For members of the Fabergé Collectors Society only, Fabergé has made a series of miniatures of the Imperial Eggs which are exact reproductions of, but considerably smaller than, the originals, standing only 3.5 inches when resting in their stand with the Egg itself being only 2 inches from apex to base.  

Presented by Tsar Nicholas II to his wife, the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna for Easter 1907, the Egg honored the birth of the long-awaited heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaievich.

It was not known then but the infant Prince was born with the life threatening disease Hemophilia. Again, it was not known then but the disease came to him through his mother; it passes only through the female line and only affects males in the line. The genes for it came to his mother from her grandmother Queen Victoria of England who was the first monarch known to have had it.

The nation was overjoyed at the birth of this small boy but, in fact, the problems that resulted from his illness, the enormous influence that Rasputin wielded over the Empress, came about because Alexandra believed that Rasputin repeatedly saved her child from bleeding to death. The medical profession knew so little about the disease and nothing of how to control it, and coincidentally, Rasputin would pray for the child to survive each attack and the child did. Alexandra was so strongly influenced by this rapscallion who was actually a peasant who designed himself a holy man, that she influenced Nicholas on his behalf. In the end, in large part, that was responsible for bringing down the monarchy. I have simplified the story because of space but the facts are as they were.

The Egg is covered with a gold lattice, each diamond of the lattice displaying a tiny pink rose centered in it. The ground of each diamond done in emerald green enamel guilloché to indicate the tiny green leaves on the original Egg. Both the apex of the Egg and the base are capped by large crystals set in gold bezels. In the original Egg these are table diamonds and beneath the base diamond is the year in which the Egg was presented, 1907.

The surprise is an exquisitely framed portrait of the Tsar Nicholas II, the frame being a circlet of crystals. In the original Egg the surprise was a diamond necklace with a medallion that featured a portrait on ivory of the infant Tsarevich but it went missing when the Revolutionists seized all belongings of the monarchy in 1917 and has never been found.

Retail: $350.00.  Our price: $314.90.