艺术导赏

So I said just now that Prince Nicholas went to Vladivostok to lay a symbolic stone to mark the beginning of the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway in 1891 when Tzar Alexander III issued a decree to build this railway. The construction of the Trans-Siberian railway was of historical importance because it linked, for the first time, the European front and the Asian front of the Russian empire, and the construction lasted for 10 years, completed in 1900.

This Easter egg commemorated the grand construction with 1900 inscribed in the silver part in the middle and you can also see the map of Russia, and the Trans-Siberian Railway mapped out as a line, linking Russia from its Eastern to Western side.

You may ask what is the meaning of the three lions in the base? No elements in these royal eggs are random. There’s a special meaning to it. You see on the top of it, there’s the double headed eagle which is a part of the Russian coat of arms - the symbol of Russia. And these three in fact were not lions, they were griffins - mythical creatures that were featured in the coat of arms for the Romanov dynasty, where the Tzars belonged.

Why did Faberge put all these elements into this egg? Because it was Tzar Alexandar III , father of Nicholas II, who issued the decree to start the construction but it was his son Nicholas who carried on and completed the project. So the construction of this project is not only significant in the scale of the entire country, but also it was an important event for the Romanov dynasty because it was something that the family the father started and the son carried on.

So what is the surprise in this egg?  Hidden in the chamber of the egg is a miniature replica of the Trans-Siberian Railway, made of gold and platinum, with windows made in crystal. If you hold a magnifying glass, you can see signage on the train compartments in Russian saying “smoking carriage”, “ladies only carriage”, “ first class carriage” ,  “second class carriage” and so on.

What’s more amazing to us is that the train can move.  You see the golden key? If you wind it, it will set the mechanical movement in motion and it can move for a few meters with the flashing diamond headlights in front.