Featured Sterling Silver Swan

How old would you say this swan is and do you think this is Russian?. At first glance when I saw it and picked it up I thought it was Cloisonne, but after I got home I realized its Enamel on Sterling Silver. I really don't know the purity of it, so it might not be sterling, but i do know it is Silver.
8.5" (H) to top of head
10" (L)
5" (H)

 

Can you get a close up please? It might equally be Chinese, there's some lovely enamel work from there.

 

It is beautiful, but we definitely need close ups. Are the eyes inlaid with turquoise? Without seeing the details I think maybe Persian.

 

Ok I'm going to upload some better photos, my computer doesn't want to work right might take me a few minutes

 

Here's some closeups, there's some brown residue in certain spots. I think thats from the silver polish that the previous owner applied.

 

I cant really tell if the eyes is turquoise, i think its just enameled. I took a closeup of the eyes so you could see

 

I think it is Chinese, and the eyes are turquoise or imitation turquoise. Lovely piece.
There is a similarity between cloisonné in a wide geographic band from Russia through to China because of the Silk Road. Which means your swan could also be Central Asian.
A lot of older cloisonné attributed to China was actually made in Uzbekistan, which was part of Russia and the USSR for a while.

 

Wow that's really informative, and I really appreciate your feedback.

 

LOVE IT !!! ... Joy.

 

I Just noticed the swan is marked on the inside, its stamped and its small. i hope i can get a good photo of it so i can upload it to the site.

 

Aha!

 

I took about 10 photos of this mark and this is the best one i could come up with. hopefuly some one might recognize it

 

To take clear, close-up macro-shots, try putting a magnifying glass in front of the camera-lens while focusing. That helps a lot. Especially with marks in hard-to-reach places.

 

I did some monkeying around with the image, still cant make heads or tails though.

 

@Any Jewelry , I must divert this thread slightly and bump it to the top. I was in the city of Chicago early this week and visited the Art Institute of Chicago. We saw this exhibit, called
"Ornamental Traditions: Jewelry from Bukhara."
http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/ornamental-traditions-jewelry-bukhara

Bukhara is in Uzbekistan. Unfortunately the photos in their slide show are rather small. These were very very beautiful! And apparently everything belongs to one married couple who are planning to donate the items to the museum.

Update: here is a Twitter post from the museum that shows the photos a bit larger. And you don't have to be signed in to Twitter to see them.
https://twitter.com/artinstitutechi/status/1019326399306444800

 

Wonderful, Fig. Thank you for remembering what I wrote, and for posting this. I love Uzbek cloisonné.

 

I added a Twitter link, too.

 

Someone wants the exhibition sent to the Netherlands.
I became interested in Uzbek arts when I was researching one of my ancestors, an Islamic scholar called Ibrahim Assamarkandy (Al Samarkandi), whose family lived in Uzbekistan for several generations. I can just imagine the world they lived in.

 

If they don't send it, maybe you could go to Chicago?