Lilies of the Valley Faberge Egg

LILIES OF THE VALLEY FABERGE EGG

Presented to tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna by her husband, tsar Nicholas II, the Lilies of the Valley is a one-of-a-kind, art-nouveau style faberge egg, created under the supervision of Peter Carl Faberge.

As the Russian Orthodox Church's Easter tradition dictates, each year the tsar presents a faberge egg to a member of his family. The Lilies of the Valley was given to Alexandra Fedorovna by her husband in 1898. This one-of-a-kind, art-nouveau style egg is made of gold, decorated with lilies of the valleys in pearls and rose-cut diamonds on a pink enamel background — additional materials include rubies, rock crystal and watercolor on ivory.

The tsar commissioned this specific piece due to the tsarina's love for flowers, especially lilies of the valleys, and pearls. One of the most notable of the egg's features is the three oval miniatures of Nicholas II and his first two children, Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, that rise from the egg by way of geared mechanism, spreading into a fan when a gold-set pearl button on the side of the egg is turned.

In 2004, the egg was purchased by Viktor Vekselberg for an undisclosed amount and is now on display as part of The Link of Times Foundation Collection in the Faberge Museum in Russia. The Lilies of the Valley was additionally part of the traveling 'Pearls: A Natural History' exhibit organized by the American Museum of Natural History.