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The Hen Egg is a jewelled Easter egg that was made under the supervision of the Russian jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé in 1885, for the then Tsar of Russia, Alexander III. It is the first of the Fabergé eggs.
Tsar Alexander III presented the egg to his wife Tsarina Maria Feodorovna. The egg is currently located in Russia as part of the Vekselberg Collection.
Craftsmanship
The egg is made of gold, opaque white enamel, rubies and varicoloured gold.
The egg shell is enamel white and made to look like a hen's egg. The two halves open to reveal a gold yolk, containing a varicoloured gold hen with ruby eyes. The hen also opened up to reveal the "surprise," which is now missing. The surprise consisted of a ruby pendant egg and a diamond replica of the imperial crown.
History of the egg
This egg marked the 20th anniversary of Czar Alexander III and Tsarina Maria Feodorovna. The Czar wanted to give his wife a gift that would remind her of Denmark, her homeland, and the egg looks to be a variation of one belonging to the Danish Royal Collection, that Fabergé may have seen and been inspired by.
It is still a debate as to whether the Czar came up with the idea and contracted Fabergé to construct it or whether Fabergé created it as a way of gaining favour from the royal family.
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