Russian, A T Chudova Seal, Image by StuE, Found by Tichfish.
Found in Scotland, 16mm, 5.0g.
А Т Чудова, ВEЛИКIE ЛУКИ around (see below) // indecipherable image
From Paul Cannon, "Here is a link to an almost perfect example UKDFD 28148. I believe in the centre is the cursive form of ‘А Т Чудева’ (A T Chudeva) A personal name? The inscription around seems to read ‘*ВПЛИКIE ЛУКИ’. I can’t be sure which way round it should be read or exactly what it stands for. I think the letter ‘I’ existed in the Cyrillic script before 1917."
From Paul Cannon, "Velikiye Luki is a town in Pskov in the far west of Russia not too far from the Latvian border, Wikipedia. ... Svetlana Tkachyova of the museum in Velikiye Luki writes about the cursive Cyrillic script in the centre of the seal: ‘The word of "Чудова" [Chudova] is the proper name designating a surname’ and goes on to explain that "Чудова" is either a masculine name in the genitive case or a feminine name in the nominative case. In English we do not have the complexities of declined nouns and case endings but Svetlana believes that this example is likely to be genitive and masculine. The genitive denotes possession. It therefore has the meaning of ‘belonging to/of’ A T Chudov and the use of this case on a seal does make sense.
Svetlana goes on to say: “It is known that in the XIX-XX centuries in Velikiye Luki there lived merchants with such surname. So, for example, in 1877 the City Council bought the house from the merchant Н. Ф. Чудов and adapted it for (a) school. And at the beginning of the XX century the merchant A.A. Чудов (carried out a) manufactory and haberdashery business in the city”.
The exact goods to which this seal was attached though remains a mystery."
