**Originally Listed At $250**

Eastern Europe, Russia, 1908 to 1926 CE (taller) and Poland, 19th century CE (shorter). A pair of silver cups with niello decoration. Niello is a black mixture of copper, silver, and lead sulphides, used as an inlay on engraved or ... compound made of silver, lead and sulphur. The resulting design, called a niello, was of much higher contrast and thus much more visible.The taller has repeated scenes in diamond-shaped borders - a large wheatsheaf and a city scene, each repeated twice. The shorter has engraved flowers and vines wrapped around its body. Size of taller: 1.7" W x 2.1" H (4.3 cm x 5.3 cm)

Russian silver items have a variety of stamped marks - a maker's mark, an assay mark, and/or a kokoshnik mark. Assay marks were used from 1795 to 1898. In 1896, Tsar Nicholas II issued an edict to reform the assay marking system and created the standardized kokoshnik mark, which was also used to indicate the assay of the silver in addition to giving the location of production. The taller of these two vodka cups has an unidentified maker's mark and a kokoshnik mark from Kiev dating to 1908 to 1926, assay 84. The shorter one may be Polish and has a 19th century assay mark reading "A.K. 84"

Niello is a mixture of copper, silver, and lead sulphates with a black color, often inlayed or engraved onto etched metal.



Provenance: Ex- Collection of James Farmer, Maryland, collected from major galleries and auction houses between 1995 and 2005

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#120559

Both show expected tarnish. The rim of the shorter has been slightly bent. Some remaining niello, more on the shorter of the two.