www.925-1000.com

Hi

I am looking help in identifying of the maker and assayer of a Russian spoon, two cups and salt cellar.
All says 84 silver and I believe town mark is St. Petersburg.
MK stamp on the spoon and all of the items have mark МЮФ or ЛЮФ in Cyrillic

See images below.

All your help much appreciated.

It should be interesting to see what the experts say about all these marks. But, basically the combination 84/Town is late 19th century leaving MK (cyrillic) as only one maker on this list: https://www.925-1000.com/Frussia_makers_A_r.html

The 875 oval mark is Poland, a re-marking of standards...the shape surrounding is older, so maybe it is a transitional marking. I would suspect the the other letters are somehow related, but there seems to be arguments about Cyrillic vs. Latin as used in Poland over time.

That said, I am certainly no judge of Russian work (authentic vs. fakery) but there are many threads you can look at concerning this problem in Poland. I defer to the experts at this point. Hope that helps until better comes along.

@Volk
First of all please read the rules i.e. one topic per input! viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10 Otherwise it will only be a mess. Secondly, clean the marks. It is not too much to ask if you expect correct answers.
Awaiting new inputs with one object with cleaned marks per input.

Hi,
It is already a mess; please do what Qrt.S suggested.
In regard of ``Polish`` marks here; No, they are Soviet marks - worker with hammer.
Let`s wait.
Regards

@Qrt.S and AG2012 Thank you for suggestion on the cleaning up the marks. Should I use silver polish to get a it cleared up? Regarding the post I figured since all of the items had similar mark МЮФ or ЛЮФ in Cyrillic I would combine it. That being said I am no expert by any means.
Thanks again.

Hi,
Any commercial silver polish will do; there is no gilding to take care of. For marks use the tip of a wooden toothpick; do not use needles and metal.

Regards

Use toot picks and your tooth brush and rinse in water. That will do it.

Thank you AG2012...thread link to surviving book view of marks "875 worker with hammer": viewtopic.php?f=46&t=40397&p=112917&hil ... 91#p112917

@Volk
Please note the following: Do not talk about Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union as one and the same! Russia and Soviet Union are incomparable in many respects but especially regarding the quality of silver objects. If Russia scores 10 or even more points, Soviet hardly 1...if even that!

Anyway, the below mentioned objects are Soviet made. Two vodka cups (стопка) and a salt cellar (солонка).
МЮФ is Ювелирная фабрнка, Москва, active 1927-46; Moscow jewelry factory
ЛЮФ is Ювелирная фабрнка, Ленинград, active 1927-46; Leningrad jewelry factory


The spoon with St. Petersburg's town mark of 1882-98 and maker's mark MK are Russian made but remarked with a Soviet hallmark. The mark "P" (Latin R) stands for Restoration. It is punched at the same time with the Soviet hallmark (androgynous' head). A remarking enabled the owner to officially sell a silver object in the former USSR. Unfortunately MK is unknown to name (for me).

Hi,

ЛЮФ is Ювелирная фабрнка, Ленинград, active 1927-46; Leningrad jewelry factory

It is rather complicated story in regard of when founded, what merging, years active and then merging again.
Took this from Russian sources; dating was sometimes done based on engravings on gift items.
Year code was definitively introduced 1953.
Regards

@AG2012

I don't quite follow you mean and it is complicated too, I agree to that. However, please note that in connection with the maker's mark there is the hallmark with the androgyny's head. That hallmark ceased to exist 13.6.1959 meaning that an object with that hallmark cannot be made later than 1959. In addition, the mark ЛЮФ contains neither year mark numbers (started 1953) nor any punctuation marks (started 1979). That again means that the latest year the object with the above mentioned mark carries is 1952 because in 1953 the above mentioned year marking started. This doesn't mean that the factory ceased to exist. They changed their mark to ЛФ3 in 1953.
They could not use ЛЮ3 because it was occupied by Ювелирно-часовая фабрнка, г. Ленинград (maybe it was the same company, I don't know.)
In this topic it is not a question of what was the name of the factory but when the mark ЛЮФ was used
Summa summarum, according to Troepolskaja and Postnikova, the object is made before 1947.

Thank you all for your replies. It was extremely helpful.

@QtrS based on post regarding spoon "The spoon with St. Petersburg's town mark of 1882-98 and maker's mark MK are Russian"

Could "MK" stand for Mathias Kilpeläinen (Матиас Кильпелейнен) (St.Petersburg, 1854-1898)?

Thank you

@Volk
Yes, not impossible at all. (I don't know how I managed to miss him???)

What's the "Shield with P" cartouche? It does kind of remind me of a Polish Lombard hallmark. :::

Qrt.S wrote:@Volk
The mark "P" (Latin R) stands for Restoration. It is punched at the same time with the Soviet hallmark (androgynous' head). A remarking enabled the owner to officially sell a silver object in the former USSR.

@Aquest,
What if you read earlier inputs? It is a kind of a "Lombard mark".

Variations of so called "Lombard" marks (with book photos) are covered here: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=39444&p=109267&hil ... rd#p109267

The workers head is thread-searched under the name "Rabota". In the previous thread linked earlier, there is later discussion of exacting dates of useage (go past the book photos part).