Imperial Caucasus Egg

Czar Alexander III presented this egg to his wife, Maria Feodorovna, on Easter 1893. Created in the late Louis XVI style, the egg has four oval doors that bear a diamond-set numeral forming the year 1893. Each oval door opens to reveal a different miniature view of Abastuman, the imperial hunting lodge in the Caucasus Mountains, where the son of the couple (Grand Duke George Alexadrovich, 1871–1899) was treated for tuberculosis. At the top of the egg, beneath a big diamond, is a portrait of him in naval uniform.