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Fish-form (Pike / "Щука") nesting cutlery set (fork and knife)
Object/Artifact
A two-piece travel/picnic eating set styled as a single fish (a pike). Each utensil has a blue molded-plastic handle modeled in the round as one half of the fish, with incised scales, gill, eye, and fins; the head half terminates in a three-tine stainless-steel fork and the tail half in a stainless-steel knife blade. The handles slot/nest together so that, joined, they form one continuous fish. A clear plastic sleeve holds the joined set. The handles carry the embossed inscriptions: “Г. Киев” (City of Kyiv) and “З•Д• Сокол”, the Sokol state factory, followed by the article code “АРТ• 860•Ч”. The knife blade itself is also marked Киев.
2025.5.8
Belonged to the Pantoja Amengual household.
Jorge Pantoja Amengual collection
2025.5
Jorge Pantoja Amengual
Sokol state factory
Kyiv
Ukraine
U.S.S.R.
Eastern Europe
Europe
Date: No explicit date is marked. The Russian-language Soviet-style marks (Cyrillic "Киев," abbreviations "З.Д.," "АРТ.") indicate Soviet-era (pre-1991) manufacture; such USSR consumer goods reached Cuba in volume through COMECON trade, especially in the 1970s–1980s. Manufacture within 1959–1990 is well-supported and most plausibly falls in the 1970s–1980s, though no exact year appears on the object.
fork, knife, nylon
Plastic
Metal
Materials: Blue molded plastic (handles); stainless steel (fork and knife); clear plastic film (sleeve). Technique: Injection-molded plastic handles with molded fish detailing and embossed factory marks; stamped/formed stainless-steel utensils set into the handles; heat-sealed clear plastic sleeve.
Good
Jorge Pantoja Amengual
Owner
Kyiv
Ukraine
U.S.S.R.
Eastern Europe
Europe
Production
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
Purchase
The object is a known Soviet collectible: a fish-shaped tourist/fisherman's fork-and-knife set from the "Sokol" factory in Kyiv. In Russian/Ukrainian collector and resale listings it's overwhelmingly catalogued under the popular name "Щука" (Shchuka — Pike), described as a tourist fork-and-knife set for fishermen, made of stainless steel with a plastic handle.
These were camping cutlery. The fish form is a practical solution as much as a decorative one: when closed, the blade folds into the body of the fish, safely sheathed for transport. Soviet outdoor culture generated its own material world of functional objects, and this set belongs to that tradition, produced in Kyiv for hikers, campers, and pioneer trips across the USSR.
Two designs: the line reportedly came in two fish species — a pike and a sturgeon (осётр / esturión). The species-to-article-code mapping is unverified; this example is АРТ. 860.Ч, while a related Kyiv "Sokol" fisherman's set is recorded under article 225-У.