Art: EGGS A LA RUSSE

OF all the world's Easter gifts, few are as lavish as the bejeweled eggs passed out by Russia's rich and royal in the time of the czars. The smaller eggs—delicate trinkets of gold and enamel, flawless rose quartz, pearls and diamonds—were the gifts of Russia's wealthy classes; the largest and costliest eggs were reserved for the reigning Romanovs. Three handsome examples (opposite) are the gold and lapis lazuli egg, with a miniature portrait of Czarevitch Alexis, given by Nicholas II to his Czarina in 1912; the fabulous rock crystal egg (at top), which...