Cats enjoy secrets and especially rummaging through closets and boxes in search of treasure and adventure.
So it is hardly surprising that Her Imperial Majesty has many fine boxes in her collection. Some, like the gold box pictured here, are gifts received during her many official visits to other monarchs and heads of state.
This gold box was given her by Queen Eleanor deMews of Acquitaine and used by Her Imperial Majesty to keep her favorite pearl necklace.
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Of all the boxes in the imperial collection, none is more shrouded in mystery and legend than the "Catherine Box" about which many stories have been told. The box is made of gold and inlaid with pearls and emeralds. A scene of great beauty from one of Catherine the Great's estates is painted on the cover.
It is unknown how it came to be in Her Imperial Majesty's family. Some say that it was stolen by an ancestor of the Empress Hadarah while others say it was given for safekeeping with the instructions to smuggle it out of St. Petersburg as means to ensure its survival.
Other legends say that the Catherine Box is the source of the great wealth enjoyed by its possessors during the centuries. According to these tales, one has only to place money of any denomination into the box and the box then fills with identical money.
Most scoff at such tales while others have observed that those entrusted with the keeping of the box do not permit it to leave their purrsons.
Her Imperial Majesty denies all such rumors saying that she uses the box keep a handy supply of freeze-dried mice.
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Backgrounds from Backgrounds by Marie.
Copyright © 2004 by Daphne Schor. All rights reserved.