{
"data": {
"id": 142724,
"accession_number": "1966.436.a",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Lapis Lazuli Easter Egg, c. 1885\u201390. Attributed to Peter Carl Faberg\u00e9 (Russian, 1846\u20131920), attributed to House of Faberg\u00e9 (Russian, 1842\u20131918). Gold, enamel, lapis lazuli, pearls, diamonds, rubies; overall: 5.9 x 4.5 cm (2 5/16 x 1 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The India Early Minshall Collection, 1966.436.a",
"current_location": "211 Faberg\u00e9",
"title": "Lapis Lazuli Easter Egg",
"creation_date": "c. 1885\u201390",
"creation_date_earliest": 1885,
"creation_date_latest": 1890,
"artists_tags": [
"male",
"gender unknown"
],
"culture": [
"Russia, St. Petersburg"
],
"technique": "gold, enamel, lapis lazuli, pearls, diamonds, rubies",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Decorative Art and Design",
"collection": "Decorative Arts",
"type": "Miscellaneous",
"measurements": "Overall: 5.9 x 4.5 cm (2 5/16 x 1 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.059,
"width": 0.045
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 208794,
"title": "Faberg\u00e9 in America",
"description": "Faberg\u00e9 in America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (February 12-May 5, 1996); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (organizer) (May 25-July 28, 1996); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (August 24-November 2, 1996); New Orleans Museum of Art (December 7, 1996-February 8, 1997); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 12-May 11, 1997).",
"opening_date": "1996-02-12T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 211192,
"title": "Faberg\u00e9's Menagerie: The Animal Creations of the Faberg\u00e9 Workshop",
"description": "Faberg\u00e9's Menagerie: The Animal Creations of the Faberg\u00e9 Workshop. Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (February 8-May 2, 2004).",
"opening_date": "2003-02-14T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 194450,
"title": "Artistic Luxury: Faberg\u00e9 Tiffany Lalique ",
"description": "Artistic Luxury: Faberg\u00e9 Tiffany Lalique . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19, 2008-January 18, 2009); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (February 7-May 31, 2009).",
"opening_date": "2008-10-19T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 174850,
"title": "Faberg\u00e9: Designing Luxury, from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts",
"description": "Faberg\u00e9: Designing Luxury, from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 13, 2013).",
"opening_date": "2012-10-14T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "India Early Minshall [1885\u20131965], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-1966",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1966-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This egg may have been made for one of the tsar's relatives very early in the run of Faberg\u00e9's production of Easter eggs.",
"description": "Peter Carl Faberg\u00e9 became the crown jeweler to the imperial court of Russia after he produced the very first Easter egg for Tsar Alexander III to give to his wife, Empress Marie Feodorovna. Faberg\u00e9 created his celebrated Easter eggs, symbols of rebirth and renewal, as gifts for the Russian imperial family every year until he had to leave the country in 1919 after the Russian Revolution. Made of gold and lapis lazui from the Ural Mountains, this egg conceals a delightful surprise within of an imperial crown and a tiny ruby or pink sapphire on a chain.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18245358"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1966.436.a-lapis-lazuli-easter"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Hawley, Henry H. Faberge\u0301 and His Contemporaries: The India Early Minshall Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 72-73, cat. 32.",
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/836254532"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 171",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n195"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 227",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n247"
},
{
"citation": "Habsburg, Ge\u0301za von, and David Park Curry. Faberge\u0301 in America. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 114, cat. 98.",
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/34433639"
},
{
"citation": "Harrison, Stephen, Emmanuel Ducamp, and Jeannine J. Falino. Artistic Luxury: Faberge\u0301 Tiffany Lalique. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 175, cat. 51",
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/230187932"
},
{
"citation": "Solon, Chad. \"The Lapis Lazuli Egg in the Cleveland Museum of Art.\" The Burlington Magazine. 163, no.1422 (September 2021): 828-831",
"page_number": "reproduced p. 829; mentioned p. 828-831",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1966.436.a",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
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"width": "900",
"height": "653",
"filesize": "86843",
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"print": {
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"alternate_images": [
{
"date_created": "2018-03-27T10:20:41",
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],
"creditline": "The India Early Minshall Collection",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 142724,
"creators": [
{
"id": 5366,
"description": "Peter Carl Faberg\u00e9 (Russian, 1846\u20131920)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": "attributed to",
"role": "designer",
"biography": "Supplied most of the gifts exchanged by relatives of the imperial family in Russia, Denmark, Germany, and England for christenings, name days, birthdays, Christmas, and Easter.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1846",
"death_year": "1920",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
},
{
"id": 55332,
"description": "House of Faberg\u00e9 (Russian, 1842\u20131918)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": "attributed to",
"role": "maker",
"biography": "Peter Carl Faberge (1846-1920) took over the House of Faberge in 1870 from his father Carl Gustav Faberge who had founded the firm in 1842. Until 1881, the firm manufactured primarily jewelry for Saint Petersburg's aristocrats and wealthy elite. In 1885 the firm was awarded the coveted imperial warrant as goldsmith to the tsar and began to produce elaborate presentation Easter eggs as a gift for the tsarina from her husband every year. They also produced luxurious accessories, jewelry, and hardstone sculptures. At one point, Faberge employed over 300 workers including 22 workmasters who oversaw the production of the firm's jewelry and precious objects. A branch of the firm opened in Moscow in 1887, specializing in neo-Russian and pan-Slavic motifs in jewelry, silver, and enamel. Other branches followed in Kiev, London, and Odessa as well as new premises in Saint Petersburg. At the onset of the Russian Revolution, Peter Carl Faberge fled the country to Paris then Switzerland, where he died in 1920. His firm was nationalized by the Bolsheviks in 1918.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1842",
"death_year": "1918",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 2
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1966-11-05T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1885,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1885\u201390",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "part",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": "1966.436",
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:04:36.253000"
}
}