundance.

Because Easter eggs are related to traditional Russian religious customs, they are a must for some religious festivals, especially important celebration utensils for believers at Easter. People treat Easter eggs like icons and patron saints and keep them at home. Russians also greet new little lives with Easter eggs.

Although Russia is located in the extreme north of Europe, Russian jewelry has a long history and a high status in the jewelry industry. In the early days of Easter in 1885, Russian Tsar Alexander III specially ordered an exquisite egg from Faberge Craftsmanufacturing Co., Ltd., a royal jewelry design company, in order to comfort the queen Maria who married from Denmark, and gave it to the queen for Easter. Gift.

So Faberge began to study how to make this egg, preparing to impress Queen Maria.

Under such circumstances, the world's first Easter egg was born.

This easter egg looks plain on the outside, but to everyone's surprise, there is a gold egg inside the white enamel outer shell. Inside the egg is a small golden hen with a golden belly. There is also a miniature tiara set with diamonds and a miniature egg made of rubies.

The several layers of organs hidden in this little Easter egg brought great surprises to the queen, and Maria couldn't put it down for Faberge's gift. Alexander III immediately issued an order requiring Faberge to design a unique Easter egg for tribute every year in the future, and it must make the queen very happy.

So, starting from that year, Faberge designed and produced one or two Easter eggs for the Russian royal family every year. From Alexander III to the resignation of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II, it has been a total of 33 years. time.

During this period, Belfarge produced a total of 61 eggs, and there are still 52 existing in the world. Among them, there are 54 tsarist eggs made for the Russian royal family, and 47 are still in the world.

At the beginning, the value of these Faberge eggs was not recognized by the world. When the earliest Faberge eggs were auctioned, the value of one was only less than five hundred dollars. But as time goes by, Faberge eggs are more and more recognized, and their value is also rolling upwards.

By 2015, as long as any Faberge egg is put up for auction, the starting price will be tens of millions of dollars. The most conservative estimate now is that the value of a Faberge egg is as high as 33 million US dollars!

And sixteen Faberge eggs suddenly appeared in front of them, which is worth more than 500 million U.S. dollars!

Putting money aside, the key is that this kind of Faberge egg is really rare. There are only 52 left in the world, and you can't see it on the market at all.

It's just that Yang Jing suddenly felt that something was wrong, it was the wrong quantity.

Faberge made a total of 61 Faberge eggs, which is the number recognized all over the world. Among them, 54 were dedicated to the Russian royal family, and the other seven were dedicated to the French mining giant Alexander Kerch. Made to order by Berge Art Factory. These seven Easter eggs are also known as Croat Easter eggs.

But the problem is that the only 52 Faberge eggs left in the world are all famous and famous, so how come there are 16 eggs here? Even if the missing nine eggs were included in the sixteen eggs, there would still be seven more eggs in total!

Aren't these easter eggs made by Faberge himself?

However, Yang Jing thought about it and thought it was impossible. How could it be possible that the Easter eggs that could be singled out by Nicholas II and put in a wooden box for precious preservation were not Easter eggs made by Faberge himself?

And Yang Jing knows that there is another important reason why Faberge eggs are precious, that is, the shape and style of each Faberge egg is unique, and among the 16 eggs in front of him, although the color and shape are different Each is different, but there are 12 eggs in the style of a set!

Don't ask Yang Jing how he can tell that the styles of these 12 eggs are the same, he just can tell! It is estimated that another person can see it, especially the Chinese people.

Because of these 12 eggs with different shapes and colors, each egg is carved with a very magical animal shape, starting from a mouse, to an old cow, a tiger, a little rabbit, and the legendary Chinese dragon. To that silly-looking little pig.

This is clearly a set of easter eggs designed and produced with the theme of the Chinese zodiac!

However, according to historical records, Faberge has never designed and produced this kind of Easter eggs based on the Chinese Zodiac. So what are these Easter eggs?

Even if Yang Jing's IQ is as high as 147, he still can't figure out this kind of question that has been covered in dust for a century. Since you can't figure it out, don't waste your brain cells thinking about it. In that turbulent era, anything can happen, so let's just use the holy ring!

After identification, these sixteen eggs were all made by Faberge. It is impossible to make mistakes in the identification of the holy ring, Yang Jing has always believed in this point.

A total of nine Faberge eggs were lost, all of which were from the collection of the Russian royal family, such as the tsar sapphire pendant egg made in 1886, the cherub pulling a carriage egg made in 1888, and the egg made in 1888. The necessary easter eggs in 1889 and the Alexander III commemorative eggs made in 1909 are among the lost, and they are not seen in modern times.

However, the four Faberge eggs lost by the Russian royal family now all appear in the sixteen eggs.

As for the remaining twelve easter eggs, as Yang Jing guessed, they were also made by Faberge, and Faberge spent five years secretly making them for Nicholas II.

These twelve Easter eggs were produced by Faberge from the beginning of 1900 to October 1904, a total of five years. From the perspective of time, Yang Jing believes that these twelve eggs should be specially prepared by Faberge to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Nicholas II's accession to the throne.

Nicholas II was an ambitious guy. Everyone knew that when he was in power, he had a great interest in China in the Far East, especially the Northeast of China. As a tsar determined to unify the Far East, Nicholas II has been very interested in Chinese culture since he took the throne. In his opinion, in order to rule the Far East, as a tsar, he must understand the culture of that region. People's culture and living habits.

Perhaps it is for this reason that Faberge came up with such a way to please Nicholas II.

The zodiac is a very famous cultural custom in China, and the animals in the zodiac are very cute. Use the zodiac as the model to make a set of eggs as a gift for the tenth anniversary of Nicholas II's accession to the throne, so great His Majesty the Tsar I'm sure you'll love it. Especially at this time when the Russo-Japanese War is in full swing, using such a set of eggs as a gift also indicates that Russia will win that difficult war.

This is probably what Faberge thought at the time.

Although Yang Jing doesn't know why Faberge made such a set of Easter eggs, it's not an exaggeration for him to guess so!

Anyway, there is no record of this set of zodiac easter eggs in history. Perhaps Nicholas II liked this set of eggs so much that he kept them privately, or there may be other reasons that caused this set of easter eggs not to be seen by outsiders. learned.

As if there was no news about the Easter eggs made by Faberge in 1904 and 1905, according to Faberge’s habit, he would present two Easter eggs to the Russian royal family every year, but the four eggs in those two years were unknown. Silently, posterity did not even know the names and shapes of the four Easter eggs presented in those two years.

Similarly, this set of easter eggs dedicated to Nicholas II in 1904 has no historical records for unknown reasons.

However, whether there is a record or not, this is not important to Yang Jing now. The important thing is that these sixteen Faberge eggs now belong to him completely, especially among them is a set of extraordinarily precious twelve zodiac eggs.

After silently wrapping the last mouthful of the box with consciousness, Yang Jing let out a long breath.

After a big stretch, Yang Jing walked out of the cabin contentedly.

These more than two months were not in vain, and the treasure of the last tsar alone is worth the trip!