Lovely photos - thank you very much for sharing. Love the Fabergé eggs.
--Previous Message-- : Last week, I had the chance to visit the : "Fabergé: Jeweler to the Tsars" : exhibit that is showing at the Oklahoma City : Museum of Art. I did not take that many : photos, thinking that the museum gift shop : would have a book about the exhibit that I : could purchase. Strangely, they didn't...I : was very disappointed! : : The exhibit features four Imperial Easter : Eggs, plus many Faberge picture frames, : carved animals, cigarette and snuff cases. : They are on loan from the Virginia Museum of : Art. If you have the opportunity to travel : to Oklahoma City, I highly recommend you : block off about two hours to see the : exhibit. It runs until September. : : : : The first egg you see in the exhibit is the : "Pelican Egg". At first, I was : disappointed that the egg did not have the : "surprise" with it, but then I : learned that the egg itself is the surprise : as it is actually a series of pictures on : hinges that open up from the egg itself and : then will fold back to the egg shape. : : : : The Pelican Egg was presented by Nicholas II : to his mother, Dowager Empress Maria : Feodorovna on Easter 1898. It was made of : red gold and the pelican on top features : diamonds. : : The next egg was the Peter the Great Egg. : : : : This egg was made in 1903 and was presented : to Czarina Alexandra Fyodorovna. It was a : little bit bigger than the Pelican Egg and : is also much more elaborate in design. : : : : The surprise is a miniature of the Peter the : Great statue in St. Petersburg. : : : : The third egg was my favorite. It is the : Tsarevich Egg. It is amazing! It's made : out of several different sections of lapis : lazuli, but it looks like it is just carved : out of one larger piece. You can really see : the amazing craftsmanship on this piece. : : : : It was created in 1912 for Empress Alexandra : Fyodorovna. The surprise (which I was : amazed that it somehow fits in the egg) is : just beautiful. : : : : It features a double sided portrait of : Alexi, along with lots of diamonds. The : picture does not do justice to the amount of : glitter and sparkle the surprise has! : : : : The last egg was the Imperial Red Cross with : Portraits. : : : It was presented to the Dowager Empress in : 1915, during the Great War. Because of that, : the design is not nearly elaborate as some : of the other eggs, but it was still : impressive. : : The surprise is a series of portraits of : Imperial ladies who had connections with the : Red Cross. : : : : Also in this room were many Faberge picture : frames, many with the original images in : them. Unfortunately, the display : information focused on the materials used in : the frames (gold, silver, diamond, : sapphires, etc...) and failed to identify : who was in the picture. I had a very hard : time trying to remember which Grand Duchess : was which, so identification on the display : would have helped my foggy memory. I was so : focused on viewing all the images that I : didn't take any pictures of the frames. : : I hope you enjoyed the pictures! :