Please help on Syrian (?) silver purse

[Fernando]

Hello, could someone help here?
I assume this purse is Syrian, judging by the 'Tartus' engraved on it; or at least it ended up in Syria.
It has hallmarks that i would like to identify. Its fineness grade (84), is like in Russian silver, but i ignore whether this standard is exclusive from that country. In one the 84's, it has the initials 'FW' included.
Would any of the members identify these hallmarks and give me an idea of this item's provenance ?
On the other hand, i can only discern on of the golden signatures on the lid (Aumann), which could be a Jewish name.
Any help in decoding the other signatures on the lid would also be appreciated.
Thanks a lit in advance.
Fernando

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[jackk]

Looks Russian to me. Very Russian. :)
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[Fernando]

Thanks a lot for your input, Jackk.
Is it usual seing silver articles being traded in Syria?
...Because the only definition for Tartus is the Syrian city.
Fernando
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[jdpb]

Not sure if this will help you or not but I have a comment or two.... Russia was not the only country to use the 84 zolotnik purity standard. Many areas
that were under the sway of the old Russian empire used these marks, I have a piece from Latvia that carries both the Russian 84 and the German Crown and Cresent since both countries were disputing that area at the time ( 1908 ) also several countries kept using the 84 type marks even after the Russian empire fell since they had nothing to replace it with. For example I have seen items from Iran ( Persia ) with 84 marks made in the 1920s. Thus finding an 84 mark in Syrian would not surprise me. I would suggest looking up some of the history of Syria around 1920 and see what was going on.
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[blakstone]

Not Syrian, but Estonian.

The "84/EW" mark was used 1919-1924 in the newly independent Estonian Republic ("Eesti Wabariik" in Estonian, hence the "EW"). It was struck on items with earlier Imperial Russian marks that turned up for re-assay. These usually had St. Petersburg marks, since Estonian pieces were marked there after the introduction of the "kokoshnik" marks.

Unfortunately, both the 1908-1926 kokoshnik mark and accompanying Cyrillic maker's mark here are too worn to be legible. However, Estonian makers used Latin letters in their maker's marks, not Cyrillic, so I suspect your case is of St. Petersburg manufacture and therefore technically Russian. Certainly the style, as has been noted, screams "Russian".

But the inscription is likewise Estonian. The "-s" ending in Estonian grammar is the declension of the locative inessive case, thus "Tartus" in Estonian means "In Tartu", Tartu being the second largest city in Estonia.

The Treaty of Tartu was signed on 2 Feb 1920, ending the Estonian War for Independence (1918-1920) and with Bolshevik Russia formally recognizing the Estonian Republic. The date engraved here - 10/IX (10 Sep) 1920 - may well be commemorative of some event related to the formation of the Republic (which ended two decades later with the 1939/40 Stalinist re-occupation.)

So, probably Russian-made but presented in Tartu during the earliest days of Estonia's ill-fated independence.

I love silver marks that contain a mini history lesson; this is a great example!
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[Fernando]

Thank you blackstone.
Outstanding information. It all makes sense now, with your synopsis on the evolution of Russian/Estonian silver marks.
I have tried to spot any event occurred in Tartu on the 10 IX 1920 but had no luck.
Don't you agree that this case could be, not only a public event comemoration, but also a presentation gift ? ... somebody's birthday or promotion ?
I still think that a possible track would be to decipher those signatures on the case lid, from which i can only pick the name of "K Aumann".
Assuming that you are a guy with knowledge of "encripted" graphisms, do you think you could discern what some of these names would be ?
Fernando
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