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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 2448164, member: 2844&quot;]Agree.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/smile.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=":)" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Since this thread is about a cup with a pre-1908 Russian mark, I assumed we were talking about the period the mark was in Russian use, not just the final year. After all, in 1908 the Russians began to use the oval kokoshnik mark which included the woman&#039;s head wearing a traditional Russian kokoshnik, hence the name.</p><p>That is why I wrote about the 19th century loss of the Caucasus.</p><p>In spite of the change of power, the thousands of years of cultural ties between that region and Persia remained. Which is why there were so many Armenian silver and goldsmiths in Persia. Many were still there when I was in Teheran in the early 70s, btw. I still have a Persian-Armenian ring which was bought in Teheran in the 70s.</p><p><br /></p><p>Armenian silversmiths have had a huge influence on silver techniques in the Middle East (and the Ottoman Empire) anyway, so I would never dismiss the part they played. They are a given in the history of precious metal processing in the region.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/wink.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=";)" unselectable="on" /> And they were the ones who started using the 84 zolotnik mark for the traditional Persian .840 silver fineness, not for .875 fineness. If you test Persian silver with the 84 mark, you will find out.</p><p><br /></p><p>Not to go into the final year of the use of the mark, and the situation in Persia too much, I would just like to add that the Anglo-Russian convention of 1907 did not turn Persia into a Russian vassal state in the real sense. The entire country was a Persian constitutional monarchy. The country was split into three zones, not two. Two of the zones would be influenced by foreign powers, the northern zone being Russian influenced. Neither Britain nor Russia had legislative power, so neither ever changed legislation regarding assay marks.</p><p>In short, Russia had no power to seize the one year &#039;window of opportunity&#039; before the change to the kokoshnik mark to quickly introduce one single zolotnik mark out of a total of four. So it is not a given.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie75" alt=":playful:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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