1896 Egg with Revolving Miniatures
Gift Nicholas
II to Alexandra Fyodorovna
Made in Saint Petersburg
Owner: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA
Height: 24,8 cm
The 1896 Egg with Revolving Miniatures, also known as Rock Crystal Egg, is made of rock crystal, gold, cabochon Siberian emerald, rose-cut diamonds, translucent emerald-green, opaque white, orange and blue enamel.
The two halves of this rock crystal egg are held together by a narrow rose-cut diamond and translucent emerald-green enameled gold mount, culminating at the top with a 27 carat cabochon Siberian emerald, probably the biggest gem used in the Tsar Imperial Easter Eggs.
The Egg is supported on a circular rock crystal plinth. The monograms of the Tsarina as the Princess Alex of Hesse-Darmstadt before her marriage, and as Alexandra Fyodorovna, Tsarina of Russia, each surmounted by their respective crown, appear as separate formal patterns encircling this plinth.
The 12 miniatures, all but two signed by Johannes Zehngraf, are framed in gold and revolve around a gold shaft that passes vertically through the center of the egg when the cabochon emerald at the top is depressed and turned. A book is lowered and folds the miniatures back like the pages of a book, so that two of the miniatures can be fully seen.
Each miniature represents a place of significance in the Tsarina's life; for Germany the Palaces in and near Darmstadt Hesse, for the UK, Windsor Castle, Balmoral Castle and Osborne House on the British Isle of Whight, Queen Victoria's (Alix' grandmother) favorite residence. For for Russia, the Winter Palace, the Anichkov Palace and the Alexander Palace, in and near Saint Petersburg.
Background information
This was the last of the five Imperial Easter Eggs bought by Lillian Thomas Pratt. The other four Eggs are the 1898 Pelican Egg, the 1903 Peter the Great Egg, the 1912 Tsarevich Egg and the 1915 Red Cross Portraits Egg.
In 1930 one of the ten Eggs sold by the Antikvariat to the Hammer Galleries in New York. Ca. 1945 bought by Lillian Thomas Pratt, wife of a General Motors executive. 1947 Collection of the late Lillian Thomas Pratt, willed to Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA.
Page updated: September 9, 2007