On May 9, 1896 Nicholas and Alexandra were crowned as the new Emperor and Empress of all the Russias. In honor of that occasion the House of Fabergé created this incredibly beautiful Egg for Nicholas to gift Alexandra with on the first Easter following the coronation. Today it is one of the most renowned of all of the Eggs and currently the original, late in the Forbes Collection, is now owned by a Russian industrialist and is in Russia at the Kremlin Museum.

Our Egg is an exact copy of the original Egg except, of course, for the materials used. The Egg is enameled in a lustrous yellow over a starburst guilloché ground. The yellow represents the gold of the coronation robes of the royal couple. Overlaying that is a trellis work of laurel leaves punctuated with the Romanov Double Eagle insignia at every trellis intersection. At either pole of the Egg there are large multi-faceted crystals set in bezels.

The egg opens to reveal a gold plated plinth with a minescule reproduction of the Coronation Coach in which the Empress rode to the coronation. The detail on the coach is beyond description. The roof, the doors, the coachman's seat, the footman's seat are all done in strawberry enamel guilloché, often with a gold trellis overlay so you are looking through the trellis at the guilloché ground. The roof has a superstructure in addition to the trellis work on which is mounted the Coronation Crown. All of the gold work is engraved and decorated in relief. The interior of the coach is done in gold and is channeled to resemble the interior upholstery of the coach. Looking at it is a most extraordinary experience because it is impossible to take in all of the enormous detail that has gone into the making of this piece at one time. Each time I look at it I see something I have not seen before. It requires repeated close examination to really see the incredibly exquisite artistry of this piece.

This miniature stands 3.5 inches in the stand and the Egg itself is 2.5 inches from base to apex.

Retail: $350.00. Our price: $314.90.

Of interest: The workmaster for the original coach was George Stein. It took him 15 months, working 16 hours a day to complete the coach. The workmaster for the original egg was Mikhail Perkhin.