Dragons, “Game of Thrones” and the Legacy of Fabergé

Viewers around the world are eagerly awaiting the premiere of the Game of Thrones prequel called House of Dragons, but before the series makes it’s HBO Max debut on August 21, we’re taking a close look at a one-of-kind Fabergé created to honor the GOT legacy.

Fabergé: The Origin Story

What do you gift a queen who possesses one of the finest jewels in the world? In 1885, artist jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé wrestled with this question as he sat down to conceptualize his first imperial commission from Russian Emperor, Alexander III: a one-of-a-kind Easter egg for his beloved wife. Not an easy task given the prolific gifting of ornate jeweled eggs among stately circles during Easter.

There was added pressure on Peter Carl as the king had just bestowed upon him the title of ‘Supplier to the Court of His Imperial Majesty’. The success (or failure) of this commission would affect his future as jeweler to the imperial family, nobility and beyond.

To accomplish this special project, Fabergé elected to apply his talents as a master jeweler in creating an objet d’art that would not only impress with its superior artisanship but also delight the empress by evoking a childish feeling of surprise. When the moment arrived, the monarch presented his wife with Fabergé’s Hen Egg. The exterior shell reflected realism with its opaque white enamel surface, suggesting a humble object, which transformed as the queen opened the egg with an agile twist of her wrist, revealing layers of surprises; a gold interior surrounding a hen in chased gold.

Peter Carl Fabergé’s desire to please his royal patrons served as a moment of genesis, which superimposed a unique ‘Fabergé Egg’ tradition on the festive season, forever fusing the art of decorative eggs with the jeweler’s name.

Creating a Masterpiece

Today, the House of Fabergé honors Peter Carl’s legacy via bespoke works of jeweled art that not only reflect royal standard but also pay tribute to modern-day legends. For its recent production, Fabergé collaborated with HBO®’s award-winning television series Game of Thrones, celebrating the show’s 10th anniversary.

“We chose Daenerys Targaryen as our inspiration. Her association with her dragon eggs, and journey as a result, made her the perfect character for this project.”

Michele Clapton, the Emmy® and BAFTA® winning costume designer from Game of Thrones

To bring their vision to life, the creators turned towards the intricate art of enamelling, closely related with Peter Carl Fabergé who was regarded a master of the ancient technique of ornamentation, formulating over 145 new colours during his age. As Clapton explains, Daenerys Targaryen’s story throughout the course of the television series was particularly visual as she uses her costumes to openly communicate her place, emotions, and allegiance.

To infuse energy, life and fire into the Fabergé Game of Thrones Egg the team incorporated natural diamonds alongside vivid colors of enameled scales covering the entire outer eggshell.

Liisa Tallgren, Designer, Fabergé illuminates, “The purpose of objet d’art is to intrigue and delight,  much like a painting or a sculpture. By varying repetition and change, a rhythm is formed: for example, the Egg has enameled cells for a certain length, then, a section encrusted with natural diamonds,  followed anew by enamel. The smooth surface and subtle reflections of enamel are contrasted by the texture of the natural diamond facets and their lively sparkle. The visual variation generates rhythm.”

The base of the Egg mirrors a dragon’s tail, which discreetly houses an opening mechanism, and is interspersed with natural diamonds. The enthralling objet d’art opens in three sections, representing Daenerys’s dragons; Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. Flame-like scales appear as the egg continues unfolding, graduating from a pavé of deep red rubies (near the base), moving upwards to pink sapphires that ultimately culminate into scintillating natural diamonds. Black rhodium plating adds depth and brings forth the mineral light of the precious stones.

The opening of the first layer, exposes the next, which is a second 18K white gold egg intricately pierced out to form three dragons, set with natural white diamonds. Tallgren further explains her choice of diamonds, “The white color in the egg symbolizes Daenerys wedding to the Dothrakis. The sparkling white diamonds felt like the appropriate choice of materials to interpret white color and that important milestone in her journey. A white diamond is a clear, see-through material that doesn’t really look like anything, but when carefully cut and polished has an amazing ability to capture and reflect light even in very small sizes, sparkling in the colors of the spectrum. This quality is a beautiful metaphor for spiritual growth, as it is not so much about the material itself, but what you do with it, to realize its full potential.”

In true Fabergé style, the smaller egg protects a final surprise.
The trio of gem-encrusted dragons open to reveal an exquisite crown that would have been presented to Daenerys when she took her place on the Iron Throne and suggests an imagined continuation of her saga as her highly anticipated coronation never was.

At the heart of the crown lies a pear-shaped ruby from Mozambique, responsibly sourced from the world’s largest ruby mine by Gemfields. The gem represents Daenerys, her house color, and her fiery spirit, paying tribute to her journey to grow into the queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

Since antiquity, light, fire, energy have been the source of inspiration and legends, giving birth to life on our planet and fueling our imagination. Natural diamonds encompass and represent this mineral force of nature. From the outer shell to the heart of The Game of Thrones Fabergé Egg, they have played a vital role in breathing life and light into this exceptional masterpiece, enabling Fabergé to continue its imperial tradition of decorative art inspired by myth, memories and magic.