1875 Russian Silver Gilt Teaspoons
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GUEST:
Well, I can't tell you very much about them. They were my parents'. They were from England. And I've had them for about 20 some-odd years now over here in the States.
APPRAISER:
So you'd be surprised maybe to learn that these are from Russia.
GUEST:
I am.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, they're Russian spoons. There's a set of 12 of them. They're teaspoons. They're silver and they're silver gilt, so there's gilt on top of them. They're beautifully presented in the original silk-lined box. And they're from 1875. This sort of twisted stem here is very typical of Russian work of the period. There are lots of enamel spoons with this sort of twisted stem as well. This is kind of like a bright cut bowl with roses and wavy lines on it. Turn it over and you can really see how bright the gold was on it. It's gilt washed. Yeah, it's not obviously solid gold. It's gilt-washed and it's to prevent corrosion. But it's also a nice kind of feature and it shows that they're a little bit better than your average, perhaps. And probably at auction, $1,500 to $2,000, something like that.
GUEST:
Wow, that's surprising. Wow.
APPRAISER:
Well, there you go.
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