1887 The Golden Egg with Watch on Stand

Maria Feodorovna

Purchase price: 2,160 rubles.

This Imperial Easter egg is remarkable for its diminutive size. The reeded egg-shaped case, decorated with seventy-five diamonds, conceals a Vacheron Constantin gold watch. The Egg rests on a ring of varicolored gold with waveform decorations. The stand has twinned legs, decorated with rosebuds and small leaves. The ring of the stand is applied with three cabochon sapphires, from which issue ribbons of small brilliant diamonds, which, in turn, support festoons of roses and leaves, crowning the legs.

In 1902 the Egg was displayed at the von Dervis exhibition. It was identified in 2007 by Anna and Vincent Palmade on a photograph taken at the exhibition. In 2011 the pair were able to locate a description of the Egg in a Parke Bernet catalog for an auction that took place on March 7, 1964 in New York. The Easter Egg was recovered in 2012, when a scrap metal dealer in the US accidentally discovered its true value after coming across a 2011 article in the Daily Telegraph about a gold egg with a Vacheron Constantin watch inside. Subsequently, the Egg was acquired by the Wartski of London

In private collection.