Born in 1846, Carl Fabergé was apprenticed as a jeweler in Germany at age 14. In 1872, he took over his father's jewelry shop in St. Petersburg, Russia. With the help of his younger brother, Agathon, Carl began making meticulously accurate copies of Russian treasures, which were offered for sale.
After his pieces were displayed at a fair in Moscow, the current Czar, Alexander III, presented him with a medal declaring him to have "...opened a new era in jewelry art." Apparently, Carl was one of the first modern jewelers to treat his trade as an art form, giving his work a value far beyond the cost of the materials used therein.
In the early 1880's, Czar Alexander III commissioned Carl's workshop to create an Easter gift for his wife, Czarina Maria. Carl designed the first of his famous Fabergé eggs, and passed off the creation of the famous work to his workmaster, Michael Perchin. It is interesting to note that Carl did not personally work
on any of the the eggs that bear his name.
Carl Fabergé's fame continued to grow until 1910, when it reached its peak in his appointment as Court Goldsmith to Czar Nicholas II in 1910. In 1917, Carl sold his company to his employees and fled to Switzerland from the October Revolution. His life ended in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1920, and he was buried in Cannes beside his wife.