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Fabergé Eggs Are Ridiculous (And Fascinating) · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: tuning in. Let's hear it for one of the fanciest
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: boys in podcasting, our super producer, mister Max Williams.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I feel like I should go put a checket on him,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: and also I Max, Yeah you do MAXX yeah, bleeping
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: all that. I don't know, Ben. Kind of my feelings
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: are a little hurd. I'm not gonna lie because I
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: am the one podcasting holding a tiny Peterbread hypoelogenic dog
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: named Apollo, So I'm feeling pretty fancy today too.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Apollo absolute legend. One of our favorite audience members as
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: well as you, specifically you, if you are listening to this,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: that's none other than mister Noel Brown. I am several people,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: but they called me Ben.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Here multitudes, there's no question about that.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Oh thanks man.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: And that you're you're you know you have multiple personality Disorderah,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I'm diagnosed. I'm diagnosed. No it's not true. Well it's
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: not true at all. You have you leave many lives
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: and wear many hats.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Sir, sir, immediate response without being defensive is why call
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: it a disorder exactly?
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Why why be inherently negative about it from the start?
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: You know it's it's it's just a how about list
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: a syndrome? Okay, all right, negative too. I'm not gonna
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: let so how about this?
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: How about instead we pull up one of the old
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: personas for voiceover, which would go something like previously on
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Is that Max powers astronaut with a secret.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, you remember, Thank you for so much man.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: All right, so this episode is a spiritual successor to
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: a series you and I did that we quite enjoy.
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  Speaker 1: With our pals Jack and Miles on Ridiculous Historical Flexes,
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  Speaker 1: we were hanging out with our friends out west and
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: we said, Hey, one ridiculous thing about history is people
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: find the weirdest ways to try to be important or
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: try to show off.
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  Speaker 2: It's true. I think it's a product of like, once
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  Speaker 2: you reach a certain level of wealth and you kind
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  Speaker 2: of have all your basic needs met, shelter, food, companionship,
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  Speaker 2: all of the mass stuff, you kind of run out
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  Speaker 2: of stuff to throw your money into, and then you
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  Speaker 2: start to get into the really niche territory of what's
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  Speaker 2: the smallest thing that I could spend a lot of
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  Speaker 2: money on to show off the fact that I am
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  Speaker 2: unconcerned with money.
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  Speaker 1: Right, I don't want to buy a multi million dollar
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  Speaker 1: yacht like all those common rich folk.
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  Speaker 2: Now I got all my money and eggs.
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  Speaker 1: I got all my money and eggs. Excellent setup. Later,
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  Speaker 1: after we were hanging with the boys from Daily Zeitgeist
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  Speaker 1: please tune into their show, we realized that no, you,
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  Speaker 1: Max and I had not addressed one of the strangest,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: most niche flexes in all of Western history. And you
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  Speaker 1: nailed it perfectly. It's an idea that seems ludicrous on
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  Speaker 1: the surface, but it came to define an era of
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  Speaker 1: Russian monarchy. It launched loads of mysteries. It led to
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  Speaker 1: the creation of one of the world's most bizarre flexes ever,
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  Speaker 1: the Faberge.
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  Speaker 2: Egg, for sure. And I do just want to say,
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  Speaker 2: per my last comment about what is the smallest thing
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  Speaker 2: that I could dump a bunch of money into? There
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  Speaker 2: is also, of course, the aspect of craftsmanship and the
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  Speaker 2: appreciation of fine things of fine art. So I do
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  Speaker 2: not entirely believe that interest in fine things or artifacts
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  Speaker 2: is inherently some sort of look at mesm right. But
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  Speaker 2: that being said, the idea of the Faberge egg is
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  Speaker 2: more or less or the concept of it. The term
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  Speaker 2: has become a stand in for just like really really
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  Speaker 2: really expensive small stuff. Yeah, yeah, what am I made
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  Speaker 2: a faggs?
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  Speaker 1: Remember that episode of The Simpsons with bleeding Gums Murphy eggs.
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  Speaker 2: That's a that's a touching episode. Well, I guess I'm
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  Speaker 2: thinking of the original bleeding Gums Murphy episode, and that
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  Speaker 2: must be the same one. I don't remember the Faberge
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  Speaker 2: eggs detail though.
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  Speaker 1: Oh here, let's play a clip. Please, Let's see if
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  Speaker 1: we can get away with it.
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  Speaker 3: And I spent all my money on my fifteen hundred
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  Speaker 3: dollars a day habit. I'd like another Faberge egg please.
