Could this be a big score?? check it out.

[courtjesterclown]

Ok folks, im stumped. I picked this up at a sale thismorning. First off, its heavy, probably 15 or 20 lbs and i do not know the material. The handles are very ornate looking and full of detail. The long piece coming out around the middle of the piece is a spout and it has a valve handle on the top of it. At the very bottom of the piece is a small door and opening, possibly for a flame? I've tried to look up all the stampings on the top, but havent had any luck. Hopefully everything is clear and evident in the pics. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[daroofa]

Russian samovar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samovar

[Goldmanford]

OMG - I don't know anything about it but it looks cool as heck! Did you get it at a good price?

[courtjesterclown]

Thanks! ya so it is a russian samovar. I have been looking around for the past few hours trying to get an idea of a value, but no luck yet.

[diggummup]

Here are some examples of prices, maybe you can contact them and ask about yours.
Nice find, could be worth a bit. None of them are cheap.
http://www.russiansamovars.com/russi...l-samovars.php

Here are some more results-

http://tinyurl.com/68pz9z7

[batcap]

That thing is pretty cool, and thanks to your post and daroofa, I've been somewhat educated on the Russian samovar. I didn't quite get how it is heated from the inside out though. Have you peeked inside? It looks like they could go from $35 to $1000's. What kind of deal did you get?

[courtjesterclown]

So on the inside there is a clyindder about 2.5" in diameter that you put the coal or wood in, and there is a grate at the bottom of the cylinder for the coal/wood to sit on. At the very bottom there is a cleanout door that opens to remove the ashes and whatnot. This thing is really cool, and with a polish would look awesome. Although im not going to do any kind of cleaning at all to it until i find out if i would strip the value away. If the range is from 35 all the way into the thousands, i got a great deal. The low priced pieces are for the smallest ones, typically electric powered. This is one of the original styles, with a date stamp of 1882. I dont know if that is the actual production date, or just the patent date. I cant read/translate any of the stampings.