Entry #8: Decorating With Marble Eggs

I think the quote: "It's so overt, it's covert," from 2011's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows makes perfect sense when contemplating the humble Egg.

Eggs are commonplace - a given in hundreds of thousands of households - so much so that they can go largely unnoticed. Think of it, when was the last time you picked up an egg and really studied it? I'd wager, never. Maybe once when you were little, but now eggs get scrambled, cracked into a bowl or whipped up into a pound cake without a thought. In fact, the United States produces ~110 billion eggs a year, not even counting backyard hobby chicken coops. Eggs are everywhere!

However, with this hubbub and rush and so many eggs everywhere all at once, we've forgotten how special these little things are; our ancestors however, they knew the magic, wonder, hope, and mystery that embodies eggs.

I’ve always been enamored with eggs; for me, collecting discarded songbird shells after the chicks hatch is like Easter for weeks on end! I always get giddy on my daily walk when I come across a shell fragment, and my husband knows I got lucky whenever he sees me cup my hands together and rush up the driveway!

My husband's late grandmother ('Nana') was a collector of amazing tastes, and I was lucky enough to inherit some of her marble eggs when she passed (which I have since added to, over the years!) I do try to keep them out until Fall, because I truly adore them, but the onyx ones in my Cabinet of Curiosities stay out all year long.

Recently, I read that archeologists found marble eggs in ancient Egyptian Tombs, most notably that of King Tutankhamun. As well, I did a deep read into the Etruscan civilization, who "painted [eggs on] walls of tombs, incised on bronze mirrors, and painted on vases. Eggshells have even survived in tombs, leftovers of Etruscan funerary rituals." (Pieraccini, p. 267).

Right wall of the Tomb of the Lionesses, Tarquinia, ca. 530 BCE. A reclining man holds out an egg in his right hand. (Photo: Courtesy of SAEM [Soprintendenza Archeologica per l’Etruria Meridionale]). 

Another example of eggs in the ancient world was in Greece, where the use of Athenian clay and terracotta was prevalent in creating diminutive, egg-shaped pots.

Athenian Clay egg pots in the Keramikos Museum.

Scenes of epic stories were painted on them, like this one depicting the abduction of Helen of Sparta by Paris.

Both these manufactured and real eggs were used in Ancient Greek and Roman tombs as a sign of life/rebirth after death, too!

Which reminds me, way back in 1989, I had an Eastern European friend who painted such amazing eggs for me. I believe they are called Kraslice and are painted first with colored wax, then the insides are blown out. My Kraslice must be magic because 36 years and 13 moves later, and these beautiful eggs have made it, looking this good!

Although I don’t eat or cook with eggs, I love them. Their unique shape gives them super strength when standing them end to tip. A compression of 100 pounds won’t crack chicken eggs, and according to Milne (2017, p. 2) 1,000 pounds for ostrich eggs!

And, because eggs aren’t a perfect oval, they won’t roll away from the nest, but instead roll back around to it. To think a little chick developing inside the egg gets calcium and minerals for growing bones from the shell, which weakens over time, so the baby bird can peck through! It's all brilliant!

However, I will forever remember a dear client-turned-friend's nickname for his son, whose head underwent a change from a very extended delivery. I never noticed it, until my friend called his son 'Eggie'. Even after he grew hair, he's still been - endearingly - known as Eggie.

References:

Milne, R. "How Strong Is An Egg?" The Royal Society. Phys.org. 2017, January. pp. 1-4. https://phys.org/news/2017-01-strong-egg.html

Pieraccini, L. "The Ever Elusive Etruscan Egg" Etruscan Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, 2014, pp. 267-292. https://doi.org/10.1515/etst-2014-0015