Imperial Russia Imperial Russia Military/Fireman Badge?

[Linasl]

Greetings All.

I have an interesting badge that I believe is Imperial Russian (some Cyrillic letters at bottom). I assume this is for firemen, possibly of military origin. I have attached a low resulution photo on this post, but you can see a number of high resolution photos on one of my PhotoBucket albums, following this link:

http://s752.photobuc...Russian%20Fire/

I have several questions:

1. is this Imperial Russian?

2. does it look original?

3. what is this badge for (service, award, etc)?

4. when was it issued/used?

Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you. Linas

[Sergey W]

This is a badge of The Imperial Russian Fireman Association (Императорское российское пожарное общество) Cyrillic letters ИРПО is abbriviatura of The Association. Мonogram ВА stands for Grand duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (The honorable chief of the Association). The Imperial Russian Fireman Association was formed in 1892. Grand duke Vladimir Alexandrovich was died in 1909.

Edited April 26, 2010 by Sergey W

[Linasl]

WOW Sergey. Thank you VERY MUCH!!

Since I have no idea, what kind of value does this badge have?

Linas