Tobacco at Court

Of all the monarchs of his time, Emperor Franz Joseph I was perhaps one of the most modest as far as his personal needs were concerned. His daily routine was strictly regulated and his private life was free from any extravagance apart from the occasional visit to the theatre and the pleasures of the chase. He drank and ate only in strict moderation. Nevertheless, he did have one vice: smoking. And if one can give credence to contemporary accounts he was apparently at times a heavy smoker: "But when the Emperor sat alone with Count Paar in the train compartment, intercourse between the two was limited to the creation of huge billows of smoke, with the result that emperor and general adjutant were hardly to be distinguished any longer in the thick fog of tobacco smoke" reports Ketterl, the emperor's personal valet in his memoirs. ¹

And in fact the archives contain numerous photographs of the monarch with cigar and countless anecdotes centring on Franz Joseph's consumption of tobacco. His very first private visit to the "gracious lady", court theatre actress Katharina Schratt, with whom he was to enjoy a thirty-year friendship, was marked by a tobacco-related incident. Empress Elisabeth had set up the contact between the actress and her husband, and Franz Joseph had announced at short notice that he was coming to breakfast at Katharina Schratt's summer villa in Ischl. Schratt, who had little time to prepare for the visit and had no good cigars at home, cried: "Lord, and I've nothing better than a bad imperial in the house!" ²
The cigars produced by the Imperial-Royal Tobacco Monopoly were known as 'imperials' on account of the fact that the emperor usually smoked two kinds of monopoly cigar, Virginians and the Regalia Media. As the friendship progressed Katharina Schratt frequently gave the emperor gifts of exclusive Havana cigars, as documented in the intensive exchange of letters between the emperor and his close confidante.

There are also tobacco-related anecdotes associated with Empress Elisabeth, who frequently caused a stir with her eccentric style of life. She is supposed to have been seen smoking while out driving a horse and carriage. In contrast to the previous centuries, tobacco was strictly forbidden to the female sex during the 19th century. It was even regarded as extremely uncouth if a gentleman smoked in the presence of a lady. Gentlemen therefore withdrew to the smoking room to indulge their habit; there was a smoking parlour in the imperial apartments in the Hofburg. The seriousness of the taboo that Elisabeth had broken by smoking in public can be seen from the fact that the incident even made its way into the diaries of the Minister of Police at that time, Kempen. ³ As if that were not enough, the reports of the abomination even reached the English court, to the horror of Queen Victoria.

Tobacco had already played an important role for the Austrian monarchs long before the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph. The first Habsburg to appreciate the financial advantages offered by tobacco was Leopold I. In 1670, in order to fund his expensive hunting excursions, Count Khevenhüller, his Grand Master of the Hunt, suggested leasing the monopoly for the cultivation and sale of tobacco to him to cover the deficit in the coffers of the imperial hunt. From then on, whatever the personal predilection for tobacco of the individual rulers, the tobacco monopoly was placed under varying degrees of state control. Joseph II eventually decreed an exclusive state monopoly over tobacco production in 1784, thus founding the Austrian Tobacco Monopoly. The economic history of tobacco in Austria is amply documented in a plethora of decrees, price tariffs, prohibitions and statutory regulations.

The political history of Austria since the 17th century can also be read in the decoration on the pipes and snuffboxes needed for the enjoyment of tobacco: tobacco boxes depict battles, victories and defeats, snuffboxes display portraits of the protagonists of important political congresses, meerschaum pipes refer to alliances and treaties.
Smoking accessories assume cultural and historical significance as diplomatic gifts or awards. The custom of giving gem-encrusted snuffboxes, elaborately carved meerschaum pipes or exclusive cigar and cigarette cases became so much part of convention that it increasingly eclipsed the original use of the gift. When these gifts were exchanged, often neither the giver nor the recipient was a devotee of tobacco. Thus Maria Theresa for example, although she abhorred tobacco so much that before any documents requiring her signature were laid before her they had to be carefully perfumed to disguise the smell of it, presented state visitors with diamond-encrusted snuffboxes bearing her portrait as a matter of course. Likewise, declared opponents of tobacco were happy to accept the gift of a snuffbox, which was the equivalent of being invested with an order.

