[2] The Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg is made of silver, with the shell surrounded by a series of horizontal bands edged in gold.

[3] The surprise is a hinged, folding screen of five oval miniature portraits of women from the House of Romanov, each wearing the uniform of the Red Cross.

[3] At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Alexandra and her older daughters, Olga and Tatiana, enrolled as trainee nurses and the Imperial palaces were converted into provisional hospitals.

[4] Following the collapse of the Romanov dynasty during the Russian Revolution, the Dowager Empress was one of the few immediate family members to escape the Red Army.

In April 1919 she fled to her native home of Denmark, leaving the Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg behind.