BLOG
Finds and Interests
Our WorthPoint Price Guide updates daily, with thousands of new items streaming in from our Industry Partners. I like to try to single out a few of my favorites to share with our followers. There’s usually a good story behind so many of these pieces, and sharing my passion for antique and vintage items is the best part of my job. Let me tell you about an interesting item that one of our partners recently auctioned.
It’s hard not to notice an auction lot that includes the terms “blood cup” and “cup of sorrows” in its description. While it sounds like something that might have contained poison, it was actually a cup given out at a festival on Khondynka Field, a military parade ground outside of Moscow. The coronation was held in Dormition Cathedral, but historians remember the large public party at Khondynka, where the Russian people celebrated, as a deadly day. The pair of cups sold for $414, but they will likely go up in value as collectibles from a historic event that was the last of its kind.
Organizers chose the location as the site of a post-coronation festival after Nicholas II ascended to the Russian throne. It was meant as a way for the masses to celebrate the coronation with games, food, performances, and prizes. It would turn out to be a tragic day that some say foretold the death and destruction that was to come. Some consider the cups a symbol of a terrible event because of a rumor that went through the crowd. Somehow, those attending the celebration believed the cups were filled with gold coins, and so the massive crowd rushed to get them, resulting in citizens dying in the mad dash. Estimates vary, but between 1,000 and 1,500 people were trampled to death
Nicholas II was the last Russian Czar, abdicating in March of 1917 amid the Bolshevik Revolution. His brother refused the throne, and the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin created a provisional government. Nicholas and his family were imprisoned and eventually massacred in July of 2018. Hence, the cups, like the regime of Nicholas II, are a part of an era of history the likes of which have not been seen in modern times.
These particular cups that were sold by Colorado Premier Realty and Auction Services are worn, with some bits of the design wearing off, but they are extremely rare, even if they are not in perfect condition.