The Twelve Monograms egg, also known as the Alexander III Portraits egg, is an
Easter egg
Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian holiday of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are commonly used during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The ...
made under the supervision of the Russian jeweller
Peter Carl Fabergé
Peter Carl Gustavovich Fabergé (; – 24 September 1920; also known as Charles Fabergé) was a Russian goldsmith and jeweller. He is best known for creating Fabergé eggs made in the style of genuine Easter eggs, but using precious metals and ...
in 1896 for Tsar
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until Abdication of Nicholas II, hi ...
. It was presented by Nicholas II to his mother, the Dowager Empress
Maria Feodorovna. The egg was the second
Fabergé egg
A Fabergé egg () is a jewelled egg first created by the jewellery firm House of Fabergé, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. As many as 69 Czarist Russia Era eggs were created, of which 61 are currently known to have survived. Virtually all of the ...
ever given by Nicholas II to his mother as an Easter present.
This egg is one of four commemorating Tsar
Alexander III. The other three are the
Empire Nephrite egg (1902), the missing
Alexander III Commemorative egg (1909), and the
Alexander III Equestrian Egg (1910).
It is currently held in the
Hillwood Museum in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, as part of the
Marjorie Merriweather Post
Marjorie Merriweather Post (March 15, 1887 – September 12, 1973) was an American businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist. She was the daughter of C. W. Post and the owner of General Foods, General Foods Corporation. For much of Post's l ...
Collection.
Description
Each panel of the egg contains a
Cyrillic
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...
cipher
In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...
of
Alexander III and Maria Fedorovna, set and crowned in diamonds, set against the dark blue enamel with a design of red gold, rose-cut diamonds, portrait diamonds and velvet lining. It is covered by six panels each divided by bands set with rose-cut diamonds and decorated with the Imperial crown and Imperial monograms (MF) "Maria Fyodorovna" and (AIII) "Alexander III". Each monogram appears six times, with Maria's monogram appearing on the top half of the egg and Alexander's appearing on the bottom.
Identification
An allegedly-missing Fabergé egg known from its description as the Alexander III Portraits Egg was previously thought to be the Imperial Easter egg from 1895 in the Maria Feodorovna series.
However, following the 2012 rediscovery of the 1887
Third Imperial egg, which was announced to the world in March 2014, and the reassignment of the
Blue Serpent Clock egg as the 1895 Imperial Easter egg, it became clear that the "missing" Imperial Easter egg identified in the series as the Alexander III Portraits Egg must be the extant Twelve Monograms Egg of 1896.
The 1896 Twelve Monograms Egg is held at the
Hillwood Museum in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
Surprise
The surprise for this egg is missing. It is believed that this egg contained six miniatures of Alexander III painted on an ivory background and mounted with sapphires.
References
Further reading
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External links
Website by Annemiek Wintraecken: 1896 Twelve Monogram Egg / Alexander III Portraits Egg
{{FabergeEggs
Imperial Fabergé eggs
1896 works
Alexander III of Russia