Peter Carl Faberge was born on May 30, 1846, in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was the eldest of two sons of Gustav and Charlotte (Jungstedt) Faberge. His mother was the daughter of a Danish painter, and his father was a French Huguenot jeweler and goldsmith. Gustav had moved to Russia from France in 1841 and was an active jeweler whose specialties were the heavy, eclectic French styles of the mid 1800s which were at that time, highly favored by Russian society. This style, combined with other masterful techniques, would later play an important role in Carl’s career. He began his formal studies in St. Petersburg, and at the age of eighteen was apprenticed to jewelers in France, Italy, Germany, and England. He returned to Russia in 1864 to join his father’s business as a certified master jeweler and art historian, and eventually took over the firm in 1870.

In 1872, Carl married Augusta Julia Jacobs, daughter of the manager of the Imperial Furniture Workshops. It was through this union that he became involved with the Imperial Cabinet also known as the Hermitage, a winter palace for the Russian Tsars which housed all of the priceless treasures. He volunteered his services to help restore, repair and appraise the royal antiques. In 1882 Agathon, his younger brother joined the firm and together they began designing their own creations elevating their business into the height of fashion. It was also later this year that Carl was extended an invitation to participate in the Moscow Pan-Russian Exhibition. He was awarded the gold medal and declared as the re-inventor of Russian jewelry art by Tsar Alexander III, who became one of his valued customers. Over a ten year period, he had re-introduced color with precious and semi-precious stones combined with metals, enamels, and a new motif of frost and ice crystals forming a unique “Russian style” of jewelry that was most pleasing to the Tsar.

In 1885, Tsar Alexander commissioned Carl Faberge to create an extraordinary gift for his wife, Tsarina Maria, for their twentieth wedding anniversary which happened to coincide with the Russian Orthodox Easter, the most important holiday of the year. This was a gift giving time of which eggs were considered the symbol of hope and rebirth. The Faberge Firm created the first of fifty-four Imperial jewelry Easter eggs, as gifts to Tsarinas Maria and Alexandra, eight of which have now been lost to history. The firm, which had now become known as The House of Faberge, was given the unique distinction of “Jeweler of the Imperial Court.” Each egg was elegantly designed to delight the royal families and reflect the history of the last Tsars of Russia. Although Faberge did create additional eggs for private buyers, the Imperial collection remains the most celebrated and the majority of which can be viewed in museums around the world. Only ten of the eggs remain in Russia today and can be viewed at the Kremlin Armory Museum.