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  Speaker 3: I'll tell you when I've had enough.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean cook. Let's say, first of all, though, Ben,
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  Speaker 2: that's great, and obviously the joke there would be that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, even a jazz musician, the mind immediately goes to,
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  Speaker 2: like having a fifteen dollars a day drugs habit, But
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  Speaker 2: fifteen hundred bucks for a Faberge egg. I mean, that's
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  Speaker 2: some serious inflation. That episode came out in like the
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  Speaker 2: early nineties, so I think the prices have gone up
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  Speaker 2: quite a bit since then. My friend I found a
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  Speaker 2: video that I checked out in advance of this about
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  Speaker 2: the I think ten individually most expensive and valuable Faberge eggs. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: which we're gonna get into later. But what the hell
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  Speaker 2: is a Faberge egg?
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  Speaker 1: Right?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Okay, spoiler for everybody hungry as we always are. You
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  Speaker 1: cannot eat these eggs.
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  Speaker 2: You can't.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, possibly you could wear them like jewelry, but it
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  Speaker 1: would be inconvenient. They don't really do anything, So how
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  Speaker 1: did they become a thing in the first place?
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  Speaker 2: Or to a display piece? Right right?
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  Speaker 1: Objective art, objective fancy. So to understand this, we have
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  Speaker 1: to start with the man himself, Peter Carl Faberget Carl,
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  Speaker 1: to his buckeroos and to his buddies.
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  Speaker 2: Ah yes, and we of course have to journey to
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  Speaker 2: Karl's native land of Russia, Saint Petersburg, specifically, born there
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  Speaker 2: in May of eighteen forty six, he was part of
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  Speaker 2: a very elite class of artisans, coming from a storied
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  Speaker 2: lineage of these types of very bespoke craftspeople. So his
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  Speaker 2: path was kind of already laid out for him, and
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  Speaker 2: that he was the son of a fine jeweler. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, in the context of this era, your path, as
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  Speaker 1: you said, Nole's kind of set out for you. If
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  Speaker 1: you're the son of a blacksmith, you're probably going to
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  Speaker 1: grow up to be a blacksmith. If you're the son
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  Speaker 1: of a cheesemaker, you're gonna grow up to make cheese.
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  Speaker 2: You say that to me, you son of a cheesemaker.
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  Speaker 2: It's pretty good. Although I do love cheese. Cheese monger. Also,
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  Speaker 2: the manger thing has always been felt inherently insulting to me.
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  Speaker 1: But why do people only mong cheese and war?
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  Speaker 2: And fish? Your fishmonger as well. I think the manger
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  Speaker 2: of it all has to do with like the fact
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  Speaker 2: that you ply your trade like outdoors and just like.
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  Speaker 1: Selling on the street.
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  Speaker 2: Mongering your your wares. But a warmonger would also be,
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  Speaker 2: like what would you call it, a profiteer, like a
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  Speaker 2: war profiteer, like.
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  Speaker 1: A murk abersonary. Anyway, Luckily Faberge is not a one
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  Speaker 1: of those war monsters.
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  Speaker 2: He's a blingmonger.
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  Speaker 1: He's a bling monger just so. His dad is a
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  Speaker 1: successful jeweler in Saint Petersburg, and so from a young
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  Speaker 1: age his son is training in that same craft, and
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  Speaker 1: his journeys take him to Fan to Dresden, to Paris
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  Speaker 1: to London. At each and every stop he is studying
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  Speaker 1: with the great masters of goldsmith ory a word I'm
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  Speaker 1: kind of styling on and and jewelry in general. It's
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  Speaker 1: the eighteen seventies. Let's fast forward there. Carl inherits his
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  Speaker 1: dad's operation and at this time they are successful jewelers
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  Speaker 1: in Saint Petersburg, but they are not not quite Faberge
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  Speaker 1: as we understand it today. It's still a family business.
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  Speaker 2: But Carl, having inherited his father's business, has got eyes
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  Speaker 2: on expansion.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So Carl brings on his brother. I know,
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  Speaker 1: we'll love this name, Agathon. Agathon is that like, do
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  Speaker 1: you know any Agathon?
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  Speaker 2: I know, I know an Agamemnon.
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  Speaker 1: No, you don't, I'm just.
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  Speaker 2: From like that. The history Agathon is incredible though. It's
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  Speaker 2: sounds like someone who would inherently be blessed with some
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  Speaker 2: sort of godlike you know, thunder power. So yeah, in
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  Speaker 2: eighteen eighty two this happens. He also takes on his
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  Speaker 2: own sons and they bring in another outsider, a Swiss
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  Speaker 2: artisan by the name of facois barbe perfect.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and their initial thing from the jump is to
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  Speaker 1: make money. The House of Faberge is a studio, right,
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  Speaker 1: They require custom and they want to pitch to sort
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  Speaker 1: of the one percenters of the world. People of money
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  Speaker 1: and means. Begin to take notice, and the folks in
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  Speaker 1: the know, like we were talking about one percenters increasingly
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  Speaker 1: looking for a way to financially flex. What they all
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  Speaker 1: start saying to each other is this Carl Faberget guy.
