Postby Qrt.S » Sun Oct 16, 2011 2:53 am
Well...I tried to put it softly dear Frontfloater but Zolotnik said it straight, your object is spurious. Enameled works are the most common Russian counterfeits, the market is flooding with them and they are made in a rather good quality too. If you or anybody Christies included cannot identify an enameled Russian object, just leave it! This is the best suggestion I can give you. The second best is to read these Russian threads. However, if you still doubt both Zolotnik's and my opinion, you can start with searching for a Russian forename starting with Ш. After that try to find the maker, I'm sorry I' don't think you will find him...Christies didn't either, think of that too.
By the way, fakers do not usually bother to research carefully enough what is what and how does it look like. Moreover, the earlier Russian hallmarking system revealed also the assayer's name. That helped a lot the identification. This kokoshnik mark doesn't show the assayer, which isn't good. Therefore using this kokoshnik on a faked object minimize the risks for the faker. However, the master registers after the turn of the century are rather good, most of the masters are known. The situation before about 1870 is different, a lot of documentation was unfortunately destroyed and therefore many masters are unknown or you know the mark but not the name but you have the assayer's name and that might help you identifying the object.
Third best suggestions is: Do not swallow without thinking what the seller tells you, use your own eyes and knowledge when identifying the object. The seller's only task is to have it sold and gaining profit. Therefore a "true story" is more than often embedded in the object or a "authenticity proving document" is showed. It is only to distract you. I you don't know what you are buying, don't buy it. Sorry BOB!
