Imperial Russian Novelty Silver Easter Egg Cups Box Sputnik Yakov Lyapunov
Imperial Russian Novelty Silver Easter Egg Convertible Cups Box Yakov Lyapunov! The Sputnik Egg, (Sputnik : fellow earth traveler) is the name I gave this piece in honor of the first Satellite! The makers mark JS is also visible on the outer rim of the lower portion of the egg. Weighs approximately 94.3 grams.
Dimensions of closed egg are approximately 6.9 cm (2 11.5/16 inches) in height excluding the protruding screws, and approximately 4.6 cm (1 13.2/16 inches) at widest section. The inner portion of the egg is gold washed, and knowing these types of eggs and cups I believe it was once entirely gold washed.
As some of you might already know the assayer Yakov Nikolayevich Lyapunov was an extremely important Imperial Russian assayer in Saint Petersburg who assayed many of Faberges important Imperial eggs such as the 1891 Memory of Asov Egg and the 1899 Madonna Lily Egg and many others! This cup egg was so popular that Faberge created two different copies of egg cups with the same convertible function circa 1905. I have also seen many later on enameled versions which I consider to be of much lesser importance.
These egg cups would have been considered novelty items even by the very powerful Imperial Russians. They were created for Easter with dual functionality, egg cups or more popularly for vodka or liquor to celebrate Easter! For once screwed into place the cups are water tight and tested to be so by yours truly. This Easter egg cup was created with immaculate engineering skill for the egg is perfectly centered in terms of balance for when placed on a perfectly flat surface it does not role sideways for it is balanced on all sides, and can be used to play spinner! So if your searching for a none Faberge Easter egg of Imperial quality than nothing can match this absolute novelty item! Please feel free to check out my other Museum Quality Collection! For the year of our Lord 2015 I wish you a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! Happy Easter & God Bless!The item "Imperial Russian Novelty Silver Easter Egg Cups Box Sputnik Yakov Lyapunov" is in sale since Thursday, December 3, 2015. This item is in the category "Antiques\Silver\Silver Alloys (. The seller is "bluefirebreather" and is located in San Bernardino, California. This item can be shipped worldwide.
- Composition: Silver Alloy
- Maker: Russian
- Type: Cups & Goblets
- Age: 1850-1899