The art historian Tamara Talbot Rice, born as Elena Abelson in 1904, had a ‘dazzlingly privileged childhood’.  The family’s main home was in Moscow, though later, following the Russian Revolution, they moved to England.

In 1918, Elena was much dismayed, ‘felt humiliated and dishonoured’, when Wilhelm von Mirbach was appointed German ambassador to Russia:  ‘as we were obliged to pass the ambassador’s residence on our way to school, our anguish bit deeper every day’.  Initially they expressed their resentment by breaking off flags attached to the embassy’s limousine, but later:

‘Remembering that hydrangeas were said to bring bad luck if brought indoors we decided, even though flowers had become a rarity in Moscow and were exceedingly expensive, to raise enough money to send the Mirbachs a large potful.  We scraped, saved and scrounged and eventually watched as a handsome plant of the blue variety was delivered to the ambassador’s residence.  A few days later Count Mirbach was assassinated.’

From Tamara Talbot Rice Tamara: Memoirs of St Petersburg, Paris, Oxford and Byzantium (edited by her daughter, Elizabeth Talbot Rice, 1996); we are grateful to the late Jean Tsushima who brought this to our attention in c.1998.

Image:  part of flower arrangement in St Giles’ Cripplegate, City of  London, September 2025.

4 September 2025