Presented by Tsar Alexander III to his wife, Empress Maria Fedorovna for Easter 1890, a reminder of her Danish heritage and of the pleasurable times spent in her homes and on the Imperial yachts.

One of the most exquisitely worked Eggs; a mauve pink transparent enamel overlay on a guilloché of cross repeats, divided into 12 segments by vertical and horizontal fillets of laurel leaves and Austrian crystals, each intersection marked by an emerald green cabachon. The apex of the Egg is a medallion of radiating laurel leaves enclosing a circlet of Austrian crystals which in turn encircles a deep blue cabachon crystal finial. The inside of the Egg is rose velvet which forms a bed for the ten panel hinged screen*, each Greek Meander footed panel bordered in laurel leaves and crowned with a laurel wreath and branch. The Egg sits on a silver gilt tripod. All of the gold is 24 carat plate over Sterling Silver.

Retail:$1500.00. Our price: $1349.90.

*Each panel of the screen represents an original water color painted on mother-of -pearl by the miniaturist Krijitski. The panels are, from left to right, the Imperial yacht Polar Star; Amaliensburg Palace , Copenhagen; the estate of Hvidore; the summer residence of Fredensborg Castle; Bernstorff Castle; Kronborg Castle, Elsinore; Dacha Alexandria, Peterhof; Dacha Gatchina. near Saint Petersburg; Gatchina Palace, near Saint Petersburg; the Imperial yacht Tsarevna.

The Egg was sold after the Russian Revolution by the Bolshevik government to Dr, Armand Hammer in 1930 for 1500 rubles. Mrs. Matilda Geddings Gray acquired it in the late 1930's and today it is part of the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation Collection in the New Orleans Museum of Art.

The seaside estate of Hvidore near Copenhagen was the final home of the Empress after her escape from Russia. It was there that she died in 1928.