Easter Egg
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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Easter Egg
- Manufacturer: Picq, Césard and Guesdon for Cartier
- Manufacturer: Cartier (French, founded Paris, 1847)
- Artist: Unknown Designer
- Date: 1906
- Medium: Gold, diamonds, pearls, fluorite, enamel
- Dimensions: With base: 4 9/16 × 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 in. (11.6 × 6.4 × 6.4 cm)
Open: 4 1/4 × 2 1/2 × 3 in. (10.8 × 6.4 × 7.6 cm) - Classification: Metalwork-Gold
- Credit Line: Bequest of Laird Shields Goldsborough, 1951
- Object Number: 51.91.1
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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René-Jules Lalique
ca. 1900
Joseph Garino
ca. 1902
René-Jules Lalique
ca. 1900
Unknown Designer
early 20th century
Henri Matisse
1903; this cast, probably 1930
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