My Great American Fabergé Egg Hunt: The Caucasus Egg (Part 2)

To celebrate Orthodox Easter this weekend, I'm taking a deep dive into the history of the remarkable Caucasus Egg, currently on display at the Met in New York

On Sunday, Orthodox worshippers will celebrate Easter. In honor of the holiday, I've got the second installment of the series on my visit to see the imperial Easter eggs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York last December. (If you missed the first article, you can catch up here.) Today's article tells the story of an Easter egg dedicated to Empress Marie Feodorovna's beloved third son, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia.

Imperial Fabergé eggs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, December 2023 (Mark Havard)

“Wait. Is there a picture on top of this one?”

My husband, who is 6’3”, had the advantage of looking through the glass top of the case that held the Fabergé eggs at the Met in New York. I looked over to see him peering down at the top of the red egg in the display.

“There is,” I said. “That’s a special portrait-cut diamond, and underneath it there’s a miniature portrait of one of the Empress's sons.”

He nodded and grabbed his cell phone. He spent almost all of the rest of the time we had at the display trying to take a clear picture of the top of the egg so that I could see the portrait, too. “Were there special eggs for all of the royal kids?” he asked while he snapped pictures.

“No,” I said. “The Emperor died before he could dedicate an egg to each of them.” I stood on my tiptoes to look at the diamond on the top of the red egg. “But this one was dedicated to the Empress’s favorite son, who lived far away. I think the Emperor wanted to give her something to look at and think of him.”