The spittoon from the exhibition at the Nikolay Nekrasov Museum-Reserve “Karabikha” is a rectangular shaped box.
The hinged lid of the spittoon box has a carved circle pattern in the center. On the four sides, the lid is decorated with leaves and flowers. The perimeter of the lid has grooves with flowers in the corners. The lid is attached to the drawer with brass hinges and is opened with a pedal.
The spittoon box is profiled and decorated with a carved patterned border and longitudinal slats at the top and bottom. Inside there is a brass drawer, which can be removed by means of side rings.
In the 19th century, spittoons were part of the interior and were used to elegantly spit chewing tobacco or to discard cigar ends. Tobacco was attributed many properties: “good for the eyes”, “to excite the brain”, “to draw away bad juices from the head”. Cigars came into use in Russia after 1815, they were brought from foreign campaigns by noble officers.
Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov sniffed tobacco and
smoked cigars. Mikhail Goroshkov, one of his classmates, who studied with the
future poet in the Yaroslavl governorate gymnasium, recalled,
