1915 The Red Cross Portraits Egg
Maria Feodorovna
Purchase price 3,875 rubles
Imperial Easter eggs in the year 1915, both made under the supervision of Agafon Karlovich Faberge, were far more modest than their predecessors. According to the recollections of head workmaster Franz Birbaum, “In the War years no eggs were produced, with few exceptions, which were very modest and inexpensive. Those were the eggs of 1915.”
The Egg known today as “Red Cross Portraits” was made for the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna. It is decorated in opalescent white enamel with two red crosses and Slavonic script along the midsection. A folding screen (inside) is of opalescent white enamel and gold trimming, 5 miniatures, by Zuev, of the Most August Sisters of Mercy: Her Majesty Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Younger. At 3,875 rubles, the cost of this Egg is several times less than that of Imperial Easter eggs in the preceding years.
In 1927 the State Repository Commission valued the Egg at 1,632 rubles. In 1930 it was purchased by Armand Hammer for $250, based on a valuation by Antikvariat, and resold by him in 1933 to Lillian Thomas Pratt.
In the collection of the Virginia Fine Arts Museum, Richmond, VA