Up for auction: Two rare, signed photographs of Romanov Grand Duchesses Olga Nikolaevna and Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna
As part of the upcoming Coutau-Bégarie & Associatés ‘Nobility & Royalty: Imperial Russia’ the item is being sold as part of an auction of items belonging to Tatiana Evgenievna Melnik-Botkina, daughter of the Romanov family’s personal physician, Dr. Evgeny Sergeievich Botkin, who was killed alongside the Imperial Family.
Lot 189 is a wooden frame featuring two photographs of Olga Nikolaevna and Tatiana Nikolaevna, photographed circa 1914-1915. The catalogue states that provenance has been established: the photos and frame were presented by the Grand Duchesses at the Catherine Palace Infirmary at Tsarskoe Selo, where Tatiana Botkina was working as a Red Cross Sister of Mercy nurse.
The photographs were later cropped and published in Tatiana Evgenievna Melnik-Botkina’s autobiography, ‘Memories of the Royal Family and their Life Before and After the Revolution’. The complete, original photographs are never-before-seen.
The frame is 8cm x 10.5cm and predicted to sell anywhere between 2000-2500 euros. The only photograph available so far is from the auction catalogue, so here’s hoping that we will be able to see it in high quality soon!
Tatiana Nikolaevna’s published diaries and letters reference the Catherine Palace Infirmary often in 1914:
Friday 19 September 1914: "...Then we went to the Grand Infirmary, where they also took photographs of us during dressings..."
Monday 13 October 1914: "...Then we went to the Grand Infirmary where we bandaged the newly arrived until 1 o'clock..."
Monday 27 October 1914: "...Visited everyone, put on white uniforms and went to the Grand Infirmary..."
Thursday 30 1914: "...Then we went to the Grand [Infirmary] to do the dressings of the newly arrived wounded..."
Thursday 6 November 1914: "...Went to the Grand Infirmary, where they performed 2 surgeries..."
📌Coutau-Bégarie & Associés, Noblesse & Royauté: Russie Impériale, (Paris: Coutau-Bégarie, 2025), p. 69
📌Coutau-Bégarie & Associés, '189. Petit Cadre' in Coutau-Bégarie & Associés, Noblesse & Royauté: Russie Impériale, (Paris: Coutau-Bégarie, 2025)
📌Olga Romanov: Royal Witness to the Royal Revolution, trans. by Helen Azar, (Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2014), pp. 25, 31
📌Tatiana: Daughter of the Last Tsar Diaries and Letters 1913 - 1918, trans. by Helen Azar and Nicholas B. A. Nicholson, (Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2016), pp. 45, 48, 51, 52, 53
📌📷Tatiana Melnik-Botkina, ‘Воспоминания о царской семье и её жизни до и после революции' (Belgrad, M.I. Stefanovich & Co, 1921), p. 69
📷Cropped photograph of Tatiana Melnik-Botkina, shared by Melentyev, 'BabbieYouri', 13 September 2012 [Accessed 27 April 2025
📷OTMA and Tsarina Alexandrovna Feodorovna at the Catherine Palace, GARF 683-1-121a-19; GARF F. 683 op. 1 d. 121а l. 19 ob
📷Photograph of Tatiana Melnik-Botkina, Dr. Evgeny Botkin, and Gleb Botkin in Tobolsk, c1917-1918, likely photographed by Maria Ussakovskaya, public domain due to age
📷Photograph of Tatiana Melnik-Botkina in traditional dress, shared by Melentyev, 'TatianaEvguenievnaBotkine', 13 September 2012 [Accessed 27 April 2025]
