A friend dropped over yesterday and I photographed a small icon he had
gotten since his previous visit. Its construction is
interesting, since I had not previously encountered one such. (There are no
proof marks). It was a piece made for the consecration of a church at
Uriev, and honoring a certain Russian saint (St. Theoktist).
The piece is about 2" high. The front part is of thin sheet metal
(presumably silver) which, apparently, had been formed with a well detailed
steel die (how else would one get such fine detail?). All its edges had
been turned backward to form a very shallow 'box-like' structure. Into
this 'box' was inserted the back side (about 1/16" thick, and probably of
silver)) which may have been a precision (lost wax?) casting. The box
edges were then folded inward to keep the back side locked into the 'box',
and these edges were soldered shut all around the perimeter. (The solder is
quite soft, and may not be silver-solder, although it has the bright look
of silver, and might well be that metal.) Irregularities of the 'box'
edges, visible solder, etc. were then removed with a fine file, its marks
remaining in places.
All of this had been deduced after inspecting the piece through a 35x
stereo microscope, the above details not being discernible to the eye.
Microscopists please note.
