Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

ariel · 4th February 2012, 03:18 PM

It looks much later to me: very late 19th - beginning of the 20th century.
Very old Russian enamels were of high artistic quality , culminating in Faberge's works. The centers were in St. Petersburgh and, especially, Moscow for religious use and expensive utilitarian objects This one ( Cloissone, as Dom correctly mentioned) is a pretty crude one, with inaccurate soldering, crooked posting of the spout, a lot of flaking of the enamel, it's uneven thickness, spilling of one color onto another, cheap chain and very rough cast decorations of the face ( Peter's, very likely) and the imperial eagle. The colors are of a garish provincial taste. Mass production of a small enterprise. Nothing bad about it, it is a delightful trinket, but not earlier than the end of the 19th century.

BTW, cloissone work is essentially identical to filigree, only with the enameling step. Filigree is used very often on contemporary Caucasian souvenirs ( kindjals, cups, vases etc) and is viewed there as a job for quickly-trained beginners. Nothing sophisticated; they hire 17 y.o. girls and those are mass-producing it on the second day of work.

If I am correct about it's dating, it is unlikely to be a powder flask: black powder was very much on it's way out.

4th February 2012, 03:18 PM	#9
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	It looks much later to me: very late 19th - beginning of the 20th century. Very old Russian enamels were of high artistic quality , culminating in Faberge's works. The centers were in St. Petersburgh and, especially, Moscow for religious use and expensive utilitarian objects This one ( Cloissone, as Dom correctly mentioned) is a pretty crude one, with inaccurate soldering, crooked posting of the spout, a lot of flaking of the enamel, it's uneven thickness, spilling of one color onto another, cheap chain and very rough cast decorations of the face ( Peter's, very likely) and the imperial eagle. The colors are of a garish provincial taste. Mass production of a small enterprise. Nothing bad about it, it is a delightful trinket, but not earlier than the end of the 19th century. BTW, cloissone work is essentially identical to filigree, only with the enameling step. Filigree is used very often on contemporary Caucasian souvenirs ( kindjals, cups, vases etc) and is viewed there as a job for quickly-trained beginners. Nothing sophisticated; they hire 17 y.o. girls and those are mass-producing it on the second day of work. If I am correct about it's dating, it is unlikely to be a powder flask: black powder was very much on it's way out. Last edited by ariel; 4th February 2012 at 03:38 PM.