decorated egg
- Museum number
- Eu1995,05.10
- Description
-
Easter egg, un-blown hen egg, dyed orange, yellow and brown, with etched and wax-resist batik geometric designs.
- Production date
- 1975 (circa? [earlier than 1975 (vendor information)].)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 6.20 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- From the collection of the vendor's brother. Precise provenance and age unknown, but more than twenty years old at time of acquisition.
Both this and the previous item are decoraed with a wax-resist method similar to the batik-dying of cloth, used on both blown and hard-boiled duck or hen eggs. A design is painted onto the surface of the egg in wax and the egg dyed. Areas of the wax are scratched or melted away and further wax designs may be applied to the coloured areas. The process of dying, removing selected selected wax designs and applying further ones can be repeated a number of times to create complex and detailed patterns.
Decorated eggs, a symbol of birth the renewal of life, have been associated with pagan Spring festivald and the Christian celebration of Easter throughout Europe. Many traditional practices and games, often including special chants, songs and dances, have grown up around ornamented eggs and are still widespread throughout Europe. In Romania, the hard-boiled and coloured eggs are tapped together to the accompnaiment of set rhymes; the owner of the egg that remains intact 'wins' the one that cracks first.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1995
- Acquisition notes
- From the collection of the vendor's brother. Provenenance and age unknown. (Older than 20 years.)
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- Eu1995,05.10