Postby Qrt.S » Wed Feb 13, 2013 4:45 am
It is a salt and pepper stand. However, it looks like the grip in the middle is missing as well as the glass inserts, but? Anyway about the marks. The "AV" is an Austro-Hungarian import mark used 1872-1902. AV stands for "Auslandsverkerchr" meaning foreign goods. The E in the mark indicates Cracow in Poland. The 84-mark is a Russian assaying mark used 1882-1899. Fineness 84 zolotnik i.e. .875. This mark is either Moscow, Minsk or or in this case probably Warsaw. Warsaw had its own Russian assay office under the Russian rule 1795-1918 as from 1852->. It is sometimes difficult to say with certainty what town it is. Usually the maker's mark would tell you more but there is none except for this M3* mark that I cannot identify for the moment. It is not a Russian maker's mark but not either a Polish mark, at least not from Warsaw. It is possible that this mark is punched over the original maker's mark, but I'm not sure.