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  Speaker 1: He's a brilliant designer. He specializes, yes, in precious things
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  Speaker 1: like gems and jade and gold and silver. And we
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  Speaker 1: know that he is informed. Right, we're Russian nobles, you Max,
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  Speaker 1: me and us listening along at home, and so when
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  Speaker 1: we're talking about how to flex on people, we're saying,
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  Speaker 1: you know, this guy has a lot of design aesthetics
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  Speaker 1: that came from very fancy French places, that came from
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  Speaker 1: very fancy Italian places, and they're not focusing on Novu
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  Speaker 1: reach stuff. The question for a lot of jewelry at
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  Speaker 1: the day was how big is the stone, right, the
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  Speaker 1: biggest diamond, the biggest emerald, the biggest ruby. Faberge is
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  Speaker 1: not concerned with that like you were saying, Faberge is
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  Speaker 1: more invested in craftsmanship, in innovation, in creativity. And this
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  Speaker 1: is where he has a quote that I think really
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  Speaker 1: stood out to both of us. He was, I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: say it, well, I think he's a little pretentious.
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  Speaker 2: You mean, you know, but that sometimes when you're the
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  Speaker 2: house of anything, pretentiousness is your stock in trade. You
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  Speaker 2: have to kind of set the tone, you know, of
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  Speaker 2: the era and sort of believe your own hype to
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  Speaker 2: a certain degree, which he absolutely was doing.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah. And here's a great example. This is
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  Speaker 1: a direct quote from Carl who later in life said,
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  Speaker 1: expensive things interest me little if the value is millions,
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  Speaker 1: so many diamonds of pearls. Like to him, it wasn't
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  Speaker 1: the street value of the materials. Who was working with
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  Speaker 1: It was, as you said, the esthetic, the concept, the ideology.
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  Speaker 2: And that is really forward thinking because so many art
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  Speaker 2: objects and or fashion iconic kind of fashion pieces. They're
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  Speaker 2: not expensive because they're made of you know, magical stones.
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  Speaker 2: They're expensive because of the brand. They're expensive because of
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  Speaker 2: the design, and they're expensive because of this like sort
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  Speaker 2: of built in scarcity.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent check out. Also with no disrespect
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  Speaker 1: the legendary success of brands like Supreme.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Which I'm a fan of. Again, I fully a bunch
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: of their stuff. I dig Supreme hats, and I got
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: a few of their shirts and a few like they
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: did a run of things with like a collaboration with
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: one of my favorite musical artists, Aphex Twin, and I
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: got a few of those. But there is something inherently
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  Speaker 2: interesting and sort of grabby about this idea of once
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: we do this drop, there's not going to be any
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  Speaker 2: more like this, right right exactly, and that's great foreshadowing.
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  Speaker 2: The reputation, or the street rep of Faberge continues to grow.
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  Speaker 2: In eighteen eighty one, over in Russia, his peers in
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  Speaker 2: the Jewelry Game appoint him as a quote master of
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  Speaker 2: the Second Guild. This is clutch af because it means
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  Speaker 2: that he is no longer considered a proletariat hoy paloy craftsman. Instead,
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  Speaker 2: he is officially recognized as a big deal merchant and retailer.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody says, Okay, this guy knows his stuff. So if
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  Speaker 2: Karl makes something and Carl.
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  Speaker 1: Says it's good to go boom, it does not need
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  Speaker 1: to be inspected. Good to go. It was Cortor Gower
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  Speaker 1: was Yoda voice, like he's becoming the Yoda of jewelry.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know if that lands any lands. How are
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: you feeling about the Spaceball's sequel. I'm excited, I'm bullish.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: I haven't I haven't checked it out. You know, it's
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: supposed to be great. Speaking of lega sequels, the New
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Naked Gun movie is supposed to be hilarious.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: That's what I heard.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Very excited to see it. Good director too, A Kiva Schaeffer,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Lomon Island dude, yep, for sure, Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. So when Carl Screw goes to the Pan
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  Speaker 1: Russian Exhibition in eighteen eighty two, you know of like
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  Speaker 1: the Osako World Expo or the World Fair kind of thing,
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  Speaker 1: his crew wins gold medal for their exhibit, for their
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: flex and this is when Russian nobility gets super tuned in.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: This guy, Carl Faberge, is a superstar. Magazines from the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: time give us a sense of just how popular he becomes.
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  Speaker 1: One of their articles speaks to his revolutionary design philosophy
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  Speaker 1: and his status with the royal family. This is a
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  Speaker 1: quote from a magazine called Neva. Well.
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  Speaker 2: This is also a time when I'm sorry none to
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: jump on the quote, which we'll get to in two seconds.
