The box of the Ramon steam factory of sweets and chocolates of Princess E.M. Oldenburgskaya

The original tin box is in good collector's condition. The lid is slightly deformed. Size 180*180*250 mm. Guarantee of authenticity.

The Russian Empire in the XIX — early XX century had favorable conditions for the development of women's entrepreneurship. From 40 to 50% of the "businesswomen" were noblewomen, and among them — Princess Eugenie (1845-1925), nee Duchess of Leuchtenberg, married Oldenburg. In 1878, she became the rightful owner of Ramoni, a large estate with an area of more than 4,000 hectares with a prosperous farm. According to one version, she received such a generous gift (an additional 100 thousand rubles in silver) for the wedding from Alexander II. "Ramona steam Factory of sweets and chocolates of the Imperial Highness Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Oldenburg" is the full name of the candy factory. Evgenia Maksimovna managed to do it in a short time (about 30 years) to produce up to 400 types of sweet products: chocolate, montpensier, caramel, marmalade. Oldenburg chocolate was even celebrated at a number of international exhibitions: in 1903 it was awarded a gold medal in London, and a year later it received the Grand Prix at the Paris and Brussels exhibitions. And in order for sweets to be appreciated not only in Ramoni, a railway line was brought to the factory, along which sweets and chocolate went to the markets of other provinces of the Russian Empire and foreign countries. Princess Eugenie spent several months of the year at the estate and controlled the household. She had a talent for the modern profession of marketing. She organized advertising campaigns: she spread the names of children from painted men on the wrapper, sketches for which were prepared by famous artists (Alexander Benois, Leon Bakst) or put a postcard in the packaging — all the fashionistas of that time wanted to collect a complete collection. The ladies depicted on them were mistaken by the unenlightened inhabitants of Ramoni for Catherine I, Catherine II or Evgenia Maximilianovna.

In her absence, a hired manager was in charge of the business. This was one of the reasons for the collapse of the industry: back in 1897, for the sake of increasing profitability, Eugenia transferred the main responsibilities to Koch, who bought several thousand acres of land and improved equipment for a sugar factory. However, after he took out a loan and engaged in product speculation, the farm began to suffer huge losses. By the beginning of the 20th century, they had reached more than 4 million rubles. They decided to ask the imperial family for help, Nicholas II even gathered a family council, to which Finance Minister V.N. Kokovtsov was invited. The majority opposed the provision of financial assistance — the husband should help the wife, not the members of the royal family. Despite the protest, by order of Nicholas II, Princess Eugenie was given a financial "allowance" from the treasury in the amount of 2.5 million rubles and a loan from the State Bank for 2 million rubles. But in the end, the case could not be settled — in 1907 the estate was bought from the princess and became the property of the imperial family. After all, after a major fire that lasted 2 weeks, it became even more unprofitable to keep a ruined business: previously, not everyone could afford products from a member of the imperial family ()information from the website http://xn----7sbbhpgxivjatewnc5m.xn--p1ai/%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F-%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%84%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B9-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%86%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%81%D1%8B/