Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

For Alexander Caldwell, founder of Vivian Alexander, it was the goose that laid the golden egg.

“Cajuns can’t throw anything away and I couldn’t make enough omelets with that many eggs,” Caldwell, 83, said about the number of goose eggs on his property.

In the mid 1980s, Caldwell began using the delicate goose eggshells for artistic expression. An artistic endeavor became a business and the goose egg grew.

One evening at a Mardi Gras gala, Caldwell, a 1954 graduate of Louisiana State University in civil engineering, observed the satin evening bags carried by the ladies. He thought he could do better a better job designing them and proceeded to draw the first ostrich evening bag on a cocktail napkin.

Timing is everything and in the mid-1990s, the Imperial Fabergé Egg Collection was touring the United States. Inspired by their ornate detail, Caldwell began creating Vivian Alexander’s unique designs. His eggs have been collected by first ladies, queens of Mardi Gras, average people and internationally famous collectors. They’ve been used in movies, at inaugural balls, worn as jewelry and hung on Christmas trees.

The New Fabergé by Caldwell

Caldwell’s first elaborate purses made with ostrich eggshells garnered the attention of Malcom Forbes, who owned one of the largest collections of Imperial Fabergé Eggs. Caldwell was commissioned to create replicas of the most valuable sculptures in the collection.

The Fabergé Imperial Eggs started in 1885 when the Russian Tsar Alexander III commissioned the first egg to be given to his wife for Easter to celebration their 20th anniversary. Easter was the most important occasion of the year in the Russian Orthodox Church. Then centuries-old, the tradition of bringing hand-colored eggs to church to be blessed before presenting to friends and family, was celebrated by the highest echelons of society, thus the development of bejewelled Easter gifts.

For seven years Caldwell worked with the Forbes Museum curator to master the enameling process and use of guilloché, an intricate lathe pattern needed to replicate details of the Fabergé collection. Caldwell aced the skill in England at the only lathe machine in existence that could engrave the curved metals used for the shells. Shortly after learning the process, the machine and technique became extinct.

After recreating the masterpieces, Forbes kept the Caldwell eggs and sold his Fabergé collection for a reported $125 million.

One of the signature elements evident in Caldwell’s sterling silver eggs, now the standard rather than the original ostrich or emu eggs, is the original guilloché engraving. It is visible underneath the enamels of Caldwell’s creations, forever preserved. His engineering ability also enabled him to create many fine details for ornamentation exclusively replicated by his suppliers.

According to Caldwell and his daughter Liza Caldwell, who now lives on the 4-acre Maurice estate and works with her father, there are no other hand-crafters to carry on the traditions he learned working with the Forbes collection. Craftsman are not continuing the artistry.

Treasures at home

One Vivian Alexander collector of note is former first lady Alice Foster, who received her first egg-purse for the 1996 gubernatorial inauguration of husband Mike Foster. Three specially designed lockets hold pictures of the Louisiana state seal, the two Governor Fosters, Mike and his grandfather, Murphy James Foster. She carried the Vivian Alexander creation at both inaugurual balls. Later, a patriotic egg in her collection was duplicated and presented to other state first ladies.

Beverly Shea, 64, of New Iberia, received her first of 14 Vivian Alexander eggs on Easter Sunday late in the 1990s.

“My husband surprised me. He hand carried it on the plane to Washington, D.C. We were headed there to visit our son. Easter morning he gave me the Lilies of the Valley. It is still my favorite.”

In 2002 when Shea was crowned Queen of Andalusia, she carried a red-ostrich evening bag designed by Vivian Alexander. Her husband, Jerry Shea Jr., a friend of Dwight Stroud, saw the Vivian Alexander eggs on display at Stroud’s Steakhouse in Lafayette, where he purchased several of the eggs now in their home. Shea’s Lilies of Valley and Duchess of Marlborough eggs are among the Fabergé replicas produced by Vivian Alexander for collectors.

Other Fabergé replicas made by Vivian Alexander have been used in films as objects of desire and the focus of intrigue including the Imperial Coronation Egg featured in Ocean’s Twelve.

In recent years, Liza and her father have begun creating jeweled doubloon holders for Mardi Gras krewes. They are designed specifically for the crew and then replicated by private order.

Caldwell conducts personal tours by appointment and enjoys meeting visitors. Private classes are offered to small groups from five to 25 interested in making their own creations. Vivian Alexander provides the goose egg on their signature stand, the embelishments, unless a customer’s personal items are preferred, and give color choices for the enamel. After the session, Caldwell and Liza hand enamel each egg and present the finished item to the customer, a one-of-a-kind treasure.

Laying a foundation

Vivian Alexander, the final frontier of Caldwell’s business ventures, could be the one with the most lasting impression. However, long before Caldwell began drawing ladies evening bags on cocktail napkins, he was building roads across Louisiana. As a civil engineer working for the Army Corps. of Engineers, Caldwell was laying cement for roads but wasn’t satisfied with the method. He designed a piece of equipment, acquired a patent and it is still used on roads today.

Caldwell designed, built and operated the Vermilion Queen, a paddlewheel boat that traveled up and down the Vermilion in Lafayette. The marketing-minded Caldwell contacted all the garden homes along the river notifying them of his pending Christmas tours. Residents responded by moving their light displays from the front yards to river’s edge. The Vermilion Queen is now part of Bellingrath Gardens in Theodore, Alabama.

Caldwell has lived life to the fullest, evidenced by the endless possibilities for stories with ties to Iberia Parish. He owned a New Iberia sand and limestone business, his brother Jack Caldwell, an architect, lives in Franklin and their mother was a visual artists who no doubt passed the creative DNA on to both.

The Easter tradition of blessings and eggs will continue. Many will enjoy their Vivian Alexander eggs for generations to come, treasured as much as the original Fabergé eggs. Soon, unless other young artists pick up the legacy, they will become as rare.

Only time will tell.