This Louis XV cagework style egg was fashioned in lapis-lazuli and ornamented with with gold tracery of shells, scrolls, baskets of flowers, and putti. It was topped with a tabletop diamond showing the initials of the Czarina, the Imperial crown, and the year (1912). The bottom is set with a large diamond.

The surprise inside is the Russian double-headed Imperial eagle, covered front and back with diamonds, with a miniature enamelled protrait of the Czarevich Alexei Nicholaevich on the eagle's chest. The reverse side of the miniature shows the back of the seven year old Alexei. The miniature is not signed and comparing the beauty of the Egg and the poor quality of the picture, it is assumed that the original painting got lost and was replaced by the present one.

It wasn't very well known, of course - the Imperial family kept it very quiet - that the Czarevich had hemophilia. He was dying; he was very close to death, so close that the Imperial Court had already written out his death notice. But Alexei survived, and Fabergé designed a special tribute. The Czarevich egg was Alexandra's most cherished.