Nicholas II's Favorite Things

[Forum Admin]

The photo with Nicholas on the left side is the correct orientation.
The man with Nicholas is NOT Michael Alexandrovich, it is Lt. Sabline, officer of the Standardt, and Nicholas's favorite tennis partner. Sabline was a very close friend to the entire Imperial family, and was Olga's escort to her coming out party in Livadia.  We don't know who the woman is in the dark dress. Both captions are wrong.

Sabline:

[Belochka]

Thanks for your information. Another tiny mystery has been solved!

Do you know in which year the photograph was taken?

Thanks in advance....

[Annie]

One of the more interesting facts about the Tsar is that he loved tennis! I used to have book called "Romanov family album" with some funny pictures of Nicholas goofing around with other people playing tennis, but I can't find it now, and no local library carries it. Does anyone have any of the pictures, or any stories of the Tsar and his love for tennis?

[Forum Admin]

Tennis in Finland. The court was built especially for them to play on. Nicholas is seated on the chair.

[Forum Admin]

[Annie]

Oh great, thank you!!   Do you have the one where he and some other guys are acting silly on a bench?

[Forum Admin]

Tennis at Livadia:


The officer with them is Rodianov, Nicholas' favorite tennis partner.

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

There was also a tennis court in Tsarskoe Selo, in the walled courtyard of the Fyodorovsky Village. There´s a good photograph of it in the book "Royal Russia". Today there´s a restaurant named Staraya Bashnya (Old Tower) close to the place formerly occupied by the tennis court.

[Annie]

Thanks!  

[pushkina]

i have read that nicholas had a peculiar pipe to smoke cigarettes from.  (someone told my mother about it while she was in paris during/after the war and she always wondered about it too.)

can anyone tell me more about it?  has anyone a picture of it? i remember reading that it was quite copied but i've never seen it and can barely imagine it.  it must have been very elegant at least!

[Annie]

I have heard the he smoked Benson & Hedges, made by Phillip Morris in England, and that they had his name and the Imperial Romanov eagle printed on them. He was allegedly a nervous chain smoker.

[Mike]

Nicolas II, like his father Alexander III, smoked papirosy - a special Russian type of cigarettes with a cardboard mouthpiece. They were made in Egypt specially for the Russian court. Sometimes these papirosy were inserted into a cigarette holder.

Papirosy had dominated the Russian and then Soviet tobacco market until a relatively recent time, and are still popular. Probably I should write about Russian/Soviet smoking habits in the Soviet Life section.

[Annie]

Then the Benson and Hedges story I saw in a couple of books was a lie? What about the story of how the Bolsheviks took them away from him during captivity and smoked them in front of them, I mean, is none of that true?

[Greg_King]

Cigarettes at court DID include Benson & Hedges, French Sobrannies (not sure of spelling!), Java cloves, etc.  I have personally seen one of Nicholas II's Benson & Hedges cigarettes, crested with a double-eagle-trust me-they did exist!

Greg King

[Robert_Hall]

Sobranies do or did have the Imperial Eagle on them, gold tip, black paper.  I mean the modern ones, I used to smoke them.  [expensive & strong/harsh].
The "peculiar" holder is still used in Europe, I think mainly continent though. It is like a little pipe,  the cigarette  goes in the  "bowl"  straight up, like a smokestack.  There also was/is a "ring" cigarette holder,  but I think that was used by women. One of my old ladiy friends used it.
I do not recall, did Alexandra smoke? I know for women, it was done only in private, amongst other ladies, at tea or such.
I have heard that even QV tried it [smoking] but didn't like it. She was trying to encourage British tobacco trade I think.
Cheers,
Robert