In an illustrated lecture, Toby Faber, author of Fabergé's Eggs: One Man's Masterpieces and the End of an Empire, will tell the story of these fabulous objects

Between 1885 and 1916, Carl Fabergé made fifty fabulous jewelled eggs - Easter presents from Russia's last two emperors to their wives. Since the brutal murder of the last Tsar and his family in a Siberian basement, these eggs have become the most famous surviving symbols of the Romanov Empire: both supreme examples of the jeweller's art and the vulgar playthings of a decadent court on the brink of revolution. Their history encompasses Bolsheviks and entrepreneurs, tycoons and heiresses, con-men and queens. Eggs have been sold and smuggled, stolen and forged. Now, as they return to Russia, their history -like that of Russia itself - seems to have come full circle.
Toby Faber was born in Cambridge in 1965 and has worked as an investment banker, management consultant and publisher. His first book, Stradivarius: Five Violins, One Cello and a Genius, was on the New York Times extended bestseller list. Faberge's Eggs was described in The Spectator as 'hugely enjoyable and informative'.

Dedicated to the memory of Morris Wartski (Hebrew name: Maase Ben Moshe Hacohen - the man who brought the Fabergé Eggs to the UK)

All proceeds to Spiro Ark.