Catalog note: The book was purchased by Louis Szathmary from Maggs Brothers in London, England from the auction of the household material and belongings of the career diplomat (in the rank of senior advisor) Baron Anton Kiss de Ittebe. He was the son of Katharina Schratt, born during her marriage to her "official" husband, Baron Kiss de Ittebe, who was also a high-ranking government official.

In many of the books written about Katharine Schratt-Kiss, the husband and son have the title of Baron; in other books where their old Hungarian nobility is emphasized, there is no mention of the family being part of the Hungarian aristocracy. It is most likely that Franz Joseph gave the baronial title to Katharine Schratt's husband. Laid in the book there are three recipes on a double page in the handwriting of K. Schratt, giving recipes for the most favorite dish of Emperor Franz Joseph: "Gugelhupf," "mein Gugelhupf," and "Rothschild Gugelhupf." It was known that as a rule Franz Joseph ate one of these three coffee cakes at the home of K. Schratt. According to gossip, she wrote down the three recipes by hand, very legibly, so that when people requested the recipes, they could be copied without touching the book. In the book, there is also a photo postcard, showing an oil painting of Pope Pius X with three women, described in French as the Sisters of Pius X, and a cabinet photo of Emperor Franz Joseph. There is also a letter inserted in the book, together with the envelope closed with the royal seal. The five-page letter is addressed and hand-written by Emperor Franz Joseph. It was mailed for Godollo, Hungary the 8th of November, 1898. Two paragraphs of the letter are quoted on page 370 of the book, Briefe Kaiser Franz Josephs an Frau Katharina Schratt, which was printed in Vienna in 1949. The book written by Hermann Mailler, Frau Schratt, Ein Lebenbild, was printed in Vienna in 1947, and describes the love affair of the Emperor and the actress. The Emperor's handwritten letter was dated at Godollo, the royal hunting castle in a small suburb of Budapest. It was one of the favorite hunting perserves of the Emperor.

A book on Godollo is included. Perhaps the most interesting book relating to this royal affair is the volume Anna Nahowski und Kaiser Franz Joseph, Aufzeichnungen, which was published in 1986 in Vienna. From it, we found out that Emperor Franz Joseph had a torrid, purely sexual affair with a married woman, Anna Nahowski, born Nowak. She was married shortly after her 15th birthday to a drunkard who beat her and tortured her until she finally got a legal separation. In her book, she gave a detailed but not "explicit" description of her sad love story with the Emperor, who usually visited her at 4:00 a.m., quickly made love and disappeared. The affair went on for years. Anna Nahowski had no idea that her imperial lover spent a short time in the afternoons in the boudoir of K. Schratt, until age forced him to choose. He chose the actress K. Schratt. Anna Nahowski, the mother of his illegitimate daughter (who later became the wife of the well-known Austrian composer, Alban Berg), was paid off with a royal sum.

One more volume is added to this gathering of books: a royal palace food book, which was published recently in Vienna and tells in detail about Emperor Franz Joseph's daily habits and food habits from the Burg in Vienna and the royal palace in Budapest.