Silver Icon

[Dirk1966]

Hi

I recently purchased this Russian silver Icon and would like to find out who the assayer might be?
There is no makers mark to be found and believe the city mark is for St Petersburg?

[Dirk1966]

The size is 31 x 26.5 cm

[AG2012]

Hi,
I think everything is faked here.Sorry.
Regards

[Dirk1966]

What makes it a fake?

[Juke*]

Hi!

These icons/oklads are a very typically faked as they can today be bought as new from major net stores which you can check out. They have been made for the modern market for Orthodox. Old russian silver marks are easily added to these to add the resell values.

There are very many indicators which shows this of which can be mentioned the style of the painting, the not genuine stones and even probably that it is not even silver but silvered copper (which can be tested).

Regards,
Juke

[AG2012]

Iconography has its rules; Kazan Icon of the Mother of God can have variants of the same inscription the Most Holy Mother of God of Kazan in Old Slavic alphabet, the last two letters on the right are П Б abbreviation of Пресвятой Богородицы in Russian.
The last letter in Kazan which looks like ж is poor imitation of Old Slavic letter denoting possession which is not used any more (not to be confused with modern Russian letter ж.Obviously made by a person not familiar with Old Slavic lettering.Often seen in Far East fakes with visual imitation of Cyrillic letters without knowing their meaning.
Authentic inscription:



There is more:
The mark imitating Moscow with 84 and poorly executed or missing notches.
Displaced dots in maker's mark A.P. (unknown to me in Moscow,if town mark pretended to be Moscow).
And last but not least very poorly depicted Mary and Christ, almost cartoon like.
Regards