Posted 4 years ago
Rooster123
(18 items)
I picked this silver bar/medal up at Zagreb flea market ten years ago and it was a decent bargain, cost the price of a burger. It weighs just over seven ounces but I don't know what grade of silver. It appears to be an award for a vineyard going back to the early seventies. The box it came in is in a sorry state. I love the design of this and doubt I'd ever get rid of it.
ZELINA is famous wine region in Croatia.
The signature is on the right: JP 69
The plaque was designed by well known Croatian sculptor Josip Poljan (born in Zagreb 1925 - died in Zagreb 2015). He was the first professor at The Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.
See here:
https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Poljan
The plaque is on auction site:
https://www.aukcije.hr/prodaja/kolekcionarstvo/Medalje/559/oglas/Josip-Poljan--ZELINA--plaketa/4462754/
Many thanks for the info IVAN49, much appreciated as I didn't know anything about it, apart from what I was told at the flea market. I did get this at a very cheap price so I guess the seller didn't really know the history of it either as it was suggested at the time it was some kind of award. Zagreb flea market is great for finding little surprises like this!
Rooster123, Beautiful. :-)
Here is another, albeit not in as good condition as yours or the other one at the auction site, but there is also a picture of the back:
https://www.aukcije.hr/prodaja/kolekcionarstvo/Medalje/559/oglas/ZELINA-plaketa-autor-J-Poljan/4383994/
I did wonder whether there were any hallmarks on the back, and I don't see any, but the picture is a bit blurry.
The front does show some oxidation.
There are no marks here; it is silver plated base metal.
After all, starting price is only about euro 20 in the auction link; they know what they have; cannot be solid silver, but still, very nice and designed by an artist. The advantage of communist governments - excellent design by prominent artists (compare with Czech glass and Soviet porcelain of the twenties), there was no cheap Kitsch made in China at the time.
IVAN49, Thanks, I did wonder what the metal composition was. :-)