Mysterious plate. Anyone please tell me the story of the pattern? Thanks.

Acquired this silver plate. However, I am very curious about the pattern, is there any story related with this pattern? It looks like some bible story or religious story about this pattern.
In addition, is this a russian or Austria-Hungary plate? What year is it made? Thanks

 

My first impression, without really examining it, is that it is Moses parting the waters, leading the Israelites out of Egypt, Pharaoh's soldiers drowning.

 

Good ON......my first guess right behind you Bronwen!!!

 

AF, more specifically, Moses parting the water of the Red Sea so his people can cross safely. Plate may be strictly decorative, or for use at Passover, the holiday that celebrates the Exodus from Egypt.

 

Looks like Vienna, 1814, 13 loth (.8125 fineness), the '835' would have been stamped in the 20th century...

~Cheryl

 

Most specifically....Moses un-parting the water, drowning the Egyptians who followed them on to the dry Red Sea bed....the Jews standing there ...already safe on shore.

 

All is said above, just to give my impression, it's really a special piece, since a long time I have austro-hungarn pieces in hands, never seen such a scenery, normally you can found the silversmith initials somewhere, it can be interessant to know it.
What is the size, a repoussé work with so many persons need a lot of hammering and heating and need a good know-how.

 

I agree with all of the above. Just an explanation of the mark. Austro-Hungarian marks are easy to read.
For the date you take the numbers in the corners going from left to right, top to bottom. So in this case 1 8 1 4, 1814 as Cheryl already said.
The town is marked with a letter at the top, A is for the capital, Vienna.
13 is the silver content, as also explained by Cheryl.

It was a great system, when they used it. I have a lot of Austro-Hungarian regional jewellery with no fineness marks and no assay marks. Travelling with a lot of silver and gold to be assayed and marked in the regional capital wasn't always safe in those days.

 

It's another reason to unmark silver and gold, if you go to the assay center, you have to pay taxes and the government know where is the metal and who is the owner, especially in England where it was a superb invention to control the economy and the exchanges…

 

True.
And there are always impatient customers like my mother, who would commission a piece of jewellery and tell the goldsmith not to bother sending it off to the assay office, she would take it straight away, thank you.

 

These days the British collect their marked silver, as do Americans and everyone else. The unmarked pieces often slip through as silver-plate or costume jewelry. But if you know what you're doing...bingo!

This piece is definitely the Egyptian soldiers drowning when the Red Sea went rushing back into its bed. Given that it's Viennese, it may well have been made for a wealthy Jewish family for use on Passover ... or as decoration for Passover. If so, it's a score. Pre-WWII judaica goes for a premium over other silver pieces because so much of it was destroyed, and this is Napoleonic. (here's hoping whoever you bought this from didn't know that either!)

 

So true.

 

I keep my eyes, and nose, and fingers, peeled! Also for unsung marked pieces the sells don't realize are marked. The French and Portuguese specialize in hiding marks.

 

they say 1925......& there's no water......Boooooo !

 

I bet they'd love to see yours!

 

WOW. Thank you guys all. So much information, really appreicate your helps.

 

The size is about 13" X 9.5", it is medium size and pretty thin.

 

Thanks, as I'm not a specialist about religious used items from that period, it can have as said by Evelyb a religious destination, in this case it's easy to find asking a specialist about jewish silver, it's certainly not made for catholic religious use, but can be offered as a remembrance to somebody interested by the subject.
Often the silver made for religious private use has no maker mark or hallmark at this period for the catholics.
If you make a google search with the words silver plate, Exodus the results are not really about a specified use, need more research but a lot of them are egyptian…