Postby AG2012 » Mon May 07, 2018 3:14 pm
Generally speaking, the quality of silver during Soviet era sharply declined after the revolution, both in design and craftsmanship.
They managed to participate abroad with carefully chosen silver made for particular exhibitions (e.g. "Северная чернь" In Paris 1937 ).
Of course, not every silver item made in Imperial Russia was of exquisite quality, but again, generally speaking much better than Soviet silver.
In regard of mass production, yes, Kubachi art factory production was rather abundant and niello was shallow, almost oxide painted similar to modern fakes.
Even famous nationalized workshops declined, the most notable example being nationalized Khlebnikov workshop transformed into Moscow ``Platinopribor``"Платиноприбop``,nothing even close to Khlebnikov (except for cutlery but they had original molds).
Regards