The FABERGE firm was founded in 1842 by Peter Carl's father, the jeweler Gustav Faberge. However, only after Peter Carl joined the company did it succeed in attaining the pinnacle of European artistry. In 1869 he sold the first pieces to the St. Petersburg Hermitage. In 1885 FABERGE won the Gold Medal at an exhibition in Nuremberg for his replicas of the antique Scythian treasure of Kerch.

The House of Faberge was staffed with some of the finest goldsmiths and jewelers available. Interestingly enough, Peter Carl Faberge did not actually create any of the famous eggs that bear his name. The business was divided into several small workshops, each with its own specialty.

In 1885 Czar Alexander III gave him the order to produce the first Imperial Easter egg. The result, the Hen egg, was received so enthusiastically by the ruler, who was worshipped as divine, that he renewed the order for an Easter egg every year thereafter. At the Russian Orthodox Easter festival, he gave them to his wife. From 1895 to 1916, his successor, Nicholas II, gave two Easter eggs each year, one to his wife and one to his mother. In addition to the fabulous Easter eggs, the workshop also produced table silver, jewelry, European-style trinkets, and Russian-style carvings. In 1896 FABERGE produced all the gifts for the coronation ceremonies for the young Czar Nicholas II.

The opening of the first branch in Moscow one year later began a development that would end with FABERGE as the largest company in Russia with 500 employees and branches in Odessa (1890), Kiev (1900), and London (1903). The move to new headquarters on Bolshaya-Morskaya 24 in St. Petersburg at a cost of a half million rubles was a visible expression of the rise of the dynasty. In all, more than 150,000 pieces of jewelry and Objets d' Art were produced in the various workshops, all of them unique.

In 1914, however, the jewelry manufacturer's star began to fade. Many of the craftsmen were drafted into military service. The Czar ordered Peter Carl Faberge to produce hand grenades and shell casings. In 1918 the Bolsheviks nationalized the company.

In 1924 Peter Carl's sons, Eugene and Alexander, founded the company "FABERGE & Cie" in a vain attempt to revive the faded reputation of the company. However, the void left behind by their father, who had died four years earlier, was too great. In 1951 the company name was transferred to FABERGE Inc. In 1989, its legal successor, FABERGE Co., New York, appointed the Pforzheim jeweler VICTOR MAYER as the exclusive worldwide workmaster for FABERGE and authorized it to market the precious FABERGE works of art through the members of the Collegium FABERGE. Ever since then VICTOR MAYER has been selling exquisite jewels and Objets d' Art, and is continuing the life-work of Peter Carl Faberge.