www.925-1000.com

Please help me identify this mouse I purchased from an estate sale. The seller was a collector of Russian art or all sorts. It is stamped I.P., 88 and an angel face, I am told it is Rappoport.

Hi aishka -

your object is unfortunately a common fake.

Regards
Zolotnik

Thanks, Zolotnik.

Do you mind elaborating a little bit on how I would learn it's a fake?

Hi aishka -

Where to start and where to end? Here a short explanation:

Fabergé (and his famous crew) was the Court jeweller of the last Tsar. His products, whatever was made, were of outstanding quality. There was a highly trained master in each sektion, supervising the make and finish of every piece, built after wellthought drawings and sketches. The endproduct was always flawless.
Among many other things Fabergé created different little animals (like the Japanese netsukes) in semi precious stones. Never in silver!
Here some examples:



Now compare with your plump, detailless "rat" with the fishy and incorrect marks.

Regards
Zolotnik

Fortunately, everything made by Faberge was of excellent craftsmanship and detail, including enameling, jewels etcetera. There is not need to look at hallmarks on many items questioned Faberge or not — poor quality tells it all.

What are you talking about AG2012 of course you have to look at the marks as well. Evaluating the outlook is never enough, the marks are 50% of the wholeness. The marks must always match the outlook/quality. Do feed readers with false believes.

I was talking about craftsmanship and the quality of an item. It may be 50% (although cannot understand why 50 % and not e.g. 45 % or 75%). Were the marks OK in the mouse, would it still be 50% Faberge? No way. If poorly executed it is too obvious. Will not engage in discussion regarding this; quality comes first, if recognized, of course.

But Qrt.S, when you look at a poorly made item, do you think 'I wonder if it is Faberge?, I'll check the marks', no, you know it's not Faberge, there is no need to see the marks. If the quality is not there, it's not Faberge.

Trev.

No, but a high/good quality item is no guarantee to be made by Faberge and one has to careful examine the whole object, including scratched inventory#, hallmarks and maker’s mark forensically, in order not to part with an enormous amount of money and to end up with a high quality fake.But I agree quality first and my rule of thumbs; all Faberge items offered at auction places are fakes unless proven otherwise.

Oel

Generally as Oel already stated but as also said a poorly made object does not automatically make it a fake, on the contrary- Today can an object made in extreme quality well be a fake. My way of approaching this "dilemma" is the following. When I see an interesting object, I give it a quick general "look". If it pleases me, I look at the marks. If I'm satisfied with them, I investigate the object more thoroughly. If I'm not satisfied with the marks, I let it be irrespective of its outstanding quality or whatever other reason.

It is the one and the same question repeated here many many times. The fakers do not bother to investigate how marks should look like, where they should be, what marks were used, how and when. Why do it, it is unnecessary because some person not knowing anything about marks will still buy the object fascinated by its "beauty". Such a person cannot either separate a cast mark from a punched mark. Whatever that looks like marks will do and Cyrillic letters that is the BIG thing for some.

Regarding Russian silver it is advisable to remember that unidentified marks, insufficient/incorrect marking or missing marks etc. are always an alarming red flag. That has nothing to do with the items quality, good or poor. Sometimes it is also good to ask yourself the following question if you see a large amount of e.g. enameled Russian objects for sale, i. e. "Where do they all come from, what is their origin?" The story behind them told by the seller you can usually throw to the dogs. It is not forbidden to use your brains, never been!
Just caught my mind an expression used by Zolotnik: "A fool and his money are soon separated!"

About Fabergé. Objects on the market today "made" by Fabergé are up to 90% fakes and good fakes they are.