Danish Palaces Egg miniature paintings surprise [detail]
Watercolour on mother-of-pearl; by House of Fabergé, and Konstantin Krijitski, 1890
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation)
Photograph by James Petts, 2019

This egg was given by Tsar Alexander III to his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna. Its exterior design features a pink-mauve enamelled gold divided into twelve sections, adorned with rose-cut diamonds and emeralds. Its surprise is a ten-panel folding gold screen made of multicolour gold with watercolours on mother-of-pearl, depicting Danish palaces and royal yachts, and serving as a sentimental reminder of her pre-marital life in Denmark. Originally part of the Imperial collection, the egg's ownership shifted through various hands. It was discovered amongst the collection of Matilda Geddings Gray in 1972, a year after her death in Louisiana, and it became part of the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation. In 1980, the egg, amongst others, was stolen from an exhibition in Wisconsin, but was recovered soon after. The egg is currently on long-term loan at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.