Resurrection Egg
Gold, diamonds, pearls, rock crystal; h. 9.8 cm
by House of Fabergé, and Mikhail Perkhin, 1884–98
Fabergé Museum, St Petersburg
After a 2017 photograph by Testus

The Resurrection Egg, or Transformation Egg, is made from a single block of translucent rock crystal, and is decorated with yellow gold, rose-cut diamonds, pearls, and red, green, white, blue, and black enamel. It is designed in the form of a monstrance with influences from the Italian Renaissance. The egg features a central scene of Christ standing above a tomb flanked by two kneeling angels with white enamelled robes on an oval raised base bordered with diamonds. The entire scene is encased within a rock crystal egg-shaped shell, with a vertical band of diamonds and a domed quatrefoil foot adorned with multicoloured Renaissance-style scrolls and diamond-set ribbons, set with four pearls. The piece is marked with the Cyrillic initials of Fabergé and an assay mark indicating its 14-karat gold content. This egg does not open, and it has been theorised that it is in fact the surprise belonging to the Imperial Renaissance Egg.