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  Speaker 2: But this was a time where Russia. We think of
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Russia as so like isolationists and kind of its own
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: thing and kind of cut off from the rest of
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: the world in a lot of ways. But wouldn't you say, ben,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: at this time, it's much more of a cultural melting
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: pot and has a much bigger influence on culture outside
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: of its boundaries.
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  Speaker 1: I would say, so, yeah, cool, just check.
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  Speaker 2: In and just seemed like that was something worth mentioning. This,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: like the Byzantine architecture and things of this era that
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: definitely began to have impact outside of Russia. And this
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: is the case with this type of craftsmanship as well,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: and making a name for himself the Faberget House outside
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: of just Russian nobility. So mister Faberge opens a new
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: era in the art of jewelry. And this is not
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: just in Russia, this is just at large. Her majesty
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  Speaker 2: honored Faberge by buying a pair of cuff links with
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: images of cicadas, which, according to ancient Greek belief, bring luck.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, this comes to us from an excellent source. Faberget's Eggs,
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  Speaker 1: One Man's Masterpiece and the End of an Empire by
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  Speaker 1: Tony faber And you know, folks, at this point, as
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  Speaker 1: history is always proven, royal attention can be extremely good
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: or extremely bad, and there's little in between. Thankfully, nol
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: not to make this about us, but our encounters with
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: various royalty have been extremely good.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were ones walked in on by some royalty
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: and we apparently we didn't stand up, and we thought
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: we maybe should have after the fact, but apparently that
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: wasn't worth any strikes against us. So we got we
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: got some contacts, We have some hit us up offline
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: and we'll talk.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Oh jeez, how do we make it out of that one? Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: At this point, our buddy Carl is riding high. He's
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  Speaker 1: the catbird seat. He's doing very well, but he's far
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  Speaker 1: from the only game in town. If you look at
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  Speaker 1: Russian court records from eighteen eighty three, you'll see that
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  Speaker 1: the royal family has at least five different jewelry companies
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: working for the Russian Royal court. Our buddy Faberge is
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: making only the six four hundred roubles with them in
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three. To be clear, for the vast majority
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: of people living in Tsarist Russia at the time, six
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  Speaker 1: four hundred rubles is a fortune. But for him, he
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: is making less than all of the other jewelers employed
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: by the royal family.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: He is very because he's spending so much on materials
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: and he just takes it so much. He takes it
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  Speaker 2: so seriously and cares about the quality.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: It's kind of because he's the new guy in tech.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: House of Faberge is like a pilot program for these folks.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: He's by far the lowest of the high which is
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: a good thing, you know. And arguably Karl probably had
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: these conversations with his colleagues. Arguably being directly connected with
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the royal family of Russia is more valuable than the money,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: right it goes beyond the money. Now you have the
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: ear of the king. And this is what happens. Okay.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: So it's after this exposition everybody's impressed. Royal family tunes in.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: They decide not to execute Karl, which they could always
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: do because they're monarchs. This guy, Alexander the Third, you
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: may have heard of him. It's eighteen eighty five, and
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: he goes up to our buddy Carl and he has
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: a pitch that sounds lucrative, right if you're Carl Faberge,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: and to us it sounds patently ridiculous. He says, look
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: a hell, wife, I'm not going to do the voice anymore.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Okay, you've done enough. We've done enough on that one.
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  Speaker 1: And he wants to make a special present for his wife,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: what's her name.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna we work this out off the air a
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: little bit. So let's do the best combination of the
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: two of us together, we make one complete human being.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Maria Fyodorovna.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, nailed it.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: And his head had a little bit of stink on it.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: You put some steak on it. I like that fuel little.
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  Speaker 1: So we got to keep in mind that the Royal
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: family at this point they run the show, right, one
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: of the most important empires in the world. They are
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: already a wash with your typical gems and bobbles. They
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: got the rings, they got the necklaces, the abulets, the bracelets,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: et cetera. So Alex doesn't want that. He doesn't want
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: a special necklace or ring or bracelet. He wants something he.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Wasn't a babble.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: He wants an egg.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, exactly. He wants a very very bespoke egg, not
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: just any egg, not the kind you'd make a delightful
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: omelet out of, not the kind that would birth a tiny,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: terrifying bird. Instead, he worked closely with Carl Studio, advising
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: throughout the process of creating this art object that he
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: had in mind. Alex and the team decided they would
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: do the world's fanciest spin on an Easter egg. And
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: isn't the Easter Easter is huge in Russia?
