The Steel Military Egg (1916)

No gold, no gemstones -- just polished steel, and that plainness is the point. Commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II for Tsarina Alexandra in the depths of the First World War, the egg rests on four miniature artillery shell casings instead of the ornate stands earlier eggs got, and opens to reveal a small painted scene rather than a jeweled surprise. Set it next to anything Faberge made a decade earlier and the contrast does the talking: this is wartime austerity expressed in the one medium the workshop had left.