notes by Diane Seely
photos by Mike Carrell

In the mid 1970s my husband Earl was on a business trip in San Diego. In a local antique shop he found an ivory egg, hand carved in Japan. It contained a moveable but unattached chicken. He was fascinated by the skill of the long-gone artist and bought the egg as a gift for me. I treasured the aged egg. Later, Earl was in London and once again went to antique shop for a gift for me. There it was, a smaller ivory egg, uniquely carved by a Japanese artisan long ago.

My first Asian eggs were ivory, but these four examples are actually blown eggs.

...
We also spent time travelling in the US and abroad. I began collecting eggs representative of the indigenous semiprecious stones or native crafts of the places we visited.

...

The mirrored case at left displays some American eggs. The two on the top shelf are from the 1936 Chicago World's Fair. The lower shelves hold four antique pewter eggs. On the center shelf a newly hatched chick sits next to its empty shell on a stand inscribed "just peeked out." The bottom shelf holds a chocolate mold, and a hinged container inscribed "Easter 1895."

An Ostrich Egg holds a clock -- from Africa.

Many of the eggs have been given to me by my daughter Jennifer who is a world traveler/ adventurer. The Russian eggs were brought to me in 1991 when she returned from Moscow where fate placed her during the week that toppled communism. Eggs from Africa were secured during two African treks, safaris and climbing Kilimanjaro. On a third safari/trek I accompanied her and did my own purchasing of eggs. Some eggs are decorated with animal markings and other subjects, some are semi precious stones found on the continent. ....

...
Left: Jewled Eggs, Right: A modern hand-marbled ceramic egg. Marbling is the ancient art of producing patterns by floating pigments on the surface of a liquid, a printmaking technique which produces one-of-a-kind designs.

.................................