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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Christine Steingass, post: 13100774, member: 114460&quot;]I did some digging into the marks you photographed. I don&#039;t think we have enough detail yet to responsibly name a specific manufacturer, but I do think there is enough here to make further investigation worthwhile.</p><p><br /></p><p>The construction is consistent with a traditional solid-fuel samovar: the water reservoir surrounds a central tube that functions as the stove, normally burning charcoal. The Fort Ross Conservancy has an excellent historical reference on samovars that diagrams this construction and, more importantly for yours, contains an entire section devoted to identifying marks on samovars, followed by examples of additional samovar makers and their marks.</p><p><br /></p><p>Your two circular impressions look consistent with the type of medal/award markings encountered on Russian samovars. Those can potentially provide information about a manufacturer and exhibitions or awards associated with the factory. The separate rectangular stamped area in your fourth photograph may be even more useful because there appear to be characters remaining in it, but unfortunately I can&#039;t read them reliably from the current photograph.</p><p><br /></p><p>I would not want to guess at Batashev, Tula, or any other particular manufacturer until those markings can actually be read.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you&#039;re interested in trying to identify it further, I would take new photographs of every mark anywhere on the samovar, especially:</p><p><br /></p><p>• the two circular impressions</p><p>• that rectangular stamp</p><p>• the underside of the base</p><p>• the lid and area around the chimney</p><p>• any markings around or underneath the handles and spigot</p><p><br /></p><p>For the worn stamps, take one photograph straight-on in good natural light and another with a flashlight held almost sideways across the metal. That low-angle light can create shadows inside shallow stamped lettering and sometimes reveals characters that disappear under direct light. I also would not polish or aggressively clean the markings beforehand.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the main reference I used. This is not an auction listing or seller identification; it is the Fort Ross Conservancy Library&#039;s copy of Mary J. Barry&#039;s historical reference, The Samovar: Its History and Use. It includes sections specifically covering identifying marks, makers and maker marks:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.fortross.org/lib/57/the-samovar-history-and-use.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.fortross.org/lib/57/the-samovar-history-and-use.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.fortross.org/lib/57/the-samovar-history-and-use.pdf</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Fort Ross Conservancy also discusses traditional samovars and their Russian historical context here:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.fortross.org/news/2020/december" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.fortross.org/news/2020/december" rel="nofollow">https://www.fortross.org/news/2020/december</a></p><p><br /></p><p>If you can get clearer photographs of those markings, particularly that rectangular one, I&#039;d be interested in taking another run at identifying the manufacturer a</p><p><br /></p><p>I can be of help. Just need better/more photos of the inscriptions etc. The silver one is so corroded that one may need a clean to clearly identify it. And always remember the price of an ideas goes UP if you can back up genealogy!</p><p>nd narrowing down its age.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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