1890 Danish Palaces Egg
Gift
Alexander III to Maria Fyodorovna
Made in Saint Petersburg
Owner: The Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation,
New Orleans Museum of Art
(As from March 20, 2007 the Gray Collection will for a period of 5 years be housed
in Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville, Tennessee, USA)
Height: 10,2 cm
The Danish Palaces Egg is made of gold, enamel, diamonds, rose-cut diamonds, emeralds, sapphires and velvet lining. The surprise, the screen, is made of red, green, and quatre-couleur gold, and watercolor on mother of pearl.
A star sapphire within a cluster of diamonds surmounts this gold egg, enameled in a translucent pink. The egg opens to reveal a folding ten-panel screen, depicting palaces and residences in Russia and in Princess Dagmar's motherland Denmark. Maria Fyodorovna was before her marriage to Alexander III in 1866, the Danish Princess Dagmar. The panels are painted by the court miniaturist Konstantin Krijitski and are signed and dated 1889.
The 10 panels depict from left to right, Imperial yacht Polar Star, Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, Estate of Hvidøre near Copenhagen, The Summer Residence of Fredensborg Castle, Bernsdorff Castle, Copenhagen, Kronborg Castle, Elsinore, Two views of the Cottage Palace, Alexandria Park, Peterhof, Gatchina Palace, near St. Petersburg and the Imperial yacht "Tsarevna".
This panel (third from left) depicts the seaside estate of the Hvidore near Copenhagen. It was to this estate that the Dowager Empress came after her excape from The Crimea in 1919. She died at Hvidore in 1928.
Background information
1930, one of the ten imperial Eggs sold by the Antikvariat to the Hammer Galleries, New York. 1937-1953 owned by Mr. & Mrs. Nicholas Ludwig, New York. 1962 Private Collection, United States. 1972 Matilda Geddings Gray foundation, New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana.
page updated: December 27, 2007