The Spring Flowers Egg, hallmarked with head workmaster Michael Perchin's “early” mark, is struck with the St. Petersburg's assay mark for before 1899 and appears to bear a scratched number 443 (or 4) 74, which may or may not be Fabergé's inventory number. Its original fitted case is stamped with Fabergé's Imperial Warrant and the addresses of St. Petersburg, Moscow and London. These facts seem to be in apparent contradiction. The hallmark dates the egg to before 1899, the original case to after 1903, after the opening of the London Branch. Inventory numbers do not generally appear on Imperial eggs.

A list of objects dated 14-20 September 1917 transferred from the Dowager Empress's Anichkov Palace to the Kremlin Armory and signed by Major-General Yerechov, 1 mentions a “purse of gilt silver in the form of an egg covered with red enamel, with a sapphire” and, separately, “a basket of flowers with diamonds,” which probably correspond to this egg and its surprise. It was sold by the State firm Antikvariat in charge of the disposals of Russian Imperial treasure, to an unspecified buyer in 1933 for 2,000 rubles ($1,000), later sold by A La Vieille Russie to the Long Island collector Lansdell Christie, and again by the same New York dealers to Malcolm Forbes as an Imperial egg in 1966. It was exhibited as an Imperial Easter egg twice at the Metropolitan Museum in 1961 and 1996 and at the seminal exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1977, and, up to 1993 has been published by all leading specialists, including Bainbridge (1949), Snowman (1962, 1963, 1964, 1972), Habsburg (1979, 1987, 1993, 1996), Solodkoff (1979, 1984, 1988, 1995) and Hill (1989) as part of the series of Imperial eggs. Recently, Muntian (1995) and Fabergé/Proler/Skurlov (1997) have excluded the Spring Flowers Egg from the list of presents made by the last two Tsars. Muntian, based on the 1917 inventory of the Anichkov Palace, now believes that it belonged to the Dowager Empress and assumes that it was presented to her by a relative or close friend.

With its decoration of scrolls and rocaille, the Spring Flowers Egg is a typical example of Michael Perchin's early Neo-Rococo style, probably dating from the late 1880s or early 1890s. This date is borne out by the early form of Perchin's initials. Inexplicably, the basket of wild anemonies in this early egg is virtually identical to the surprise contained in the Winter Egg designed by Alma Pihl for Albert Holmström in 1913.

NOTES:
1. Kremlin Archive, Section Manuscripts, Engravings and Prints,ORGPF, GIKMZ, fond 20, op, 1917 published by Tatiana Muntian, “Fabergé im Kreml” in Solodkoff 1995 , p. 25.