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, this doesn't.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of egg imagery in Russian architecture and art.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, It's a long standing Russian Orthodox tradition at this
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: point to exchange decorated eggs for Easter. So this was
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: essentially an insanely opulent escalation of that traditional practice, and
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: they ended up with something called the hen Egg. It's
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: a little doodad, but it's extremely impressive from a technical perspective,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: and it follows on Faberget's existing design philosophy. You know,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: the materials you use are less important than the idea
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: you convey.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: But also like, let's use fancy materials, but also let's like,
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: let's use fancy materials.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: So Maria gets this gift and when she let's go
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: to the moment when she receives it, and here's what
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: she's looking at. She sees a plain white enamel shell.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: My tennessee came out, but we'll keep it a plain
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: white enamel shell. And that's representative of the egg. But
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: holy smokes, hang on a tick. You can open the egg,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: and when Maria opens it, she finds something else.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: As we know, the Russians are also big fans of
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: nesting stuff, so this story comes into play here as well.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: The matros Cardozo. Yes, she opens that up and within
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: it is another smaller egg. Yeah, and then she's that out. Yeah,
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: I believe there's a tiny little pillow inside the egg
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: made of sueded material.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, stippled gold. And upon this rest an intricately carved
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: tiny gold hid And this is impressive. But get this,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: but wait, folks, there more as Billy Amazed was wont
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: to say, the hen itself also opens. And when you
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: open the hen, there's a miniature replica of the Russian
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: crown and it is drowning in drip. It's encrusted with diamonds,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: it's got rubies. The Russian crown holds a small ruby pendant.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: This is beyond impressive. Maria loves it, Alex gets massive
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: hobby points. The entire Royal court is going bananas and
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: nuts with approval. This was going to be a one off,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: like a fancy I don't know.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: But how to trends in those days get created, Ben,
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: it's when royals are stoked about something.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Probably you're probably right, I.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Too must have one.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, exactly, And as you said, limited supply, right,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: we don't know if Alex was buying this as an
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: apology to his wife for something possible. Anyway, the Russian
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: royal family they say this is not a one off
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: for us like you were saying, Noel, They're going, I
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: do must have one. They start routinely commissioning these eggs
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: from Carl, and each egg is growing more and more
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: elaborate with each iteration. Well, and also, Ben, I mean
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I walk back what I said slightly. There's definitely within
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the royal family a keeping up with the Joneses thing.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: But part of the whole story of Faberge and kind
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: of what it represents is that there's not an unlimited supply,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: and that it's created in the style of or by
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: hand by this very specific, you know, group of craftsmen.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: So the royal family does start commissioning those on the regular,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: making it a family tradition. After Alexander passed away in
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety four, his son, Nicholas the Second continues on
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: with the tradition, commissioning further pieces, further elaborations of these designs,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: giving one each to his mother and to his wife Alexandria.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: And I mean these are we're talking, you know, the
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: level of bespokenness in these creations. An entire year to
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: create one, yes.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Faberge. Faberge is given this huge level of autonomy.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: He and his crew don't have to check in with
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the royal family when they make these eggs. All they
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: have to do is guarantee that each egg must contain
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: some kind of surprise and credit. We're due are buddy Carl,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: who is a visionary. He is designing these like he's
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: writing or drawing pictures of what he thinks they should
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: look like, and he's kind of project managing the work,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: but he is not actually in the trenches making the eggs.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: It's too much work for one guy.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: That's the case with a lot of big process oriented
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: artists like the glass artist Shahuli I think is his name,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: who does these incredible stained glass arrays. You can go
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: to his a museum or at the very least an
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: exhibit in Seattle. But there's a film about him, and
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: he is the visionary behind these works and these installations.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: But he's got a team of workers and crafts people
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: that are you know, doing his bidding. It's what allows
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: him to scale those works because they're huge. They're all
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: these massively intricate combinations of stained glass kind of pieces,
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: three three dimensional black I don't.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Know, I don't know I feel about that because it
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: reminds me of the painter Thomas Kincaid or some of
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the airport novelists, like, oh, who's that guy who? It
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter, but.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: Well, I hear you been on certain things. I definitely agree.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: But let's also think about like film, you know, production,
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Like you've got a filmmaker, a quote unquote director or whatever,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: who's who's job it is to guide the vision and
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: direct the work of hundreds dozens, if not hundreds of
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: other very specific crafts people, and yet it is the
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: director that ultimately kind of is the most remembered name
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: when it comes to one of those projects. So with
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: something like this, with this level of intricacy and oversight,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: I think I'm on board with giving him the props
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: that he deserves.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: I hear you. That's a really good point. Yeah, because
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're the even if you were Stanley
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Kubrick or something, you can't also be in charge of
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the craft table. Rights takes a village, and the House
