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Faberge Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna Egg
Date: 1897
Coincident with the centennial celebration of the patronage of
charitable institutions by the Empresses of Russia, this gold egg is
engraved with the commemorative dates "1797-1897"; and with the
motifs of the Arts and Sciences.
It is surmounted with the figure of a
pelican and its young, in diamonds and opalescent white enamel,
representing tenets of the Christian Faith, Charity and Sacrifice.
Unfolding into eight oval panels, each rimmed in pearls,
miniatures by Zehngraf are revealed of the institutions of which the
Dowager Empress was patroness, founded principally for the education of
young girls. Closed, the panels form the entire egg, the surface
separations of which are ingeniously concealed.
 
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