Imperial Caucasus Egg
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Imperial Caucasus Egg
- Maker: House of Carl Fabergé
- Maker: Workmaster: Mikhail Evlampievich Perkhin (Russian, 1860–1903)
- Artist: Miniatures by Konstantin Yakovlevich Krijitski (died 1911)
- Date: 1893
- Culture: Russian, St. Petersburg
- Medium: Yellow and quatre-couleur gold, silver, platinum, guilloché enamel, rose- and table-cut diamond, pearl, crystal, ivory, watercolor
- Dimensions: Overall: 3 5/8 x 2 7/8 (max. diam.) in. (9.2 x 7.3 cm)
- Classification: Metalwork-Gold and Platinum
- Credit Line: Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation
- Object Number: L.2011.66.51a, b
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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