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: of Faberget at this point is a village. There are
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: tons of people evolved in crafting these eggs. Two of
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: the most prominent artisans are Mikhale Perkin and Heinrich Wigstrom.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: These eggs, to your earlier excellent point about size, they
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: are little do dads, right, They're little chotchkes. I love
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: the word chachkes. They're three to six inches tall, not
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: counting their equally elaborate bases. All in all, there are
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: fifty of what we call Imperial egg created from eighteen
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: eighty five, the first one, the head egg, all the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: way up to nineteen seventeen. There's a brief pause in
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: commissions from nineteen oh four to nineteen oh five. That's
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: due to the Russo Japanese War, which we did a
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: whole episode on maybe more than one.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Actually, yes, do go back and check that one out.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: So Carl he kind of saw that he had it
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: pretty good in terms of like being not the only
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: game in town in terms of elaborate, you know, design
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: of bespoke jewelry pieces. But he had created a brand
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: at this point, he had created a thing that it
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: would almost be in poor form for anyone else to
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: attempt at this point, right, yeah, yeah, like it's his thing,
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Like I mean, like they're going directly to him. You
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: got to imagine though, that there were imitators, right.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, faux Berge, Yeah, that's very great. We gotta do it.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: So Faberge was to your point, commissioned to make non
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: imperial eggs, but these are all still very much for
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the one percenters of the time, people like the Duchess
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: of Marlborough or the Rothschild family, the yusobrovs. Faberge was
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: commissioned to make a couple of eggs for a guy
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: named Alexander Kelch. He even made one for the nephew
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: of an absolute dynamite guy named Alfred Nobel.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Yep, the guy I remembered mainly for the Peace Prize
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: that bears his name, but also, yeah, definitely the dude
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: that invented like the least peaceful thing that ever could
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: be brought into existence, dynamite.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I wonder if we'll ever get in trouble
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: for describing Al as a dynamite guy.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: No, I don't think so.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: It's accurate. We know that there have been as many
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: of six nine of these Faberge eggs created during the
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: era of Czarist Russia. Sixty one survive. We won't list
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: all the fifty Imperial eggs, but you do need to
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: know they are definitely the top tier, or as we
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: say in video games, the s tier of the bunch.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: We should get into some of this nool because Alex,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: our buddy Alex or Alexi if you prefer, and his
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: son Nikolay, the Nikolay commissioned most of the Imperial eggs Alex.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Alex signed on for ten Nick signed on for forty
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: or two more that were designed but never really fully
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: completed because they came at the end of that era.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Right now, the fifty completed eggs, there are forty four
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: that are known to exist in some form, either complete
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: or partial, which makes us wonder what happened man.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: So some of these are lost to history, right.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what happened to your eggs? Doc?
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: And I do want to get into this. Maybe we'll
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: save it a little bit of I think everyone listening
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: probably wants a little bit of a price list.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, well let's do it. Now. Hit us
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: with some of your favorites, because these are all unique.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: We do have a list of some of the most
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: expensive Faberge eggs from that Imperial well not all of
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: which are from the Imperial run, but one that definitely is,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: which is called the Third Imperial Easter from eighteen eighty seven.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: And if we were going to describe this one, it
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: would be a golden egg kind of clock piece with
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: like lions feet and it looks to me like the
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: there's a diamond pendant right in the middle and all
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: of this gold filigree and you know kind of what's
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: the word scroll work kind of you know, and beveled
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: egg in this rested in resting in this kind of
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: a cradle with all of that metal work that I
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: was talking about, and it hinges the top hinges like
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: an Easter egg, well plastic Easter egg. But as you
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: do that, there's moving pieces, moving parts that raise up
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: a beautifully machined and very elegant looking I sound like
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: a mon antique throat show clock.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: And a lot of these had what I think we
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: didn't mention. We hadn't really described the look of too
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: many of these. A lot of these did have really
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: cool ornate kind of moving parts. Yeah, points of articulation
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: is exactly how you put it in. Like, for example,
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: one that I saw you open the top and all
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: of a sudden like this like fan of little framed portraits,
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: kind of like fans out really really cool. So this
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: one the third Imperial Easter egg, given by Alexander, the
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: third Emperor and autocrat of all the Russias. He is
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: referred to to Empress Maria Fyodorovna. That's the one original
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: one that we talked about for Easter eighteen eighty seven.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: I love this description on wartski dot to think is
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: like an appraisal type site. The jeweled and rigid yellow
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: gold egg rests on its original tripod pedestal with chased
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: lion paw feet and encircled by colored gold garlands suspended
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: from cabochan blue sapphires, topped with rose diamond set bows
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: one's missing. It contains a surprise of a lady's watch
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: by Vacheron Constantine with a too sorry, too much French
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: on that one, with a white enamel dial and open
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: work diamond set gold hands. The watch has been taken
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: from its case to be mounted in the egg and
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: is hinged, allowing it to stand upright hazarding a guess here, y'all,
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: what do you think how much for the third Imperial Easter?
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: The for the one from eighteen eighty shoes?
