Year of original:
Maker:
comissioned by:
current location:
material:
surprise:
Carl Fabergé, St.Petersburg
Diamond-set double-headed eagle with miniature portrait of Tsarevich Alexei
Gold, lapis lazuli, diamonds, platinum, rock crystal
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond
Nicholas II for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna
The Tsarevich Egg was presented by Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna at Easter 1912 — the year of Alexei’s eighth birthday. Encased in lapis lazuli with gold ornamental relief, it opens to reveal the surprise: a diamond-set double-headed eagle of the Romanov dynasty, at the centre of which rests a miniature portrait of the young Tsarevich Alexei — a private token of dynastic pride enclosed within an object of imperial ceremony.
The Heredis Atelier reconstruction renders this object at a level of detail unavailable to the physical visitor: the guilloché ground beneath the enamel, the precise cut and setting of each stone, the mechanical rotation of the interior star chart — examined from any angle, at any scale, without glass between the viewer and the object.
imperial fabergè collection No.01