Easter is finally here! Will you be on an Easter egg hunt today? Well, we wanted to introduce you to some rather unusual eggs you may have never heard of or seen before. These eggy treasures are all found within the V&A Museum collection. Let’s go on an Easter egg hunt and discover some very random eggs to add to your basket!
Netsuke
This strange type-of-egg-looking-thing is called a Netsuke. It was made between 1800 and 1850 and is a small carved sculpture created in Japan. Despite originally being created as buttons to fasten clothes, they have since become extremely collectable mini art pieces. This little Netsuke is made out of wood and is related to Japanese mythology. The little creature, called a Tengu, was rumoured to eat children! But don’t stress – they’re actually believed to provide guidance and healing!
Tamagotchi
Have you ever seen or had a Tamagotchi before? If not, they’re little egg shaped toys that you take care of – sort of like a robot pet! The games were created in 1997 and were hugely popular with the children of the 2000s. Tamagotchi actually means egg watch! In the game, a little pet hatches from an egg and then the player must look it by feeding it and cleaning up after it. The happiness of the pet is purely dependent on how well it’s looked after – safe to say there were many neglected little digi-eggs!
Toy Hen
Okay – not exactly an egg – but after all, what came first – the chicken or the egg? Egg-istentialism aside, this hen made in the 1980s was a novelty toy which lays wooden eggs. Inside the hen are five eggs which release when the hen is pushed from above. While the hen ‘lays’ the egg – its wings raise up! Don’t try these eggs for breakfast though!
Ostrich Egg
This egg might be a little easier to find in a hunt, because it is huge! This is a real life egg laid by an Ostrich, which is a large bird reaching almost 3 metres high! This particular egg is from between 1750 and 1799, so it’s pretty old! It has been carefully carved with an Arabic ornament, before being painted with a black ink to create this pretty pattern. Let’s just hope that the giant historic ostrich doesn’t want its egg back or we’re in trouble!
Dizzy
Dizzy is a video game made in 1986 – so it’s pretty vintage! This particular video game belongs to siblings called Samantha and Thomas Lawson. Dizzy – The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure features Dizzy, the egg! In the game, you must search the fairy tale land of Katmandu for a special list of items and pop them in a cauldron so as to defeat an evil wizard. Not sure how someone came up with that storyline – but we do want to play!
Sacred Egg
Now we’ve really struck gold here in finding this egg-cellent spectacle. This egg is a sacred egg – nope – not a scared egg – a sacred egg! This special decorative egg is actually a display box. It was made in 2013 in Japan by Kitamura Tatsuo (Unryuan). How cool! We’re a little curious though…what’s in the box?