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: Uh?
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Huh? You know that, I know, I know that you
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: probably know, Max, if you were to hazard a guess
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: one hundred and eighteen thousand pounds thirteen three million dollars,
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: I might be close. I don't know how what a
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: pound conversion is, and for a penny in for a pound,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: let's start doing that.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: And that's an excellent guess.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Max, dude. That's the thing man, with some of the
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: stuff like this, based on where we exist, if outside
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: of our research, just in the world, we have no
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: frame of reference for an object worth thirty three million
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: dollars thirty three millions million dollars. That's right, I like
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: the past ten's there.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is so this shows us just how how
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: rarefied the air is in this situation. And one thing
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: we have to we have to point out for all
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: our fellow astute, ridiculous historians, is that you will have
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: clocked a specific year when the original House of Faberget
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: stopped cranking out these eggs. It's nineteen seventeen. Because you see, folks,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: the entire time the House of Faberget is making nice
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: with the Russian royal family, making these objects of fancy
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: for them. There's a lot of trouble brewing in the
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: rest of the empire. The public is beat me here, Max,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: fucking starving.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did all ben, We did not mention that
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: context whatsoever. I mean this is, you know, a absolutely
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: despicably gross flex and you know, when it comes to
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: what else is going on under their you know, their oversight.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Right or lack. They're black thereof people people are saying,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: you know, these royals are cartoonishly corrupt, the government's inefficient.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Let's also consider if it's nineteen seventeen. World War One
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: has absolutely obliterated the economy. Morale is in the toilet.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: People are again starving like wishing they could bread, while
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: the royals are admiring they're silly, expensive inedible eggs. The
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: people revolt, the Imperial government is overthrown. No more eggs
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: for you, jerks, cry the peasants. Fun fact about the
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Russian Revolution not really a fun fact. Russian Revolution of
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen was two revolutions in the very same year.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: One in February the overthrow, another in October when Lennen
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: and the Bolshevik boys take over and create the Soviet Union.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, check out the animated film Ani Station I tell.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: You all, yeah right as well.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Only died in nineteen eighteen. She was the youngest daughter
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: of Czar Nicholas the Second, who was the last sovereign
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: of Imperial Russia.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: And in the wake of this chaos, the Faberge Workshop
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: in Saint Petersburg, like so many other private industries, is
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: nationalized under the red flag of communism. Whatever, we'll keep
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: it for sure.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: No, no, and I mean unless you'd be like, okay, come
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: on back to the numbers, give us more expensive things,
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: just a couple more like eighteen ninety seven, ten years
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: later from the Third Imperial Easter, we have the Imperial Coordination,
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: which has got like a carriage kind of design that
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: one's valued at eighteen million, but outside the Rothschild clock,
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: which is almost as valuable as the original Third Imperial
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: Easter made for the Rothschild family in nineteen oh two
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: twenty five point one million. But Ben, isn't there sort
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: of a modern carrying on of the Faberge name? Don't
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: they like make stuff now? Because I heard something about
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: a Game of Thrones Faberge.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Egg it is correct, you are, You're absolutely correct. The
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Faberge Egg brand, or the House of Faberget brand, i
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: should say, has been reconstituted.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: We know that there are.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: There things is recently as twenty twenty three, the Faberge
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: House of Faberget, not Carl. They debuted the Journey and
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Jewels on a luxury cruise ship and there so they're
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: still keeping the hope alive in the modern day, despite
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: the fact that you know, Carl is a sad point.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Carl unfortunately passes away only three years after the Russian Revolution.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: He and his family have to skip town obviously they
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: will have been murdered, and he passes away in nineteen
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: twenty in Switzerland when he's seventy four years old. We
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: also know that amid all this pandemonium, some of the
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: eggs disappeared, some were destroyed properly, but in our opinion,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: it's way more likely that a lot of these were away, Yeah,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: squirreled away and hidden in the nest of a private collector.
