Those other great British hallmarks

By Kenneth Passingham

As symbols of integrity, British hallmarks have a tradition going back more than 6i centuries.

Not only are they a guarantee of the quality of the metal, be it gold or silver, but an assurance that what you are looking at is the genuine article.

The forging of hallmarks is a very serious crime, even though today it does not carry the death penalty, or transDortation for life as it did in earlier times.

Primarily, a hallmark certifies that an article has been assayed (that is, accurately tested) and that the gold or silver content is up to one of the legal standards.

The history of hallmarking goes back to 1300 when the statute of Ed ward I provided that no ware of gold or silver should be sold until tested by the ‘Guardians of the Craft’ and struck with the leopard’s head. This, known as the King’s Mark, was used alone until 1363 when Edward 111 decreed that every goldsmith should strike his own mark beside the King’s.

Standards of purity of these prec ious metals were laid down, stan dards with which craftsmen had to comply before those responsible at Goldsmith’s Hall would apply their ‘mark.’

It is extremely doubtful whether

there are any gold or silver objects in existence hallmarked in 1300; cer tainly none has been on public auction. From 1478. however, the exact age of all hallmarks can be traced.

It was then, during King Edward IV’s reign, that a third mark was introduced to identify the assayer responsible for testing each ware and it took the form of a letter of the alphabet which was changed, and still is, every year.

Today there are usually four hall marking symbols to be noted; the maker’s mark (initial letters), the town mark which shows where the

silver was assayed, and the date letter.

And there is no definite order in the

placing of these symbols.

The official marking of gold and silver in Great Britain now is carried out at four Assay Offices, each of which has its distinctive mark. Lon don has the leopard’s head; Sheffield a crown for silver and a York rose for gold; Birmingham an anchor; Edin burgh a three towered castle.

To determine the gold or silver content of all articles, they work to four standards which are legally re cognised for gold, and two for silver.

Those for gold are the well-known 22, 18, 14, and 9-carat, and these figures or weights, become obvious

when we know that pure gold is meas ured in 24 parts and a carat is one twenty-fourth.

Thus, a 22 carat ring contains 22 parts gold and two parts of what is described as non-precious metal al though this might well be silver.

The first of the two standards of silver is the Britannia, which is 95,8 per cent silver. Second comes the Sterling containing 92.5 per cent pure silver. It is usually alloyed with copper

to harden the silver which, in its pure state, is too soft for general use.

The date letters are significant.

Each hallmark shows a letter of the alphabet which changes every year and is known as the ‘date letter’. For London there are 20 such date letters running from A to U with J omitted.

The year starts in May, not January, and runs, of course, to the following May.

This cycle of letters was repeated year after year until 1697, when an Act of Parliament resulted in a break in the regular sequence. It was not until 1716 that the straightforward 20-letter sequence was resumed with the letter A and this has continued without any further break until the present day.

Bearing these dates and particulars in mind, it is relatively easy to arrive

at the exact date of any letter if the following is observed.

Obviously if all date letters were of the same type, it would not be

possible to say whether an article had been assayed in 1716, 1736, or 1756.

However, the year can be identified by the shape of the shield in which the letter is enclosed, and by the letter itself which has a different ‘typeface’.

It is impossible to present the innu merable designs of shields and type faces here, but for those who are in terested I recommend the simply written and quite indispensable English Goldsmiths and their Marks by Sir Charles James Jackson, ob tainable at public libraries, and F.

Bradbury’s inexpensive booklet, A Guide To Marks of Origin on British and Irish Silver Plate, published by J. W. Northend Ltd, Sheffield. It is invaluable for checking dates.

One very important hallmark on silver is the Lion Passant (a lion striding, right paw raised and curled) adopted by the Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1544. It means that the article has been found to be full sterling quality.

At least when you visit the London Vaults in Chancery Lane, off Fleet Street (open Mon to Fri, 9 am to 5.30 pm; Sat 9 am to 12.30 pm), or examine precious pieces at your friend ly neighbourhood silversmith’s you will know something about what you are looking for.

Translation made of Sterling silver in the United Kingdom by William Dodge and marked in Chester during the year 1864 -65 after plate duty had been paid

Translation: made of Sterling silver by NM in the United Kingdom and marked in Edinburgh in 1935 with special mark commemorating the royal silver jubilee

Translation: the piece on which these appear was made of Sterling silver in the United Kingdom by Robert Bowman and marked in Edinburgh in the year 1780-81

Translation; made of Sterling silver in the United Kingdom by Robert Duncan and marked in Glasgow (tree, bird. bell, fish and ring, city arms) in the year 1819-20