Mary Vetsera's Boa

Probably the most fascinating and macabre feature of the official cover-up of the double suicide at Mayerling is the curious journey of Mary's fully-clothed corpse, in a carriage, propped up between two of her uncles and bound for a hasty burial at the cemetery at Heiligensee.

Mary's last journey flanked by her uncles...Note the "snaking" boa...!

Ah, the uncles, who also had the grisly task of dressing her half-naked body ready for the trip. It was rumoured that a broomstick handle was used to support her spine (attached inside her clothing) so that she could sit up straight. I'm not sure how this would have worked in reality but I guess Mary's favourite trademark boa might have come in useful here, wrapped tightly round her chin and keeping her head aloft, so that her fashionably tall highwayman's hat didn't slide off. In life, the fluffy boa had come in handy for hiding her face when flitting incognito, to and from the Hofburg, in Bratfisch's black cab, along with her chaperone, Marie Larisch, also boa'd for the occasion.

Fur or Feathers? 
Hmm, a difficult one! One inclines towards feathers for Mary and also there's the exotic fetish aspect of this slightly decadent accessory, just coming into fashion, which makes it an irresistible choice-- but alas, having perused a photo of Marie Larisch and Mary in their matching boas, one can only assume that it was most probably fur, (the sensible option after all.) In the same photo (perhaps the very last picture taken before her death) Mary is supposed to be wearing the dark olive green 'skating' dress with black trim that she ended up being buried in. The scientific institute that examined the dress from the Vetsera grave also noted some disintegrating remains of what they thought could have been a fur muff but were undecided. Hmm, but what became of the boa? Never mind, in my Vetsera Fantasia, Mary will get to flaunt a black feather boa (whilst posing for the painter Toulouse-Lautrec-- so there!)

The uncles: Alexander Baltazzi (who I've put on the left) and Otto Graf* von Stockau (on the right). Another of the Baltazzi brothers, Mary's uncle Heinrich, who was the model for the character of the Count in Arthur Schnitzler's play Reigen, is sometimes mistakenly substituted.
Yes, I had trouble with their hats of course. I've given Alexander a Prince of Wales 'Derby' style bowler (as he was probably the racehorse owner) and Stockau is wearing a poor approximation of a Tyrolean-style hunting hat and looking a bit like Lenin in exile (lol!)
An old black and white post-war German-language film about Mayerling shows one of the uncles on this journey wearing one of those tall top hats with the satin finish usually won to the opera, which given the circumstances, might have proved rather impractical. Still, they were probably summoned for this task at very short notice-- and a top hat was probably the default choice for gentlemen of rank.

At this juncture, even Mary's mother didn't know what had happened, which is quite shocking when you think about it. Poor Helene Vetsera was repeatedly begging the police for information about her missing daughter. She was finally informed, a few days later, in a very brief face-to-face interview (or should that be face-off?) with the Empress Elizabeth, who wasn't very charitable towards the poor woman at all. Hmm, Sissi wasn't showing any of her "fine sentiments" on that occasion was she?!

*Note: Sometimes referred to, rather inaccurately, as Georg ("George") von Stockau...I believe there has been confusion over "Graf" and "George" in most of the (English language) reports about Mayerling. After consulting a collection of Baltazzi family photos and info online, I am certain that our 2nd "Man from Uncle" (!) is Otto Graf von Stockau (the second husband of Helene Vetsera's sister, Marie Virginie.) Otto was about 54 yrs old in 1889 and actually dies the following year, in March. Perhaps the trauma of being a bit-player in this grotesque coda to the Mayerling incident adversely affected his health.