Silver Salt Cellar

[piette]

Hi all,
I am wondering if this silver salt cellar is genuine or not - to me it looks good. In my opinion, the engraving looks good under the loupe and the hallmarks look fine.
It measures about 4cm in diameter and 2.5cm in height.
I believe this is the masters mark of Alexander Ivanovich Sparyashkin (PL #2244 pg 209) who worked 1907-1914 in Moscow.


Regards,
Piette

[Juke]

Hi!

Yes it is genuine and everything as you indicated. Here we have one more example where the shovel shaped mark is used even that the object itself likely is some over the 8,5 g limit.

Regards,
Juke

[Qrt.S]

This shovel mark is a bit of a problem. Its original purpose was to indicate that the weight is less than 8,5 gram or 2 zolotniki. The oval kokoshnik mark was to show that the weight is more than 8,5gr. However, the shovel mark can be found on small but heavier objects too, like in piette's case here. I investigated this mystery once and found that there is a long list of objects weighting more than 8,5 gr that should/could be marked with this shovel mark. Among those listed objects are spoons especially enameled ones and small salt cellars etc.. I don't know the reason for this inconsistency, sorry

[piette]

Hi Juke & Qrt.S,
Thank you for the confirmation about this item and for the information on the shovel mark - it is quite interesting.
Regards,
Piette