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Russian - Pair of Easter Egg Pendants, late 19th century

Russian

Pair of Easter Egg Pendants, late 19th century

Gold; sapphire and garnet

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.