Leopard Antiques Russian Silver Sardine Fork

Russian Silver Sardine Fork - Novgorod

Reference: S1416 Period: Victorian Year: Circa 1850 Silversmith: CH Place: Novgorod or Orel? Price: $ 80.00 Weight: 29 grams Dimensions: 16.0 cm Condition: Excellent. Description: A lovely Russian silver sardine fork in traditional style, the handle a well modelled fish, connected to the 3 pronged fork with a curved, twisted stem. The 3 prongs are also curved, and have short wide tines with flattened ends, for ease of use. The hallmarks include makers mark CH (or CB?), 84 standard mark and town mark, which is a little worn. Our best estimate is Novgorod or Orel (Watts, Russian Silver Hallmarks, pg 42-45), we are open to correction here. This sardine fork has now been featured in an article entitled "Russian Silver Flatware Servers" by Dale Bennett, in the Magazine "Silver", January 2015, pages 14-19. It is described as "a most unusual flatware server", the author has never seen or heard of another Russian sardine fork. He describes it as a "highly imaginative server, with solid cast realistic sardine terminal". He describes the prongs as spade shaped, not sharp or pointed as in American sardine forks used for spearing, this is a lifter. He confirms town mark of Novgorod and date mid 19th century, and finishes saying this is an "extremely rare piece". The sardine fork is also photographed for the article.

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