Pair of Easter Egg Pendants
maker
Unknown
Datelate 19th century
Place MadeRussia, Europe
MediumGold; sapphire and garnet
ClassificationsJewelry
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberU11n57.1-2
eMuseum ID728461
Previous Number215
EmbARK ObjectID11585
TMS Source ID778
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb Commentary
Starting around the 1890s, a tradition arose among affluent Russian families to give a girl an egg pendant every year just before Easter, which she would place on a chain and wear as a necklace from Easter Sunday to Ascension Day, roughly forty days after Easter. The ever-growing string of eggs was meant to chronicle her life until marriage.
In Russian culture, the blue color of the sapphire was traditionally used as a symbol of noble birth—a nod to the term "blue-blooded"— and the red of the garnet was often used to describe something beautiful, good, or honorable.
These pendants were given to Isabella by Baron Roman Romanovich Rosen, a diplomat for the Russian Empire, and his wife Elizabeth. The Bolshevik Revolution forced the Rosens to flee Russia in 1917. The pendants were most likely an Easter gift— perhaps as a celebration of the Rosens’ own “rebirth” after settling in America and starting a new chapter in their lives.
BibliographyNotesKathleen King, "From Russia with Love: A Gift of Easter Eggs," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 30 March 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/russia-love-gift-easter-eggs
MarksNotesInscribed in ink in the hand of Morris Carter, the first director of the museum (on a notecard): "Russian Easter eggs/Gift of Baron and Baroness Rosen"
ProvenanceNotesGift from the Russian diplomat Baron Roman Romanovich Rosen (1847-1921) and Baroness Elizabeth Rosen (Elizabeth Alexievna Odinzow, about 1865-1956) to Isabella Stewart Gardner by 1921.
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