Serbia "Golden" St. Sava

[Rogi]

Hopefully this will lay to rest some doubts about the origin of these magnificent piece and explore and open further discussion

I was fortunate to add another "Golden" St. Sava to the collection, from the last post we were stuck on this piece being either Swiss or French, maybe being a prototype, or not, but who knew.

Well to put it to rest, it is a French piece (from the looks and style of it, either Chobillon or Lemaitre), the recent addition is a 4th class (silver gilt) with a boar punchmark (it is easily visible in regular sunlight, but hard to photo as the gilt on the piece makes it near impossible to get a good shot)

As the first Golden St. Sava (5th Class) I added to the collection couldn't be discerned easily in it's punchmark, I wanted to make sure and happily this new 4th Class joined the collection to confirm the French punchmark.

We can discern that there are 2 types to the Icon, one type, let us say "Type 1" is the more common variant that I've seen over the past couple years. It has a Orange robe with white sleeves.

"Type 2" is less frequent (I've seen 2 of them) it has an all orange robe.

Both Icons, appear to be Cloisonné a very interesting procedure to develop and a fantastic result. The Icons shine in the sunlight and give the appearance of "fire" in the orange robes. Really something that has to be seen in person.

An added bonus is that this 4th class is attributed, but I will post the grouping a bit later in the French forum and link to it.

Just one more note: the 4th class (left), it's Eagles are also Cloisonné in the center, very interesting and beautiful, but hard to catch on camera.

Well no more talking for me, here are the pics I hope you guys enjoy :)

reverse:

[Markus]

Congrats Rogi! A very fine addition to your St. Sava collection. Quite rare and fine samples! Thanks for posting.

Markus

[IrishGunner]

Just one more note: the 4th class (left), it's Eagles are also Cloisonné in the center

Very beautiful...

[paja]

First let me just congratulate you on getting one more of those very rare types!

And this time even higher grade in perfect condition, simply amazing state.

In my opinion same producer even though they are just slightly different which makes it even more interesting.

Now that hallmark is great news! We had a discussion about 5th class and there were couple of "theories". First because of the lack of information about this particular type and not many of them being out there we thought it was made by certain Belgian producer (example like that, 3rd class, published in Car&Muhić book under unknown producers in cardboard box with inscription Piret Bruxelles). Huguenin was also mentioned because of similarities with one of their supposedly early pieces. If I remember well someone also mentioned it could be of French origin. That hallmark gave us answer, it is definitely French, now if we could only determine the producer, Rogi gave us some hints.

Again my congrats and thanks for nice photos!

Edited October 24, 2014 by paja

[Alpha Draconis]

Hello Rogi my friend

It's a delight to see two "golden" st savas side by side!

And congratulations on finally finding the maker of this beautiful gems

So it's French! The boar sign was not clearly visible on first one.

And for the last, you did an exceptional job by noticing the difference in saint sleeve color, thus giving the difference between type 1. and type 2.!!!

There is no book with this information yet!! ;D

Great job Rogi and congrats on your new edition for your collection

Joseph A.D.

[Rogi]

Thank you all gentleman for the kind comments and I appreciate the feedback as well

Hopefully one day we will narrow down the producer. I will try and take some closer shots of the Cloisonné on the eagles and post, hard to accomplish as they are glossy and very hard to photo

In the other, previous topic,

We had been talking about Obi's St. Sava which looks similar in design (different Icon but almost same styling). Should we consider re-evaluating some features on his style of St. Sava and doing a comparison? As I recall, I think this one was also open for debate and it would be interesting to see if some features are in common to each other?

Just one more small addition, I mentioned the St. Sava 4th Class is attributed, it is Governer General Hubert Auguste Garbit's St. Sava. I've made a post of the grouping in the France section of our forum :)

Edited October 25, 2014 by Rogi