As if to bolster the Czar's self-image during his most trying times, Fabergé presented Nicholas with a series of eggs commemorating achievements of the Romanovs. In lavish Rococo style, this Peter the Great Egg celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the founding St. Petersburg in 1703.

Executed in gold, the curves are set with diamonds and rubies. The bulrushes are chased in 14-karat green gold. The spikyheads are set with square rubies. The Egg design features a representation of the Winter Palace; the side miniature of Peter the Great is signed B. Byalz and has the initials of assay master Iakov Liapunov. The dates 1703 and 1903 in rose-cut diamonds appear on either side of the lid. Four miniatures by B. Baal, show Peter the Great, the wooden hut that is traditionally said to have been built by himself, Nicholas II and the 1.000-room Winter Palace as it was in 1903. Each of the miniatures is covered by rock crystal.

White enamel ribbons inscribed with historical details encircle the Egg. The inscriptions read, "The Emperor Peter the Great, born in 1672, founded St. Petersburg in 1703" and "The first little house of the Emperor Peter the Great in 1703". The other inscriptions read, "The Emperor Nicholas II, born in 1868, ascended the Throne in 1894" and "The Winter Palace of His Imperial Majesty in 1903".

The surprise is that when the egg is opened, a mechanism within raises into position from the lower half of the shell a miniature model in gold of Peter the Great's monument on the Neva, made by Gerogii Malychevin, resting on a base of sapphire. The clasp of the Egg is the Romanov Double Eagle. The equestrian statue of Peter the Great, created by the famous French sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet, depicts the most prominent reformer of Russia as a Roman hero, and stands on Senatskaia Ploschad (Square), facing the Neva River and surrounded by the Admiralty, St Isaac's Cathedral and the buildings of the former Senate and Synod, the civil and religious governing bodies of pre-revolutionary Russia.