Faberge Eggs II Trivia Quiz

Answer: Charitable institutions patronized by the Dowager Czarina

The "Pelican Egg" is of yellow gold chased with empire style motifs. It is a rarity among the Imperial eggs in that it has almost no jewels or enameling, with only the sparing use of both on the pelican and her young. This results in an uncommonly sober and restrained egg.

Answer: Czar Nicholas and his two eldest daughters Olga and Tatiana

This imaginative egg was presented to the Czarina Alexandra in 1898. The decoration is of pale pink translucent enamel over a basket-weave turned ground divided into six panels by rows of diamonds set in gold. It is nearly overgrown with lilies-of-the valley made of pearls and rose-cut diamonds on slender golden stems.

The leaves, masterfully crafted to appear truly natural, are created from gold covered with subtly shaded green enamel. Green gold leaves studded with diamond dew-drops form the legs.

Answer: Tells the time; it is a clock

This egg is enameled in translucent yellow, banded in rose diamonds and capped at each end with leafy motifs in green gold. It shows the time with a chapter ring of opaque white enamel which stands out against the yellow enamel ground. This rotating ring carries roman numerals one through twelve set with further rose diamonds; the time is indicated by a stationary golden arrow set with diamonds past which the numbers move. Plumed scroll work in colored gold decorates the base, centering on the date. Further scrollwork rises from the pedestal to the egg, becoming part of the egg's decoration at the top.

Answer: They are both in the fashionable Art Nouveau style

This egg was presented to the Dowager Czarina in 1899. The surprise is a folding easel ornamented with colored gold holding a heart-shaped plaque of opalescent white enamel. At the top of the easel is a six-pointed star set with a rose diamond just above a plaque with the date 1899.

The heart plaque is a miniature portrait gallery with eleven miniscule paintings, each with a monogrammed red enamel lid, of the Dowager Empress' children and grand-children. Pressing a single button releases all the lids at once.

Answer: The opening of the Trans-Siberian Railway

"The Trans-Siberian Railroad Egg" celebrates the completion, after nine years work, of the first railroad to cross the entirety of Russia, comparable to the driving of the Golden Spike in America. The exterior of the egg may be the most masculine of the Imperial eggs before World War I, but the surprise is really any little (or big) boy's dream.

Inside is found a minutely detailed gold and platinum miniature train. Precise down to the last detail, it is fully articulated and runs when wound with a golden key.

It consists of a locomotive with coal tender and five coach cars: a general passenger car, a smoking car, one marked "ladies only" and the last containing the Imperial chapel. The headlamps of the engine are diamonds, and the rear lights rubies.

Answer: A rooster or cockerel

The egg itself is enameled a deep violet-blue over an engine turned ground. The base is enameled in lilac and, like the egg, is ornamented with an elaborate combination of swags, garlands and filigree-work. Connecting the base and egg are three white-enamel legs. Under a filigree lid at the top is the rooster.

He has real feathers and, at the touch of a knob, he flaps his wing, opens his beak, and sings.

Answer: A dome shaped stone cut with triangular facets coming to a point

Faberge preferred to use the rose cut with their subdued glow in preference to the brighter sparkle and glitter of the brilliant cut. Presumably this is because they would be less obtrusive, and more of an accent to the overall design.

Answer: Its surprise is a cameo portrait of the imperial children

The "Clover Egg" is decorated with clover in three different forms; with the leaves paved with diamonds, in plique-a-jour enamel (transparent with no backing, giving the effect of stained glass), and chased gold on the stand.
Like many of the eggs, whose surprises were works of art in their own right, the "Clover Egg" has lost its original contents.

Answer: It was the boyhood home of Nicholas and his siblings

On the exterior, the "Gatchina Palace Egg" is simply decorated with panels of opalescent white enamel divided by seed pearls. Each panel is painted in reverse (where the painting is on the underside of the transparent enamel) with delicate swags of green and gold leaves and pink ribbons, which support symbols of the arts and sciences.

The Gatchina Palace was the home of Czar Alexander and Czarina Maria at the imperial suburb of Tsarskoe Selo. There they raised their family when not in St. Petersburg. It remained the home of the dowager Empress until the revolution.

Answer: Catherine II

The statue, commissioned from the famed French sculptor for the banks of the Neva river, was erected by Czarina Catherine II "the Great". No blood relative of Peter's, but his granddaughter-in-law, Catherine had the base inscribed with the Latin equivalent of "to a grandfather from a granddaughter."
The exterior of the egg is elaborately chased in four color gold scrolls and ruby-studded cattails (recalling the origin of the city as a swampy marsh), accented with touches of rose diamonds mounted in platinum and white enamel. The lid bears the date 1903 set with diamonds and the sides have paintings set into the gold of Czars Peter I and Nicholas II, the Wooden House of Peter the Great and the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.