1911 The Fifteenth Anniversary Egg
Alexandra Feodorovna
Purchase price 16,600 rubles
The Easter Egg “Fifteenth Anniversary,” presented to Alexandra Fedorovna in 1911, commemorates a significant event in the life of the Empire and the Imperial family. The year of Nicholas and Alexandra’s accession to the throne — 1894 — is inscribed on the exterior of the Egg, under a convex plate of rock crystal. Two years later the pair were crowned in a ceremony held at the Dormition Cathedral. Thus, the year 1911 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the crowning. At the same time, the almanac “Capital and Manor” for the year 1916 notes that the Egg marks “the 15thanniversary of the reign of the Emperor Nicholas II.” The same source goes on to state that “at either pole of the Egg, under specially faceted portrait diamonds, one finds the monogram AΘwith a crown and the year 1909.”
From an entry in a Faberge account book: “Large Egg in the style of Louis XVI, in gold, white opalescent enamel and garlands of green enamel; 929 rose-cut diamonds, 1 brilliant diamond, 1 large rose-cut diamonds, 16 miniatures painted by Vasiliy I. Zuev. The portraits are of: His Majesty the Emperor, Her Majesty the Empress, His Highness the Tsesarevich, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.
1) Procession to the Dormition Cathedral;
2) Sacred Coronation of Their Majesties;
3) His Majesty’s speech from the Throne;
4) Transfer of the Relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov;
5) Peace Palace in The Hague;
6) Museum of the Emperor Alexander III;
7) Bridge of the Emperor Alexander III in Paris;
8) Unveiling of the monument to Peter I in Riga;
9) Celebrations in Poltava; Swedish graves — two vignettes, 1894-1911.”
The Fifteenth Anniversary Egg is the only Easter gift created by Faberge at the Emperor’s commission to feature both portraits and historical narrative compositions. There is no surprise as such. Consequently, the Egg is especially remarkable for its magnificent décor: its golden shell is covered with white translucent enamel over a guilloche ground, and divided into eighteen sections by raised garlands of green enamel, tied together with diamond ribbons. Each section contains “artistically and most exquisitely executed” miniatures, painted by Vasiliy Zuev in watercolors on ivory and covered with plates of rock crystal. There are seven portraits of the members of the Imperial family: Nicholas II, Alexandra Fedorovna and their five children, as well as compositions depicting “key events in the reign of the Emperor.” The frames of the portraits are laid out in small diamonds, as is the case with nearly all depictions of Imperial personages produced by Faberge.
In the collection of the Faberge Museum, St. Petersburg, RF