First posted Palm Sunday, 2011.
While Fabergé created thousands of jeweled Easter eggs it is the 65
large eggs that receive the most attention. Included in that number are
the 50 Imperial eggs, of which the wherabouts are known for 42.
There are no eggs referencing Palm Sunday so I was Ieft to choose from
those with either a biblical motif or some green coloring.
An odd little site called Pearly's Qunol has the most pictures, Treasures of Imperial Russia the highest pixel counts.
Here's the 1898 Lilies of the Valley egg.
From Treasures of Imperial Russia:
The egg enameled translucent rose pink over a guilloché ground
and surmounted by a diamond and ruby-set Imperial crown, the egg
divided into four quadrants by diamond-set borders, each quadrant with
climbing gold sprays of lily of the valley, the flowers formed by
diamond-petaled pearls, the finely sculpted gold leaves enameled
translucent green and rising from curved legs formed of wrapped gold
leaves set with diamonds ending in scroll feet topped with pearls, a
pearl-set knob at the side of the egg activates a mechanism which causes
the crown to rise revealing a fan of three diamond-framed portrait
miniatures of Tsar Nicholas II and the children of Nicholas and
Alexandra, Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, each signed by the miniaturist Johannes Zehngraf, the reeded gold backs of the miniatures engraved with the date 5.IV.1898, marked
on these backplates with Cyrillic initials of workmaster, Fabergé in
Cyrillic and assay mark of 56 standard for 14 karat gold.
Fabergé's invoice lists this egg as:
“April 10. Pink enamel egg with three portraits, green enamel leaves, lilies of the valley pearls with rose-cut diamonds. St. Petersburg, May 7, 1898 6700r.” 1 The
Lilies of the Valley Egg is adorned with the favorite flowers and the
favorite jewels – pearls and diamonds – of the young Empress. It also
contains, as its surprise, miniatures of her three favorite people in
the world: her adored husband Nicholas and her two daughters, Olga (born
1895) and Tatiana (born 1897). Moreover, Fabergé designed the egg in
the Tsarina's favorite style – Art Nouveau. Doubtless this egg was also
one of her favorite objects by the Russian master.
...MORE
The eight missing eggs would make for one heck of an Easter egg hunt.