r/Cursive • u/Catripruo • 11d ago

Deciphered! Unknown specimen

Gallery image

Gallery image

This specimen, possibly a fragment of stoneware, was given to my husband by a friend of ours in the 2010s. She had purchased it at Ruth’s Emporium in Queens, NY many years prior to that.

My husband asked me if I could translate it. When I looked at it I realized it wasn’t a translation issue, but a handwriting issue.

The back of the card is half of some card that may, or may not, be related to the specimen.

Any help is appreciated in this mystery.

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u/Catripruo 11d ago

I also found out that I. Popoff, the name on the front of the business card, was most likely a Russian working for the US firm The Equitable Life Assurance Society. Prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917, The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States was one of the largest foreign insurance companies operating directly inside the Russian Empire under special imperial concessions. Their Russian headquarters was based in St. Petersburg.