Ovoid, depicting Resurrection on one side, and St. Tatiana on the other, on dark blue ground, with a silver-gilt mount and two suspension loops, with a red tassel, in a later wooden case, the interior inscribed in Russian ‘From the St. Petersburg Old Believers who accept the Priesthood’
4 in. (10 cm.) high, without suspension loops

Acquired by Mrs J.F. McGuire from Hammer Galleries, New York, in 1937 (with original letter from Hammer Galleries).
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, New York, 19 April 1990, lot 1.
Acquired by the father of the present owner from the above.

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Lot Essay

The original 1937 letter from Hammer Galleries accompanying this lot states that the present Easter egg belonged to Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna (1897-1918), the second daughter of Emperor Nicholas II. An inscription on the interior indicates that it was a gift from the Old Believer community of St. Petersburg.

While there is no other documentation to support this provenance, it is well known that Armand Hammer famously acquired large quantities of Russian works of art from the Soviet authorities in the 1920s and 1930s, including objects from the personal collections of the Romanov family.

Several photographs taken in the imperial palaces show icon corners adorned with comparable Easter eggs decorated with tassels.