Nobel Ice

Materials recorded for it are platinum, silver, vitreous enamel and pearl. It is associated with Russian Empire. The record gives 1914 as its date of establishment or first appearance. It is recorded in the collection of Houston Museum of Natural Science.

• Name — Nobel's Ice Egg • Year Delivered — 1914 • Made For — Emanuel Nobel • Recipient — Unknown • Owner — Artie and Dorothy McFerrin • Materials — platinum • Height — 70 mm • Surprise In Egg — watch

The pearl-colored ground of the shell is covered with white enamel in alternating transparent and opaque layers each painted and engraved separately to resemble frost, the result is the icy opalescence of a winter morning. The egg, without support, lies on its side and opens in half along the greater perimeter, on the edges there is a row of beads. It lacks the realism of the Winter Egg which, however, shares the inspiration and technique in the execution of the hinges inside the jagged edges. It was designed by Alma Theresia Pihl as was the Winter Egg.

• Illustration — Surprise in the Nobel Ice egg Inside there is a watch pendant, the dial is partly hidden by decorations in the shape of ice crystals placed on the case, made of opalescent rock crystal.

After the Russian Revolution, it was sold to the Parisian dealer A. A. Anatra, who subsequently sold it to Jacques Zolotnitzky, of A La Vieille Russie, in Paris. It was later sold to a North-American collector. In 1994, it was sold at Christie's, in Geneva, for $220,000. The Nobel Ice egg's current owner are Artie and Dorothy McFerrin of Houston. It is on loan at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Nobel Ice is recorded as made of platinum, silver, vitreous enamel and pearl. Associated with Russian Empire. Recorded from 1914.