Unscrambled Eggs
In an important reinterpretation, jewellery expert Geoffrey Munn
claims the true inspiration for some of Faberge’s remarkable
Imperial Easter Eggs
came from folklore, Christian lore and even throwaway greetings cards
TSAR NICHOLAS II CELEBRATED his last
Easter less than 100 years ago in 1918.
However in the space of a lifetime it seems
that the world has shifted on its axis; what
has been gained in technology has been lost
in religious faith and liturgical traditions.
In order to estimate the gulf between
our immediate predecessors and ourselves it
is necessary to recall a society without
television and radio, and mostly without the
telephone and electric light. Entertainments
were limited to banquets, balls, theatres, and
country sports but the church, with its annual
festivals, remained the focus of everyday life
for everyone. This was a life illuminated not
by the glow of the computer screen but by
hobbies, books, hand-written letters and
greetings cards. For many people there was
much more available time, and to fill it a
number of covert means of communication,
based on historical precedent were revived
and elaborated. These included the language
of flowers and the lore of the lapidary.
By the early 1900s so many booklets had
been published devoted to the meaning of
flowers that it is pointless to single out any
one of them here. Understandably the focus
was narrower for those that classified the
meaning of precious stones and so it is worth
mentioning at least one or two. In 1907
George Bratley published The Power of Gems
and Charms and in 1913 Frederick Kunz, vice
president of Tiffany, tried to have the last word
on an ancient tradition in his book The Curious
Lore of Precious Stones. More often than not
the lore of the lapidary paralleled the amatory
meaning of flowers; for example the forgetme-not echoes the turquoise in standing for
true love and the rose mirrors the ruby in
signifying the pleasure and pain of love, even
the blood of Christ.
After the guns of two World Wars finally
fell silent it was not only capital cities that had
been leveled but also society and many of it
customs. Later modern electronic advances,
Opposite: Fig. 1 The Imperial Easter Egg of 1902 known
as the Clover Egg in the form of four-leaf clover
rendered in plique-à-jour enamel, diamonds and calibre
rubies. Kremlin Armoury Museum, Moscow.
Above: Fig. 2 An undated design for a jewel in the
form of a four-leaf clover set with diamonds. Each
leaf has an open aperture, probably for miniatures
or photographs. From the Holström Archive.
Wartski, London
Right: Fig 3 An Easter card in the form of four-leaf
clover tied with a red ribbon, c. 1900. Private
Collection.
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