Rare Fabergé Poptop Vial on Display At Local Marijuanery

By Ingomar Schoenborn, Quilt staff

DATELINE: DEERING AVENUE

A priceless poptop vial, made by the House of Fabergé for the last tsar of Russia, is on display through April 18 at High AF Collective, a marijuana dispensary, located in the heart of Canoga Park’s fragrant dope district at 420 Deering Avenue.

On loan from the State Hermitage Smoke Shop & Wellness Center in St. Petersburg, Russia, the ornate container, a handcrafted polypropylene cylinder bejeweled with countless gemstones and wrapped with delicate filigree, was one of many commissioned by Nicholas II as an Easter present to his wife Alexandra. 

Easter Surprise: Known unofficially as 'the Cheetos Jar,' the poptop container is exquisitely
decorated in diamonds and rubies, and contains a solid gold deep-fried puffed cornmeal snack
finished in extremely rare orange gold dust. It's on display in Canoga Park now through Easter.

In all, fifty tiny canisters, all different, were created between 1885 and 1917.  Each of the decorative vials were opulently embellished and included a tiny surprise inside to delight the tsarina — from a miniature hand-carved Woody Harrelson to a tiny gold bong shaped like Rasputin’s penis, modeled after a full-size working model, a favorite of the Empress. The cannabis containers also held a small quantity of marijuana, which, when smoked or otherwise ingested, made the less interesting among the annual gifts’ surprises seem much more fascinating. 

All of the royal Easter gifts were exquisitely designed by a team of artisans led by Carl Fabergé’s son, Jeff, with some taking over a year to complete, due to the fact that the workers often became distracted and ended up binge-watching hours of Family Guy and Robot Chicken episodes or heading out to get “a дерьмо-load of those Doritos knishes.”

Following the Russian revolution and the totally harsh and seriously uncool execution of the Romanovs in 1917, many of the Fabergé weed containers were smuggled out of the Soviet Union and eventually made their way into private collections; though some, such as the legendary ‘Friday’ vial, depicting a scene in miniature from the film of the same name and containing a tiny music box that played “Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up” by Cypress Hill, have been lost, probably because whoever had it at the time totally forgot like where they stashed it.

See the exquisite Imperial Family ‘Cheetos’ poptop at High AF Collective, open every day from 10am to 8 pm. Note: Limited viewing availability on Thursday and Friday due to scheduled field trips from local middle schools.