Hi all,
I have to agree with Zolotnik here - before Zolotnik responded with his most recent post I went to check the picture you were referring to in my own copy of this book.
If you read the description of figure 74 closely, you will note that it describes all the other objects in that image as being 'by Grachev' whereas it simply says that the beaker is in the style of Klingert and that it has the masters initials GK - it doesn't actually say it is made by Klingert.
I have never held a genuine Klingert object in my hands but I have seen images of maybe 20-25 genuine Klingert objects, including Zolotnik's, and I haven't seen the large areas of blue enamelling on any of them. There seems to be a lot of writing about this being Klingert's signature style... who knows where that idea came from.
The only objects which I have seen that have these large blue enamelled areas have been made by Ivan Saltikov (Moscow 1884-1897(8)) and these tend to be on cigarette cases. When they are used, they are also surrounded by more complex and colourful patterns, such as figure 78 in Solodkoff's 'Russian Gold and Silverwork' book - I know Zolotnik also has a very beautiful Saltykov cigarette case in this style.
This doesn't mean that this is Saltykov's signature style - not at all. He worked in all styles and techniques to make extremely high quality objects using several colours of enamel on his cloisonné items - often three shades of blue, red, green, white and purple such as on this cigarette case, Moscow, 1893.
Anyway - I am off topic now and we must get back to spoons! :-)
Regards,
Piette