¹ Ketterl, Eugen. Der alte Kaiser – Wie nur Einer ihn sah. Der wahrheitsgetreue Bericht des Leibkammerdieners Kaiser Franz Josephs I. Vienna-Munich-Zurich-Innsbruck 1980, p. 13
² Hamann, Brigitte (ed.), Meine liebe, gute Freundin! Die Briefe Kaiser Franz Josephs an Katharina Schratt aus dem Besitz der österreichischen Nationalbibliothek. Vienna 1992, p. 32
³ Hamann, Brigitte. Elisabeth Kaiserin wider Willen. Vienna – Munich 1988, p. 134

This portrait shows the emperor working at his desk and smoking a Regalia Media, one of his favourite cigars, in a meerschaum cigar holder. The cigar holder meant that the emperor could smoke while he worked since it stopped the smoke getting in his eyes.

This cigar holder was once owned by Emperor Franz Joseph I, its provenance confirmed by a document signed by the emperor's personal rifle loader, J. Hoschtalek.

This magnificent tabatière was probably made to commemorate Emperor Franz Joseph I's jubilee in 1908.

This pipe bowl bears relief busts of Franz Joseph I and Elisabeth and is crowned by the arms of alliance. On the curve of the bowl is an allegory of Hungary.

This presentation snuffbox once belonged to Prince Alois von Liechtenstein. It bears the monogram A under a gold crown surrounded by blue enamel decoration.

This precious presentation snuffbox bears the monogram of Emperor Franz Joseph I with the Hungarian imperial crown. It is an example of how smoking accessories were frequently bestowed as an official mark of honour.

This meerschaum holder carved with a dressage scene was a gift from Emperor Franz Joseph I to Oskar Carée, a trainer of Trakehner horses.

This porcelain bowl is decorated with a double medallion displaying the portraits of Wilhelm II and Franz Joseph I shielded by the Prussian eagle.

The double portrait on this pipe bowl shows the emperor in his youth and in old age. The legend reads: 'Souvenir of the imperial diamond jubilee 1848 – 1908'.

The porcelain bowl is decorated with a photograph of the monarch in hunting dress.

This pipe bowl shows the emperor in hunting dress and bears the legend: 'Our emperor in the high mountains'. Out shooting one day, Franz Joseph, who was often unrecognisable for his subjects when he was wearing simple hunting dress, encountered a woodcutter who unwittingly asked the emperor for a light. "Got a light, Huntsman?" enquired the woodcutter, whereupon the amiable monarch, greatly amused at this, lit a piece of beech fungus himself and offered it to the woodcutter.

The image on this jar is based on a photograph, a copy of which also graced the album of photographs of the emperor kept by Katharina Schratt. Franz Joseph's comments on it in a letter to Katharina Schratt dated 26 September 1888 read as follows: "In Kreuth, after a shoot where I so clumsily missed a stag, I was compelled by a local photographer to have my photograph taken. I send you the result to dispose of as you wish. I find that I look utterly foolish with my eyes raised to the sky like that."

Not only Franz Joseph but also Elisabeth served as a model for tobacco jars.
Lit.: Genuss und Kunst, Schallaburg 1994, p. 274

The portrait medallion on this pipe bowl shows a bust of Franz Ferdinand against crossed flags with the legend: 'Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne.'

Although this porcelain pipe bowl bears a portrait of Elisabeth, the empress in fact smoked cigarettes rather than a pipe, as the following entry in the diary of Kempen, Minister of Police, attests: "The Palace Captain castigated the attitude of the Empress, who he said smoked while out driving, in such a manner that I found it highly disagreeable to be compelled to listen to this kind of thing."

Images of the crown prince and his wife also decorated porcelain pipe bowls, as attested by this example with the legend 'Rudolf and Stephanie'.

The interior of this case bears a commemorative inscription recording the 1st to 3rd places in a competition and the engraved signature of Prince Kinsky.

The lid of this case displays a coat of arms with a count's coronet. The interior bears an engraved inscription reading: 'With many thanks for 100 victories, Anton Seilern'.

This cigar case for a single cigar bears the arms of Count Karl Seilern.
Lit. Fellner, Sabine/Rupp, Herbert. Die lasterhafte Panazee – 500 Jahre Tabakkultur in Europa. Vienna 1992, p. 153

Meerschaum pipes were also decorated with the arms of their owners, as is this example, which bears the arms of Count János Beleznay and the inscription 'G. Belezay Janos 1831'.