The late 15th and early 16th centuries marked the moment of greatest exploration for Man as he daringly took to the Seas in quest of knowledge and trade. Theo Fabergé, last grandson of Imperial Jeweller Carl Fabergé, celebrates the 500th anniversary of the first occurrence of the word ‘America’, with his BIRTH OF THE NEW WORLD Egg. The priceless Waldseemüller Map of 1507 housed in the United States Library of Congress, incorporated for the first time those four magic syllables that have become synonymous with the promise of liberty and justice. Here too was depicted the first recorded image of the Americas as a distinct continent, and the first approximation of the Far East lands. Thus was born a New World, driven by opportunity as well as commerce from East-West trade.
Theo Fabergé has created in bronze, the two great explorers whose fearless voyages contributed to the Waldseemüller Map - Amerigo Vespucci and Vasco da Gama. Dressed in the robes and Christian jewellery of their epoch, they stand heroically posed on a symbolic log-book, its page indicated with a golden marker bearing Fabergé swags and set with a brilliant diamond. With one hand, they hold the drawing-instruments and scrolls of their vocation; with the other they support aloft the golden Egg upon which is represented the Map.
The Egg is crafted in 18-karat gold, hand spun and polished to perfection. Entirely hand engraved upon it, the Map is laid out in the first century Ptolemaic system. Each continent and island is reproduced in painstaking loyalty to the 500-year old original. Running ropework in white gold, frames two panels of symbolic clouds. The finial is modelled after two heraldic cartographers’ dolphins, their faces modelled after the major winds shown on the Map.
Open the Egg, to reveal the surprise; a model of Vasco da Gama’s great flagship the San Gabriel in sterling silver and 18-carat gold, upon a base engine-turned in mimicry of the ocean waves. Lift up the ship and see a final detail; in the Fabergé family tradition, Theo has placed a perfect miniature of a 16th century mariner’s quadrant in silk and copper, to guide the explorers of yesteryear as well as today’s collectors, on their voyages.
Theo Fabergé’s BIRTH OF THE NEW WORLD EGG is a wondrous tribute to the America of 500 years ago and of today. This is the apogee of craftsmanship and valuable design in the 21st century.
