by Geoffrey Watts

Over the last four or five years the value of Russian silver items dating from the Tsarist period has risen exponentially. Officially it should not be sold as silver in Britain since it does not conform to the Sterling standard of 92½% pure silver; most pieces made in Russia are usually 87½% pure silver. However, most of the major makers also used much higher grade silver, while businesses such as Fabergé who had outlets in London made items which would satisfy the exacting criteria of the British standards. There are a number of reasons for the high prices now being achieved but the main one is that there are a number of very wealthy Russians who are keen to take the Russian heritage back to their own country.
There has always been a problem with dating pieces and with the identification of towns and makers, since not only is Russian a difficult language but it also uses a different alphabet. The alphabet alone can be confusing with what appear to be similar letters to our own having a completely different sound; for instance, B sounds like V, while P sounds like R and C like S in Russian. Then there are those letters which bear no resemblance to any letter in our alphabet. So there have been problems. But at last the amazing skill of the makers from this period is being recognised and the true value is being achieved.

Figure 6. Caddy spoon by Khlebnikov showing fine cloisonne work, c.1890.

By far the highest prices are being made by pieces decorated in enamel, but there are differing standards of finish. At the very top, as expected, is Fabergé, but there were others who matched his quality and innovative design: makers like Ovchinnikov (figure 4) and Khiebnikov (figure 6), both of whom were awarded the Imperial Warrant to supply the Tsar and the court. There were others whose skill matched the best but still failed to get that important Imperial Warrant. Amongst these was Maria Semenova, whose delicate palette and careful shading put her work into the highest category (figures 3 and 7).
Russia, it seems, hates a plain undecorated surface. It is extremely rare to find a piece of silver without some form of decoration. It may be simply engraved or chased, it may be niello, which is a softer form of enamel, or it may be any of the different forms of enamel. Enamelling is clearly the most favoured form of decoration and lends itself to the most innovative designs. While we know the names of the silversmiths who made the basic forms, the names of enamellers are seldom known since they did not mark the pieces in a similar way to the hallmarks. However, we can be grateful to Henry Bainbridge in his book on Faberge for listing the names of Fabergé's senior enamellers. His senior man was Alexander Petrov, who was followed after his death by his son, Nicholas. There was another important and highly skilled enameller known as W. Boitzov. As for the names of the craftsmen of the other important makers, sadly they seem to be lost forever.