1901 The Basket of Flowers Egg

Alexandra Feodorovna

Purchase price 6,850 rubles.

One of the most recognizable Imperial Easter eggs produced by Faberge was presented by Nicholas II to his wife Alexandra Fedorovna at Easter of 1901. With this Egg Faberge workmasters moved beyond the traditional ovoid form of the Easter gift: the vase-basket was given the form of an egg truncated at the top. Another notable departure is the absence of a surprise, typically concealed inside an egg. The Egg is decorated with 4,100 small rose-cut diamonds.

From an entry in the “Inventory of items, belonging to Their Imperial Majesties and kept in their private quarters at the Winter Palace”: “Vase in the form of an egg-basket, covered throughout in white enamel. Body, foot and pedestal are applied with a design in the form of an interlaced trellis, set out entirely in rose-cut diamonds. The vase features an arched handle, tied with four bows, the handle and bows applied with rose-cut diamonds. Inside the vase is a tuft of moss made of green gold, and a bouquet of wildflowers of different colors, made of variously colored enamel. The year 1901 is set out on the side of the vase in rose-cut diamonds.”

Certain Western experts once believed that this Egg was produced in Paris by Boucheron, an error that originated with a 1953 publication by Kenneth Snowman. In fact, four years earlier, H.C. Bainbridge mentioned this same Egg in his classic monograph “Faberge” as indisputably a work of his employer. A period reference photograph of the egg reveals that the base of this Egg was re-enameled in cobalt blue after the revolution, indicating that some damage had occurred to the original base, enameled in the same opalescent white as the egg-basket itself.

In the Royal Collection, London, UK.

https://www.rct.uk/collection/40098/basket-of-flowers-egg