SurpriseTurning a tiny lever disguised as a fruit, hidden among the leaves of the bay tree, activates the hinged circular top of the tree and a feathered songbird rises and flaps its wings, turns its head, opens its beak and sings. [1] HistoryBased on an 18th century French mechanical orange tree [3], it was incorrectly labeled as an orange tree for some time, but was confirmed as a bay tree after the original invoice from Fabergé was examined. Fabergé charged 12,800 rubles for the egg. [1] In 1917 the egg was confiscated by the Russian Provisional Government and moved from the Anichkov Palace to the Kremlin. [1] It was sold to Emanuel Snowman of the jewellers Wartski around 1927. [1] Passing through different owners, it was sold to Malcolm Forbes in 1965 for $35,000, equivalent to $212,634 at the time of the 2004 sale of the Forbes Collection to Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg purchased some nine Imperial eggs, as part of the collection, for almost $100 million [4] See alsoReferencesExternal links
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