1912 The Napoleonic Egg

Maria Feodorovna

Purchase price 22,300 rubles.

The Imperial Easter egg “Napoleonic” was one of several designed in the Empire style. The Emperor and his family vacationed at Livadia over the Easter holiday of 1912, and the Egg was presented to the Dowager Empress by Carl Faberge personally, on behalf of the Emperor. Eugene Faberge alludes to this in his letter to H.C. Bainbridge, dated June 5, 1934, “On the eve of that year’s Easter celebration my father, on behalf of the Emperor, presented an Egg to the Empress Maria Fedorovna, who was staying in St. Petersburg.”

From an entry in a Faberge account book: “Large ‘Empire’ egg, gold, green, red and opalescent enamel, 2 brilliant diamonds, 4,556 rose-cut diamonds, inside a six-panel screen with a monogram of Her Majesty and 6 miniatures (by Vasiliy Zuiev) of the regiments presided over by Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Maria Fedorovna:

1.    Her Majesty’s 11th East-Siberian Infantry Regiment

2.    Her Majesty’s 11th Chuguev Lancers Regiment

3.    Her Majesty’s 2nd Pskov Dragoons Regiment

4.    Her Majesty’s Naval Guards

5.    Her Majesty’s Imperial Guard Cuirassiers Regiment

6.    Her Majesty’s Chevalier Guards Regiment.

In 1930 Armand Hammer purchased this item for $2,500, based on a valuation by the foreign trade association “Antikvariat,” and resold it in 1951 to Matilda Geddings Gray.

Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/238803