The Rothschild Egg (1902)

Unusually, this egg wasn't made for the Romanovs at all -- it was commissioned as a gift for the Rothschild banking family, and it shows in the mechanism: a clock with an automaton rooster that pops up on the hour to crow, flap its wings, and nod, more novelty clock than religious keepsake. That crossover appeal is probably why it did so well at auction: it sold at Christie's in 2007 for $18.5 million, a record at the time for any Faberge piece. Collectors outside the usual Romanov-provenance crowd wanted this one specifically because it wasn't Imperial.