Topic: Mystery salt cellar- I-OMMET = Russian

[heartofglass]

Here is a salt cellar which I recently bought in an op shop. It has a clear glass liner in a silver holder with enamelled decoration.
It has an Art Deco look about it, & despite it's markings, "Siommet", & an indecipherable hallmark(?), it remains a mystery.
Googling it has turned up nothing!
Any clues?
Thanks!

P.S: Sorry to the Glass Queries Gallery, I accidentally uploaded one these pics into the Calender file.(blame a few too many glasses of red wine!)
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/albums/userpics/Siommet-salt.jpg
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/albums/userpics/Siommet-salt-mark%7E0.jpg

[chopin-liszt]

:D:D

It's lovely! I know NOTHING about this sort of thing, but it does have more the look of Russian than Chinese cloissonne enamel. :?

[heartofglass]

Thanks Sue
It's good to know I'm not the only one who finds it so slow to load!
It is a nice item, it really caught my eye. A very fine & elegant object.
Russian origin is an interesting idea-maybe that's why I can't find any info on it....

[Tigerchips]

The first thing that I thought was Russian but not because of the enamel. The mark ends with a letter "K" and that is what I keep seeing on Russian badges. I've got a Russian Olympic badge with that kind of mark but like everything else in my house, I can't find it.

So we are looking for a Russian salt cellar and it's probably by Faberge.  :lol:

[Sklounion]

Interesting piece. However, Russian silver has operated on a standard of more than 750 parts per thousand, and Faberge, never used silver content so low.
None of the Nordic countries at the time indicated by the design seem to have hall-marked below a level of 800ppt, and few books seem to indicate otherwise. Searches on eBay attribute, without documentary evidence.
Nice, very nice enamel work but..... sorry cannot help further,
Marcus

[Max]

Ok.  I had a look at this earlier.  :oops: I thought the I and O looked like a little glass together (look at the photograph sideways), and wondered whether it was a manufacturers design mark.  Perhaps it's French and Sommet?

Ok, ok, it's only a guess.  It's good to guess sometimes, right?  :?:  :roll:

[heartofglass]

However, it does seem that whoever made it, salt cellars were their thing!
The rare time I get something with a marking & it turns out to be almost unheard of... :roll:
Max, I looked at the mark sideways, & it does kind of look like the I & O are joined! So clever of you to notice this! Will search Sommet now & see what turns up......
Thanks to everyone who's contributed ideas, I really appreciate it!

[heartofglass]

Sue, I found an identical item to mine on Ebay!
I searched siver salt cellars.
It's listed as Russian. And the seller is in Sydney! Maybe it's the pair to mine!
Also found 2 other similar items, alternately described as Russian/Eastern European & German.
One listed by a seller in Russia.
However,the interpretations of the "Siommet" mark are quite different!
One says it's Thommet, & the other 7ommet (?).
Perhaps the confusion over spelling is due to Cyrillic lettering?
As I'm not a Russian speaker (though my first name is of Russian origin),
I'm not that familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet. But I know that some of their letters look like ours, but have different meanings.
E.g: The old C.C.C.P = U.S.S.R.
Any Cyrillic-fluent folks out there?

[Lustrousstone]

I must admit cyrillic lettering had occured to me to.

b yu m m e t  is the closest I can get. The first letter is the only one that I couldn't match exactly.

The 'b', if that's what it is, should have the semi-circle closed, i.e. a b with a flat top.

It could also be a Macedonian letter like an s that equates to dz.

[paradisetrader]

Cyrillic ю = our "u"
What looks like an S or 5 to us must be a stylized version of their letter B  б  

this give a word promounced "Byoomet"