Posted 1 year ago
Mystaplers
(15 items)
I saw this receipt spike and the price was right, but what caught my eye was the Imperial Double Headed Eagle on the bottom of the spike. This eagle has the crown above the two heads with what appears to be what I call ceremonial ribbon. That is important because it can indicate the year this was made as Russia changed its alphabet and the design of the Imperial eagle (I think)
Can anyone shine some light on this?
Russian. Receipt spike. It looks hand hammered on the top dome.
I agree It is a hammered heavy brass. I could clean it, but have decided to hold off. I am hoping the maker is known and I am able to identify him.
I transcribed that row of Cyrillic characters across the top into the Russian keyboard at Lexilogos, then pumped it into the conversion interface, and got "FABRICA":
https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/russian.htm
???????
https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/russian_conversion.htm
??????? FABRIKA
I leave it to better eyes (and better understanding of Cyrillic) to figure out those bottom characters.
Ah, the CW S&T software hated the Cyrillic. :-(
However, you can use that conversion interface to type in "FABRIKA" in the Roman alphabet window and see the Cyrillic in the other.
It's really difficult to make out the details on that double-headed eagle coat of arms. For one thing, it looks to me like the eagle heads are facing the crown. >8-0
Anyway, there definitely appears to be a double-headed eagle and a crown, and before the modern 1993 Russian coat of arms, the last time there was a double-headed eagle and a crown was in the 1883 lesser coat of arms?:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Russia
As to the Cyrillic characters below the coat of arms, I can make out only the first three.
The first two form a preposition that is virtually unpronounceable by anybody not born and raised in a Slavic country:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%B2%D1%8A
The third letter looks like a Cyrillic "L," so this receipt spike was probably made in a factory 'in' a place the name of which starts with an "L."
Yeah, it ain't much to go on. :-(
Thank you for all of your help.
I think it says Made in Moscow
flashlarue, D'oh! You're so right.
I see it now. Instead of the third character being a Cyrillic "L," it's the Cyrillic "M," and the whole string would be "MOCKBa" (Im not using actual Cyrillic, because the CW S&T software doesn't like it) which would transliterate to "MOSKVA," which is the Russian form of "Moscow."
One more tidbit: "fabrika" derives from Latin, but it's only one of two Russian words typically used for a factory. Dunno if this will work, because even tinyurl dot com doesn't seem overly fond of Cyrillic, so I'm going to excerpt the pertinent sections:
*snip*
(fábrika) is commonly used for textile and clothing industry
and mining
(zavód) is more common in most other contexts, including food industry
and most sectors of manufacturing industry
*snip*
(tinyurl dot com for the Wiktionary article about fabrika)
https://tinyurl.com/mrxwn8s2
So, this spindle was likely made some time between 1883 and 1918 (because of the coat of arms and the archaic spelling of "in"), and possibly made for a clothes/textile or mining operation.
You put some serious effort into this and I do appreciate it - thank you.
Mystaplers, You're welcome, FWIW.
I suspect that I've mostly been informing myself, and not telling you anything you didn't already know about this receipt spike.
It's problematic, and yet another difficulty is that nobody seems to know the origins of the concept:
https://www.eater.com/2017/1/6/14184622/receipt-spike-chit-peg-restaurant-history
https://www.natwestgroup.com/heritage/history-100/objects-by-theme/our-people-at-work/spike-file-1781.html