Has anyone else noticed the 1840 date on the brass samovar (accession 1987.45) at the City History Museum seems off? Trade directories from Tula and the maker’s hallmark style point closer to the 1860s, so I’m wondering if the internal catalog notes say otherwise or if a label update is in progress.
Good catch — that 1840 on 1987.45 may just be donor-supplied; I’ll pull the 1987 accession file and card to see the source and whether an update ticket exists. If you can spot any award text like “Medal 1862 London” or a “Баташевы, Тула” stamp, that pins it, unless it’s a later lid on an earlier body. Labels age like tea in a samovar.
, that 1840 on 1987.45 doesn’t square with the “maker’s hallmark style” or the Tula directories pointing to the 1860s. If there are exhibition medallions on the body (London 1862 or Paris 1867) or a Tula guild cartouche, we can lock it down; I can swing by Friday and photograph the marks for TMS. Small caveat: some shops reused dies into the early ’70s — @collections, want me to check the baseplate and spigot for matching stamps?
, that label date bugs me too — if the hallmark points 1860s, can we get a macro of the stamp in the CMS? @gharding99, can you check if the TMS record has a shot of the maker’s cartouche and any “award medallions” noted, plus the donor note in the 1987 file? If not, I’ll pull the 1861–67 Tula directories tonight to match the exact cartouche variant.