Image Gallery
Imperial Red Cross Egg by Fabergé
The 1915 Imperial Red Cross Egg by Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920). The egg was given by Tsar Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917) to his mother the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna. It commemorates the dowager's role as head of the Russian Red Cross. The egg is made of gold and silver with white and red enamel. Around the centre, rendered in gilt lettering, is an Old Slavonic inscription: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." The top of the egg has the crown and monogram of the dowager. The surprise inside contains five interconnected painted portraits of Romanov women as nurses by Zuiev. The egg measures 7.6 cm (3 in) in height.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, USA.
Bibliography
- Cleveland Museum of Art, accessed 4 May 2021.
- G. von Habsburg-Lothringen & A. von Solodkoff. Faberge. Rizzoli, 1979.
- Royal Collection Trust Home, accessed 4 May 2021.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accessed 4 May 2021.
- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, accessed 4 May 2021.