Lilies of the Valley (Fabergé egg)
1898 Imperial Fabergé egg
The Lilies of the Valley egg is a jewelled Fabergé egg made under the supervision of the Russian jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé in 1898 by Fabergé ateliers. The supervising goldsmith was Michael Perchin. The egg is one of the three eggs in the Art Nouveau style (the other two are the Pansy egg and the Clover Leaf egg). It was presented on April 5 to Tsar Nicholas II, who gave it as a gift to his wife, the Tsarina, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. The egg is part of the Victor Vekselberg Collection, owned by The Link of Times Foundation and housed in the Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Description
The egg is covered in pearls and topped with rose pink enamel on a guilloché field. The egg is supported by cabriole legs of green-gold leaves with rose-cut diamond dewdrops. The gold-stemmed lilies have green enameled leaves and flowers made of gold set with rubies, pearls, and diamonds.
Surprise
This egg's surprise is 'elevated' out of the egg by twisting a gold-mounted pearl button. When fully raised, three portraits are visible under the Imperial crown set with a ruby: Tsar Nicholas II and his two oldest daughters, Grand Duchess Olga and Grand Duchess Tatiana, painted on ivory by Johannes Zehngraf.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lilies of the Valley (Fabergé egg)” is 1898 Imperial Fabergé egg. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lilies, Valley and Fabergé, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1898 Imperial Fabergé egg” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2062499. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1898.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Lilies of the Valley (Fabergé egg)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Lilies of the Valley (Fabergé egg) primary sources, Lilies of the Valley (Fabergé egg) archive and Lilies research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lilies of the Valley (Fabergé egg)”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Lilies of the Valley (Fabergé egg)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.