Presented by Tsar Nicholas II to his wife, the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna for Easter 1907. It honored the birth of the long-awaited heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaievich.

It was not known then but the little Prince was born with the life threatening disease hemophilia. Again, it was not known then but the disease came to him through his mother; it passes only through the female line and only affects males in the line. The genes for it came to his mother from her grandmother Queen Victoria of England who was the first monarch known to have had it.

The nation was overjoyed at the birth of this small boy but, in fact, the problems that resulted from his illness, the enormous influence that Rasputin wielded over the Empress, came about because Alexandra believed that Rasputin repeatedly saved her child from bleeding to death. The medical profession knew so little about the disease and nothing of how to control it, and coincidentally, Rasputin would pray for the child to survive each attack and the child did. Alexandra was so strongly influenced by this rapscallion who was actually a peasant who designed himself a holy man, that she influenced Nicholas on his behalf. In the end, in large part, that was responsible for bringing down the monarchy. I have simplified the story because of space but the facts are as they were.

The Egg is small, less than four inches tall in the stand, and is covered with a crystal set lattice, each diamond of the lattice bearing a tiny pink rose centered in it. The ground of each diamond done in emerald green enamel guilloché to indicate the tiny green leaves on the original Egg. Both the apex of the Egg and the base are capped by large crystals encircled by tiny crystals. In the original Egg these are table diamonds and beneath the base diamond is the year in which the Egg was presented, 1907.

The original surprise was a diamond necklace with a medallion that featured a portrait on ivory of the infant Tsarevich but it went missing when the Revolutionists seized all belongings of the monarchy.

The Fabergé Collection has replaced it for the reproduction Egg with a tiny oval picture frame of enamel guilloché hand set with Austrian crystals. A portrait of the Tsarevich when he was perhaps 4 years old is in the frame but it can, of course, be replaced with a photograph of your own.

Of note: a total of 1000 Austrian crystals have been set in this Egg.

Retail: $2000.00. Our price: $1799.90.