SHASHKA for Comment and ID

[ariel]

I could not find anything similar in any of Rivkin’s books, in any edition of Astvatsaturyan’s book, or in a book ( album, essentially) of the Russian Ethnographic Museum.
It is possible that the latter does not show the entire exhibition or of the storage.
If so, I would appreciate seeing a picture with the label and/or provenance.
It should be mentioned that quite a lot of examples presented in their album are grossly mislabeled. I remember a discussion on the Russian Forum about it with multiple concerns. The publisher/editor agreed with the reaction but had 2 explanations: publishing team had no time for any review and they had to use museum labels. Pretty flimsy, isn’t it ?

Assay chamber stamps used initials of the inspector, a symbol ( female head or a coat of arms of a city where it was assayed) and the purity of silver. I am unaware of any official stamps with Cyrillic “AC” and no other official information required by law from the imperial assay inspectors. АС cannot be an abbreviation of Assaying Chamber: Russians did not call it as such in English. In Russian it was Probirnaya Palata.

I am certain you are unlikely to argue that the vastly different styles of decoration of the handle, suspension element/chape and throat indicate haphazard assembly.

The “ edge down” mode of suspension is also not Caucasian.

In summary, I see nothing Caucasian in the final product, and the “dog breakfast” of parts ( including conceivably even the blade, with which you hesitantly agree) do not give me any faith in the authenticity of this chimera of a shashka.