A Curious Russian Silver religious cartouche

[the_nosferatu]

An interesting little piece,a silver cartouche bearing the image of mary and the christ child,there are some odd assay? markings that i have never seen before upon the upper section and to the right of marys face,the cartouche is mounted within a small marble celluloid plaque, circa 1930's?? i am sure it is of russian origin, any help on this would be greatly appreciated,
my thanks in advance :-)

[Postnikov]

Hi -
if the medallion is authentic or not I can not see from a picture - normaly it should be silver. There exist numerous new castings in different materials.

The markings you have never seen before are old Russian (Slaconic) numbers for the dating system, numbers = letters.
In the convention of Slavonic writing numbers were indicated by letters and combinations of letters. This system of writing was in use during the 17th century and continued into the early 18th. With the reforms of Peter I, Arabic numerals were introduced alongside it.
Apart from the system of writing there is a further problem with dates, the problem of chronology. Old Russian chronology begins with the first of September 5509 B.C.,the presumed date of the Creation. The chronology of the present day day must thus be calculated by deducting the Old year number 5509 (or 5508, according to the month of the year). Besides that it was usual not to indicate the thousands in the old date so that one must add the figure 7.

Example:
CS = 206 plus initial number 7 for the 000s
7206
less 5509
_____
1697 (up to 31 August; 1698 from 1 September



Much fun deciphering it!

Regards
Postnikov

[the_nosferatu]

hi postnikov,this is wonderful thankyou, i shall study the date table and the advice you divulged regarding old slaconic markings,i am thinking the piece after looking at it and with a base mathematical speculation the piece is approx circa 1894 which would correspond with the use of the celluloid mount, it is indeed silver as i have just tested it,a freind of mine aquired this recently at a market on a visit to kiev,it is a lovely piece and hope to find out more,i am thinking it was gleaned from a sacked church perhaps?
with regards
T.Smithicus

[Postnikov]

Hi -
be careful. If it is tested like you said- then there must be a silver content mark (84 or 88 Zolotniki)! If it is over 100 years old - there are not much use traces. Kiev markets of the year 2010 are not the place to find such object - exept it is a "lookalike". I have my doubts.

Regards
Postnikov

[Postnikov]

Hi -
here is another of this "rare" objects. You can buy them by the dozen....



regards
Postnikov