The Pelican, a symbol of maternal love, graced the apex of the Imperial Pelican Egg, made by the House of Fabergé in 1898 and given as a gift by Tsar Nicholas II to his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna.

Made of cobalt crystal, hand cut with four "windows" through which the Pelican Surprise can be seen, and decorated with streamers of engraved laurel leaves between the windows." The Egg sits on a gold metal pedestal that repeats the theme of windows" with punch work around its base. Crowning the Egg, a gold metal pendant, reminder of the onion domes so frequently seen in Russian architecture. Inside the Egg, sitting on a plinth of hammered gold metal, the Pelican, in white enamel, with her long yellow bill touched with gold, is perched on her nest, wings raised, and covered with Austrian crystals, her two fledglings at her feet. The bird and her young are an exact reproduction of the Pelican that sits astride the Imperial Pelican Egg.