A large Russian porcelain presentation Easter egg late 19th/early 20th century

A large Russian porcelain presentation Easter egg late 19th/early 20th century, Imperial Factory St Petersburg, richly gilded with the monogram of Empress Maria Feodorovna (1847-1928), reserved on a blue ground between formal gilt borders, 12cm.

Provenance: from the collection of Dr Venetia Newall.

Maria Feodorovna was born Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She had been engaged to the heir apparent, Nicholas Alexandrovich, at the time of his death from meningitis in 1865. She married the future Alexander III the following year. The couple were crowned in Moscow in 1883.