Featured Russian silver bear head clock

@bosko69 , it looks that there was a flashlight on the photo of the clock face so I cannot see the image well. Will try on a bigger screen later. Still cannot see well, but there seem to be two figures looking at something on the ground and they do not seem to bear the features of Russian folk tales (outfit, postures, colors, etc.) they rather seem to me like classical mythological figures from the Middle Ages paintings.

@Aquitaine, the one with the number is the assayer's mark, before 1899 some of them put below (or above) their initials also the year of putting the mark, there are many examples like this. The year looks to me as 1885. No logic to be 1980s as the rest of the marks are all from 19 century.

I cannot assess the authenticity of the marks, I can only read and decipher them.

 

Fits with the rest of the marks. There is s big catalog of Russian silver and gold marks in Russian (author Postnikova-Losseva) where assayer's marks are also given, and it shows that they often included in the cartouche the year of putting it, it refers to marks before 1899 when the marking rules changed.

 

Ditto. As I often say, I tend to stay away from Russian antique silver, for that very reason.

Iva and Iouri did a wonderful job reading and researching the marks, but as Iva rightly said, she can't assess the authenticity of the marks, she can only read and decipher them.

 

Found a long thread in the Russian "antik forum" about Ovchinnikov, very interesting. They state there that this is the most faked Imperial R silver and gold maker, even more than Faberge. Also comment that even a samovar, part of Tula Samovar Museum collection, is a fake Ovchinnikov item

Ref to the silver bear head item here, especially if not cheap, I would request more photos and information about it, e.g. better photos of the clock face as it is barely visible now.

 

I don't see silver in that bear
Specially from the inside of the lid with those green speckles...
It does look as a spelter inkwell adapted with a watch face...
Fake Russian marks are all over the antiques world

 

There are quite a few fakes of any type in notable museums.

 

I don't recognize it as silver either.
And as others said, the clock face doesn't look top quality either, but maybe closeups will convince me otherwise.

 

Yes! The lid when opened almost looks like pot metal.