This commemorative enamel cup was given to attendees of the coronation of Tsar Nicolas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia on May 18, 1896, as printed on the cup with the initials “N” and “T,” and the royal crest on the opposite side. These cups were not produced outside the use of a coronation souvenir, so they are quite rare due to their specific place and time of origin.
Nicolas II was the patriarch of the famous Romanov family, who were all killed during a revolutionary coup in 1918, but even prior to that dark day, Nicolas was ill-fated. Officials did not properly manage the several hundred thousand onlookers attending his coronation on the Khodynka Field in Moscow, and over a thousand people were trampled to death in the excitement and panic. As a result, this artifact came to be known in Russia as the “Cup of Sorrows,” and the Tsar as “Bloody Nicolas.”
We found this cup in an antique wooden cupboard original to the Buckland House, leading us to believe it did belong to the Buckland family (and was not a previous donation from a Riverside Avondale resident), and we have some working theories on how it came into the family’s possession.
1) Grace Buckland’s sister Eliza was married to an elite US military general Edmund Rice, active at the time of the coronation. It’s possible he attended the coronation as a representative of the United States, or was gifted it by someone else who attended. Several of the Rice family possessions have been found in the Buckland House, so it’s possible the Bucklands inherited this special piece. The British Royal Collection Trust has two photos of “Representatives of the United States of America at the coronation of Nicolas II, Emperor of Russia 1898” in the public domain, but we’ve yet to draw connections between the Bucklands and the pictured sitters.
2) George Buckland’s father was a colleague to Rutherford B. Hayes before he became president of the United States, so many artifacts from the Buckland House are now in the collection of the Hayes Presidential Library in Fremont, Ohio. In the George Buckland catalogue of the Hayes Library is listed a carte de visites photograph of “Grand Duchesse Maria de Russia,” daughter of Nicolas II. So it’s possible the Bucklands had their very own connection to or affinity for the Russian family without the Rices. As we know from his column “Family Pages from the Past” in the Florida Metropolis newspaper circa 1920s, George loved history and historical objects, so he may have simply collected the cup from somewhere along the way.
The best part of all this research: learning about the interesting people, such as the Buckland family, who have lived in Riverside Avondale and left behind little pieces of their lives that make this neighborhood the eclectic, culture-rich gem it is for us to enjoy today.
How do you think the Cup of Sorrows came to the Buckland House?
To learn more about the work of our Archivist, Elain Akin, and the RAP Archival Collection, click here.
