Presented by Nicholas II to his wife, the Empress Alexandra Federovna for Easter 1902, this Egg was never sold by the Russian government and has remained in Russia. It is one of the most unusual of the Eggs. It is constructed in the plique-a-jour style with a melange of three and four leaf clovers both in green enamel with veining of gold in relief and diamond studded clover leaves all with a red enamel ribbon running through the leaves (Plique-a-jour literally means open to daylight and this Egg is exactly that. You can look through the leaves and see the interior of the Egg).

The Egg is not attached but rests on a clover footed stand which consists of clovers bound to each other by their twined stems. Original to the Egg was a four leaf clover with portraits of the four Grand Duchesses, daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra that stood in the interior of the Egg. This went missing during the Revolution and is not mentioned in any of the descriptive documents after the fall of the Romanovs. Replacing it in our Egg is a stem of clover standing upright, two clovers in green enamel and the third clover - a four leaf clover - done in diamonds. This clover is removable and is made as a jeweled pin. One other unusual feature of this Egg is a framework attached to the lower half of the Egg and visible only when the Egg is open, that has the date 1902, the letters A O which appear more than once as do a series of crowns and clovers.

Our price: $2000.00.

NOTE: plique-a-jour is a technique used by jewelers, stained glass artists and cloisonné artists forming an open framework of wires or fine metal strips that are fastened to each other, rather than to a supporting surface, that is then filled with either enamel or stained glass.