Chaffers' Handbook to Hall Marks on Gold and Silver Plate - Great Britain and Ireland - With Tables of the Annual Date Letters Employed in the Assay O

By Cyril G. E. Bunt

This handbook of hall marks which was first published in 1897, and republished later in an extended form in 1903, in 1907, in 1913, and 1924, has now been again revised. It is hoped that this little work will be useful to all those who require, in a convenient form, information respecting the marks on gold and silver. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Dec 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781447482093

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HOW TO READ HALL MARKS

TO every gold and silversmith, to every assistant in the trade, to every antique dealer, the ability to read the marks on plate is of great importance. To an equal extent, it may be said, must it be of interest to the amateur—almost, one might assume, to the man in the street—to be able to identify these marks exactly. For they will enable him to discover the quality, the date and place of origin—in many cases even the name of the maker—of any piece of plate or object in the precious metals he may possess.

This, it will readily be understood, is the whole raison d’être of this little handbook; and these few words are only intended to make as easy as possible what is, after all, not quite an easy task even for the specialist.

If the aspirant to efficiency has already glanced through these pages he will have realised that, important as the series of four or five individual stamps may be as a whole, he must yet consider each separately if he is to arrive at exact knowledge of their purport.

Suppose for a moment we are quite unlearned in the matter and wish to determine all we can about a piece we have acquired. We look carefully at it and find it has four stamps as follows:—

We see first of all the leopard’s head. It is crowned and is enclosed in a sunken outline following the shape of the head. We may call this a shaped outline to distinguish it from a definite shield. This of course is the town mark—the mark of the London Hall of Assay, Goldsmith’s Hall—and reference to the appropriate pages of this book will show that in this form it was in use before 1673. Passing next to the lion passant, which denotes the standard quality of the gold or silver, we see that this, too, is in a shaped outline.

Enquiry into the changing form of this standard mark shows that it was used thus from 1558 to 1678. Taking these two marks together we know that our piece of plate must have been stamped in London between 1558 and 1673.

We can now look at our third mark—the date letter L. A glance at the date lists will show that the only cycle of black letter capitals extends from 1658-1678. The letter in question indicates that it was assayed in 1668-69.

Finally we have the maker’s mark, J.R., which we may or may not be able to identify—our handbook does not lay itself out to give lists of these—but this is usually less important than the particulars we have described.

It should be especially noted that the shape of the shield, coupled with the device, is always of greatest importance. Especially is this the case with the date letter, since in certain cycles similar alphabets occur which may otherwise be confused. So important is this question of the shape of the shield that too great attention cannot be directed to it.

THE PROCESS OF ASSAYING.

IT will be understood from what has already been said that the presence of hall marks upon any piece of plate is in the nature of a guarantee (a) of the place of assay, (b) the year in which the assay was carried out, and (c) the standard of quality of the precious metals.

Obviously the last is the most important consideration and, indeed, the other two marks would not be impressed if, by intention or accident, the quality were not up to