The egg came from my grandmother's home after she'd passed. It was wrapped in tissue paper, but already broken. The shards removed, there was no hope of a patchy glue job. A new egg would, my mom said, have to be found.
Solving that hunt has proven to be harder than one might initially think. This ostrich egg was dressed up in silver banding, and given feet, a head, and a tail, centuries ago. That garb was made for the egg, and to find a perfect replacement would require finding an egg, too, that is a perfect match. And an egg is not an egg is not an egg.
Much like the chicken eggs on our counter, from afar they appear nearly identical but up close they reveal their unique bumps and bobbles. Scale it up to nearly the size of a football, and there is a lot of room for eccentricity.
Someday we will find the right egg. For now, we're diving into the history of this form in the November/December 2024 issue of the Magazine Antiques. You can give it a read here, and please consider subscribing to see our work in print.
