NIELLO CIGARETTE HOLDER

[ARGENTUM49]

Regarding the brooch — pendant I am aware of the fact that such items should have been fully hallmarked. I am not sure if the initials beside 56 are assayer’s ИЛ or maker`s hallmark. You must have seen not important Russian silver not fully hallmarked. It did happen in UK and let alone in Russia (e.g. villages in Kostroma region). This cigarette niello holder with amber mouth piece has only Kiev hallmark and 84 — no maker’s mark. And last, but not the least, those items are not important: who would bother to fake them with much of skilled work and no profit. The pearl in the brooch, attached at the bottom, is fixed with two chiseled notches in gold surrounding the pearl.One in a thousand jewelers can do it without damaging very small pearl, being more fragile than any stone. Contemporary jewelers are mostly traders; they buy jewelry made on the industrial scale. Only few of them are even capable of simple repairs. That is enough for me, I was actually interested in stones only.
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[Postnikov]

Hi Argentum49 -

a very nice piece you have! I have a box full of them - but the problem is, that the makers are mostly unknown.

Regards
Postnikov

[ARGENTUM49]

Hello dear Postnikov,
Excellent pieces! My humble opinion is that the lack of maker’s hallmarks can be attributed to the fact that most of those cigarette holders were made in The Don Region, Caucasus, and Altai. I also think that assayers were not too strict with them — not every silversmith was rich and hallmarking steel tool was as expensive to make a century ago as it is now. Cigarette holders were also very popular in Montenegro to boast with it (by the way, men used to smoke the whole day and let women do all the work, while they were telling tales about their military achievements, most of the stories being just boasting).I do like both niello and cloisonné. Some have mouth pieces made of amber, bone and ivory (no matter how I like ivory I regret poor elephants being killed for their tusks only! Fortunately, it is over now). Besides, I do not find bone inferior to ivory. It is the genuine tradition I respect.
Ivan