The History of Easter Eggs

With the objective of bringing this work with eggs to a wider public, there are a variety of international exhibitions and markets around Easter time.

In addition there are a number of small museums where interested parties and collectors can enjoy the assorted techniques and skills employed.

The decoration of eggs is an ancient tradition in many different parts of the world.

For hundreds, if not thousands of years, eggs have been artistically decorated. The Germans decorated hard-boiled eggs at Easter time and rolled them down short slopes. In other cultures eggs were given as cult and fertility symbols, or painted with icons and worshipped as sacred pictures.

Throughout the centuries in Christian Europe many techniques emerged for decorating this fragile natural product in conjunction with the Easter Festival. Often the techniques were borrowed from older traditions and folklore. Eggs were covered with lots of different items such as straw, pearls, thread or other materials. They were drilled with holes and treated with caustic fluids, or quite simply colourfully painted. There are still no limits to the human imagination.

      design by Timo Renz | Hendrik Schlicht