please help id odd forks?

Sorry about the bother, but I've spent 2 days on the net trying to find
out where these forks came from, who made them, etc. Basically, could
someone tell me if they're cheap Soviet-era knockoffs or something a bit
more interesting?

There are pics of the forks fullsize, the marks on both, and closeups of
the monograms at:
rks-875-Front.jpg
rks-875-GP-Marks.jpg
rks-875-JR-Marks.jpg
rks-875-GP-Monogram.jpg
rks-875-JR-Monogram.jpg

As you'll see from the pics, they're monogrammed, GP on the right, the
other, ?JR (or IR? TR??), on the left. Both are marked [875], along with
a rather sinewy lion, standing with front paws raised. There is a 3rd
mark on both - the JR-monogram one has a clear [J.R.], the other seems
to have been struck at an angle - no idea what it is. None of this means
anything to me, except that 875 indicates 875/1000 silver, so they're
silver but not "sterlingr", and 875 was the Russian standard. They're
way brighter than they look (my scanner makes everything dark.)

It's hard to tell from the pic, but they aren't a true pair. They're the
same length, but GP has a longer stem and shorter top and bottom. Also,
the JR-monogram weighs 29 gr. while GP is 39 gr. and much thicker
through its whole length.

The forks came to me with a large bag of mixed silver flatware owned by
an elderly lady from Estonia (one of the Baltic States). That's all the
history I have on them.

They may be from there, given the Russian link. The monograms don't
match the lady's name or her husband's; no idea why she had them, except
perhaps as family keepsakes. This is kind of unlikely, 'cause when the
family escaped from Estonia as the Soviets were taking over, in 1946-7,
they could bring next to nothing with them. It was only a small boat
since it had to come in to pick them up from the reeds where they were
hiding, and then they had to go all the way to Sweden. Of course, the
cousins who stayed in Estonia may have brought the forks over later
after things loosened up, as keepsakes or gifts.
(Sorry for babbling - this last hasn't much to do at all with *forks*!)
:-}

Jean (in Toronto)