A charity auction of the most exclusive designs in the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt that has captivated the capital has raised £667,000.
Guests including Viscount Linley, socialite Tamara Ecclestone, former Neighbours star Holly Valance and James Caan of TV’s Dragon’s Den helped to push up bidding on 30 top designs to raise funds for charities Elephant Family and Action For Children.
The sale, conducted by Henry Wyndham’s of Sotheby’s at the Royal Courts of Justice last night, saw an egg by London chocolatier William Curley go for £7,000. It was bought by technology investor Cyrus and Priya Vandrevala, the event’s principal backers, and set a record as the world’s most expensive non-jewelled chocolate egg.
A Humpty Dumpty, signed by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, and made by students at the Prince’s Drawing School, fetched £51,000 after spending the evening on a mock wall.
Artist Marc Quinn’s egg went for £40,000 and the offering of architect Zaha Hadid made £45,000. Ms Valance’s fiancé, property developer Nick Candy — who had designed an egg — bought the one created by former Royal Academy president Sir Nicholas Grimshaw.
And the letterbox by designer Benjamin Shine, which had already proved so desirable that it was stolen from public display in Carnaby Street, made £42,000. Jeweller Fabergé, which has been backing the fund-raiser, donated to the auction an exclusive egg-shaped, rare emerald cabochon stone pendant, which sold for £70,000.
It also provided a glittering prize for the lottery entered by members of the public who identified the locations of all 210 eggs in London. The others are still available to buy online.
Elephant Family’s founder Mark Shand, the Duchess of Cornwall’s brother, was supported by her children Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes at the event. Others there included model Lisa Butcher and restaurant tycoon Richard Caring and wife Jackie.
All the eggs will be displayed together for the first and last time in Covent Garden over Easter from April 3 to 9.
