Diamond Trellis, Imperial Fabergé egg at Houston Museum of Natural Science, USA

The Diamond Trellis is an imperial Fabergé egg carved from pale green bowenite, hinged and enclosed in a lattice of rose-cut diamonds set in gold, with a large diamond at its base. It is displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science as part of the Arthur and Dorothy McFerrin Foundation Collection.

The egg was made in 1892 by the Fabergé workshop in St. Petersburg for Tsar Alexander III, who gave it to his wife Maria Feodorovna as an Easter gift. After the Russian Revolution, it passed through several private hands before eventually entering a museum collection in the United States.

The lattice of crossing diamond bands gives the egg its name. The surprise elephant copies the badge of Denmark's Order of the Elephant, the homeland of Empress Maria Feodorovna, and the egg was her Easter gift from Alexander III in 1892.

The piece is part of a permanent collection and can be seen during regular museum hours. The details are very fine, so it is worth taking time to look closely rather than moving quickly through the gallery.

Inside the egg sits a tiny ivory elephant figurine that refers to the Order of the Elephant, the highest Danish order of chivalry. Maria Feodorovna was born a Danish princess, and the elephant was a personal emblem she carried throughout her life.