1896 The “Alexander III Portraits” Egg
Maria Feodorovna
Purchase price: 3,575 rubles.
The Imperial Easter Egg “Alexander III Portraits” was the first in a series of commemorative articles dedicated to the memory of the late Emperor Alexander III. It comprises six dark-blue panels with guilloche ornaments. These are separated by raised bands set with rose-cut diamonds, with larger diamonds set at the intersections. Each panel is applied with the monograms MΘ (Maria Fedorovna) and A III (Alexander III) and Imperial crowns laid out in diamonds. The MΘ monograms are position in the upper half of the Egg, with the A III monograms in the lower half. The Egg opens, its interior lined with velvet. The surprise — a screen with miniature portraits of Alexander III — is now lost.
In a surviving letter from the Dowager Empress to Nicholas II, dated March 22, 1896 and written shortly after she received the Egg, Maria Fedorovna writes: “I can't find words to express to you, my dear Nicky, how touched and moved I was on receiving your ideal egg with the charming portraits of your dear, adored Papa. It is all such a beautiful idea, with our monograms above it all.”
In 1917 the Egg was mentioned in an inventory of Maria Fedorovna’s valuables kept at Gatchina. After the October Revolution the whereabouts of the Egg were unknown, until it turned up in the possession of a Mrs. Berchielli of Italy. Acquired in 1949 by Marjorie Merriweather Post.
In the collection of the Hillwood Estates Museum (Washington DC, USA).