I have a blue/white ceramic lion creamer whose history I’ve no idea of and I’m trying to date it. It was in my mother’s china cabinet and may have come from her parents’ house; her mother’s parents ran a general store in a tiny town in Alabama from around 1910 until around 1932 (Depression casualty) and I’m curious if it could be from there (as I know some of her pieces were).
On the bottom it says “HAND MADE IN RUSSIA”, then the encircled name Gzhel (a village in Russia known for its blue/white ceramics) and, in red, 1 COPT.
Any ideas as to
1- what “1 COPT” means?
2- whether items made in Gzhel from the Revolution to the fall of the Soviet Union (roughly 1917-1990) would have been marked “Hand Made in Russia” or would they have read USSR?
I know this thing was in her house as early as 15 years ago but I don’t know how long she had it before then; I don’t remember it from when I was growing up but that doesn’t mean a lot as I’ve never much cared about ceramics. Clearly it was made for export since it’s in English as opposed to Cyrillic. Most of the Gzhel pieces I’ve found on ebay and other Gzhel sites (I haven’t found any lion-creamers it but I’ve found pieces of similar size and marking) seem to sell in the $15 to $50 range so I can’t imagine this has any great monetary value, but I am curious as to whether it may be something from my great grandparents’ store.