This jeweled confection was based on similar designs (notably Easter eggs and a miniature replica of the Russian imperial regalia) by Fabergé that were shown at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. Generically regal in its iconography, the egg has a purple-enameled surface decorated with diamond palm leaves (both appropriate to the Easter motif), swags, and the cipher of the Russian czar Nicholas II. It rests atop a diamond-tasseled fluorite "cushion" balanced on a gold and purple-enameled plinth, and is surmounted with a diamond and pearl crown. The Paris City Council presented this egg as a gift to the czar in Moscow in 1912.
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Credit Line:Bequest of Laird Shields Goldsborough, 1951
Accession Number:51.91.1
Inscription: Inscribed (on green enamel oval, in diamonds): [cipher of Nicholas II, Czar 1894-1917]
Marking: (Struck twice on rim of base and inner lip of flange of egg at opening): [Eagle's head in double outline: Paris mark for gold, restricted warranty, 1847 to present]
Cartier, Paris (1906–12; stock. no. 1977; presented on May 18, 1912 to the City of Paris); Paris City Council (1912; gift in 1912 to Tsar Nicholas II); Tsar Nicholas II, Moscow and St. Petersburg (1912–17); Alexander Palace, Tsarskoe Selo (1917–at least 1929); Laird Shields Goldsborough, New York (until d. 1950; his bequest to MMA)
Munich. Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung. "Fabergé, Hofjuwelier der Zaren," December 5, 1986–February 22, 1987, no. 621 (as "Cartier-Osterei").
Paris. Musée du Petit Palais. "The Art of Cartier," October 20, 1989–January 28, 1990, no. 44 (as "Egg").
Tokyo-to Teien Bijutsukan. "The World of French Jewelry Art--The Art of Cartier," April 8–May 28, 1995, no. 22 (as "Egg").
Chicago. Field Museum. "Cartier: 1900–1939," October 2, 1999–January 16, 2000, no. 39.
Munich. Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung. "Fabergé—Cartier, Rivalen am Zarenhof," November 28, 2003–April 12, 2004, no. 721.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Artistic Luxury: Fabergé Tiffany Lalique," October 19, 2008–January 18, 2009, no. 14.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Artistic Luxury: Fabergé Tiffany Lalique," February 7–May 31, 2009, no. 14.
Washington. Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens. "Fabergé Rediscovered," June 9, 2018–January 13, 2019, unnumbered cat. (fig. 128).
Louis Carré. A Guide to Old French Plate. London, 1931, ill. p. 251 (eagle's head mark).
A. Kenneth Snowman. The Art of Carl Fabergé. London, 1952, p. 97, fig. 336, illustrates the "Tsarevich Egg," 1912, with similar miniature to the photograph in MMA work.
Géza von Habsburg-Lothringen and A. von Solodkoff. Fabergé: Court Jeweler to the Tsars. New York, 1979, fig. 117.
Géza von Habsburg. Fabergé, Hofjuwelier der Zaren. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung. Munich, 1986, p. 301, no. 621, ill. (color).
Gilles Chazal inThe Art of Cartier. Exh. cat., Musée du Petit Palais. Paris, 1989, pp. 59, 115, no. 44, ill.
Martine Chazal inThe World of French Jewelry Art—The Art of Cartier. Exh. cat., Tokyo-to Teien Bijutsukan. Tokyo, 1995, pp. 34, 354, no. 22, ill. (color) pp. 80–81.
Judy Rudoe. Cartier: 1900–1939. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, p. 107, no. 39, ill. (color).
Géza von Habsburg, ed. Fabergé—Cartier. Rivalen am Zarenhof. Exh. cat., Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung. Munich, 2003, p. 366, no. 721, ill. (color).
Hans Nadelhoffer. Cartier. San Francisco, 2007, pp. 112, 333 n. 17, colorpls. 130, 131.
Emmanuel Ducamp and Wilfried Zeisler inArtistic Luxury: Fabergé Tiffany Lalique. Exh. cat., Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 2008, pp. 165, 325, no. 14, ill. p. 164 (color).
Wilfried Zeisler. L'Objet d'art et de luxe français en Russie (1881–1917). Paris, 2014, pp. 78, 163, fig. 66 (color).
Wilfried Zeisler and Alexandre Solin. "Autour de Fabergé: L'Incroyable destinée de deux oeufs impériaux français." L'Objet d'art no. 534 (May 2017), p. 75, ill. (color).
Wilfried Zeisler. Fabergé Rediscovered. Exh. cat., Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, Washington, D. C. London, 2018, p. 137, fig. 128 (color).
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