Right or wrong???????

[Zolotnik]

Hi all -
a napkin ring from the first Kiev Artel?








1st Jeweler and engraving Artel Kiev
1900-1910
as from 1905 a part of the Fabergé group
Famous engravings, chains, rings, bracelets, diamond-set articles, dinner service and tableware.
An experimental and artistic artel, which made great success. Traditional gold and silver smithing, jewellery, tableware etc. Gold objects in two colored gold, a Fabergé specialty.
Head work master V. Guljakov. First supplier to Fabergé.
Very famous artel.
Address: Kreshchatik 15 and 25.

I think it is a fake - what is your opinion?

Regards
Zolotnik

[Qrt.S]

It is a very interesting question you present dear Zolotnik. The 1st Jewellery and Engraving Artel worked in close co-operation with Faberg'e's branch in Kiev. It is known what it produced and where it was located. What we don't know is how its maker's mark looked like. It is stated that it was very famous but not a single article is known/found..??? I wonder on what basis it is stated that it produced goods of extreme quality and had a great success etc...?

Now suddenly more than a 100 years later a napkin ring pops up carrying its mark---??? From a picture it is always difficult to see the workmanship properly. What I can see is that this napkin ring is not of any extremely good quality, quite an ordinary one I would say.

At this stage I would appreciate a good and sharp close up picture of both the maker's mark and especially the kokshnik mark, thank you in advance.

Nonetheless, the maker's mark seems to read ?ARTEL in Cyrillic letters. None of the other artels had the name "artel" included in their marks. Until I have seen better pictures of the marks, I also consider it as a fake.

[Zolotnik]

Hi Qrt.S -

thanks for your opinion. For me it is a quite common, uninteresting, averidge quality European napkin ring, "upgraded" to some Russian object with a poor engraving. Unfortunately I have no original photo of the 1st Kiev Artel´s mark for comparasion. As it mostly worked for Fabergé and Fabergé no other maker´s marks on his objects tolerated, it will be hard to find the Artel´s mark. Beyond that was most of Faberge´s jewelry not marked with his firm´s name , only the marks of the goldsmith/artist and the marks demanded by law. WW I and Revolution was coming - and Kiev was not an important place to buy expensive things....

Regards
Zolotnik

[Qrt.S]

Yes the Kiev artel worked in close connection with Fabergés branch, even partly in the same premises. When Fabergé closed down his Kiev office, the artel was as well closed.

A minor amendment to my previous post. I said that no articles are found. Of course there are articles made by the Kiev artel. What I meant was that no articles are found marked with the Kiev artel's mark. It is not known how it looked like.