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: Speaking of exactly been good with the egg the egg
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: metaphors of the egg references. The one that I think
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: is the most beautiful and interesting sounding that we talked
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: about today was the hen with sapphire pendant, which was
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: the one with the little pillow and the egg within
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: the egg that is among the missing Faberge eggs. And
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: if you want to find out a little bit more detail,
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: check out history Hits article the Mystery of the Missing
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Faberge Imperial Easter Eggs. And I just want to add
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: and then I'm done. It does appear that the House
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: of faberget Stock has fallen just to touch, even in
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: their attempt at a rebrand here because that Game of
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Thrones egg that I mentioned that is modeled after one
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: of the dragon eggs in the popular Fantasy TV series
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: only two point two mil only two pshaw, tut tut.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: This is one of the weirdest parts of this entire tale. Folks,
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: right now, as Noel Max and yours truly are recording
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: this and as you have joined us to hang out
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: wherever you are in this wide world, someone listening to
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: this episode may indeed possess one of these missing eggs.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: It is not impossible that one of our fellow ridiculous
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: historians may be just sort of fitling with one of
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: these missing eggs while they're listening to the show. And
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: if you happen to make it a Saint Petersburg, Ben,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: I think this is still a thing. Isn't there a
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Faberge museum where you can check out some of the
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: ones that are still around.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, and we are in active conversations about whether we
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: can make it to Russia. Oh jeez, it's a different
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: that's a different story. Right now. What you'll notice, folks,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: is you'll see numbers for the missing eggs reported as
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: anywhere between like eight to seven to six. And the
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: reason that number is changeable is because there is still
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: hope to find these weirdo missing eggs. Mentioned Hedden with
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: sapphire pendant. There's Cherub with Chario Necessarre, There's Royal Danish,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: there's Alexander third commemorative there's one called wave anyway.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: Like the color of like a like a like a
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: reddish hue.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: I think you're correct on that one. Man. Here's here's
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: the thing. This is maybe where we end it. People
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: are still finding these missing eggs. Back in twenty fifteen,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: the third Imperial Easter Egg was discovered by a guy
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: who had been planning to melt it down for scrap.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: It's a great story. He essentially he ended up googling
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: the value of metal because he got a they call
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: it a jumble sale, but like an estate sale.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: I like jumblestale. They say that more like in the
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: maybe the Northeast and the.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Midwest exactly. So he said, maybe I can
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: make five hundred dollars by selling this gold egg for scrap.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: And then he figured out it was one of the
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: famous missing Faberge eggs, which means it's possible that one
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: day these eggs might emerge into the public eye. Again
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: this is where okay, So here's where we end it.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Noel Max, if you ran across a Faberge egg in
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: the wild, right like at a junk sale, add an
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: estate sale, what would you do?
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: I will say, I'm not I would think I would
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: know enough at this point to recognize it. But there
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: is an episode of Pond Stars, I think where a
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: woman asks for like one thousand dollars for what she
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: describes as an ugly piece of jewelry because she doesn't
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: really understand what it is, and they immediately clock it
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: as a Faberge egg and offer fifteen k for him.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: I would eat it, You would eat it, you would
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: choke on it. Max, little bites, little bite, that's true.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, noticed how they like totally phased out the original
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: kinder egg designs in America because Americans are too supple.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Thing.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a legal thing. I think the real ones
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: with the tiny chokable parts inside. Now you just get
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: a little cookie with some icing.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: I like the little action figures exactly. It's about the intricacy,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: the points of articulation and and to Max's point there,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: you know, uh, there's a guy who managed to eat
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: an entire airplane by taking little bites out of time.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: We'll get to that story in the future. In the meantime,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: we cannot thank you enough for tuning in and joining
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: us for another exploration of ridiculous history. So despite not
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: being able to thank you enough. We do want to
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: say thank you. We also want to thank our super
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: producer mister Max Williams his biological brother Alex Williams currently
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: on Adventures, who recorded this sick bop. You know who
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: would dude, you know who would buy a Faberge egg
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: and be really weird about it in the office. Jonathan
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Strict Strict, he covered it, He'd hoard it like.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Can you just imagine him? Yeah, because we have much
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: more like Gollum. Just yeah, cover his precious fabric Gollumn
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: accent like British and just missed both accents by a
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: wide mile.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Y'all, be like that weird kid at Show and Tell
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: where he has a cool egg that has a lot
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: of uh, a lot of bells and whistles to it,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: and then he would want us to see that he
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: has it, and he wouldn't let us play with it.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: Ah, what a jerk share with the class. No right,
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: my own now, I will say, y'all, though I don't
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: I'm not like a blinkster or anything like that. I
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: don't have like rings on every finger like some kind
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: of crazy neck piece. But as I've gotten a little older,
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: I do like just a simple gold chain or shit,
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: you've been wearing one. I've been wearing I just it's
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: not about the flex, it's just about I think it
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: just you get to a certain point where it's like,
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: I do want to represent maybe that I'm a quote
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: unquote adult. You could like afford a gold chain, but
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: not necessarily an iced out, you know, death Row Records logo.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going to send you a great song by a
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: group called Brockhampton.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: Brockhampton, Yeah about gold chains.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Also big thanks to big thanks to Rachel Big Spinach Lance,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: the world authority on underwater explosions. Big thanks to A. J.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Bahama's Jacobs, Big thanks to Eaves, Jeff Go. Chris rossiotis
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: here in spirit and of course the rudeest of dudes
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: at Ridiculous Crime and No big thanks to a follow Ah.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: Also you Apologizer. Thank you very much, you guys. We'll
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: see you next time. Folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: to your favorite shows.