The Imperial Clover
Egg.
Presented by Nicholas II to his wife, the Empress Alexandra Federovna
for Easter 1902, this Egg never having been sold by the Russian government
has remained in Russia . It is one of the most unusual of the Eggs.
It is constructed in the plique-a-jour style with a melange of three
and four leaf clovers both in green enamel with veining of gold in
relief and diamond studded clover leaves all with a red enamel ribbon
running through the leaves. (Plique-a-jour literally means open to
daylight and this Egg is exactly that. You can look through the leaves
and see the interior of the Egg.) The Egg is not attached but rests
on a clover footed stand which consists of clovers bound to each
other by their twined stems. Original to the Egg was a four leaf
clover with portraits of the four Grand Duchesses, daughters of Nicholas
and Alexandra that stood in the interior of the Egg. That went missing
during the Revolution and is not mentioned in any of the descriptive
documents after the fall of the Romanovs. Replacing it in our Egg
is a stem of clover standing upright, two clovers in green enamel
and the third clover--a four leaf clover--done in crystals. This
clover is removable and is made as a jeweled pin. One other unusual
feature of this Egg is a framework attached to the lower half of
the Egg and visible only when the Egg is open, that has the date
1902, the letters A O which appear more than once as do a series
of crowns and clovers.Retail: About $1600.00. Our price: $1439.90.
NOTE: plique-a-jour
is a technique used by jewelers, stained glass artists and cloisonné artists
forming an open framework of wires or fine metal strips that
are fastened to each other,
rather than to a supporting surface, that is then filled with
either enamel or stained glass.
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