1912 Tsarevich Egg (Czarevich Egg)
Gift Nicholas
II to Alexandra Fyodorovna
Made in Saint Petersburg
Owner: Collection
Lillian Thomas Pratt,
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA
Height: 12,5 cm
The 1912 Tsarevich Egg is made of gold, lapis lazuli, portrait diamonds and brilliant diamonds. The Frame surprise is made of platinum, lapis lazuli, rose-cut diamonds and watercolor on ivory.
This Louis XV style Egg was carved from a superb block of lapis lazuli and ornamented with gold tracery of shells, scrolls, baskets of flowers, and cherubs. The crowned Imperial monogram AF (Alexandra Fyodorovna) and the year 1912 are shown under a rectangular portrait diamond surmounting the Egg. A large brilliant diamond is set in the base.
The surprise inside is the Russian double-headed Imperial eagle, covered front and back with 2000 diamonds, with a miniature portrait of the Tsarevich Alexei Nicholaevich on the eagle's chest. The reverse site of the miniature shows the back of the seven year old Alexei. The miniature is not signed and comparing the beauty of the Egg and the poor quality of the picture, it is assumed that the original painting got lost and was replaced by the present one.
Background information
The hemophilia of their only son, (the Imperial family kept it secret from the Russian people) was an enormous blow to the Imperial couple and it influenced the last twelve years of the Tsar's reign. Alexandra would devote the rest of her life to protecting her son, clutching at any hope offered by anyone, including Grigorii Rasputin. In 1911, on vacation in Spala, Poland, the Tsarevich suffered a severe hemorrhage that almost killed him. bulletins were issued about his state of health, without saying exactly what was the cause of the problem. The last Sacrament was administered and a notice announcing Alexei's death was prepared. The alexandra called on Rasputin who told her not to grieve: "the little one will not die". It was this crisis that brought Rasputin back to Imperial favor after a cooling down in the relationship after several prophecies from Rasputin failed to come true. now he had unparalleled influence on the Tsarina.
As Fabergé knew about it may very well be that he created this Egg to pay tribute to the remarkable recovery of Alex. The Tsarevich Egg was in any case Alexandra's most cherished Egg.
In 1930 one of the ten Eggs sold by the Antikvariat to the Hammer Galleries, New York. 1933 bought by Lillian Thomas Pratt. 1947 Collection of the late Lillian Thomas Pratt, willed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, United States.
Page updated: November 13, 2008