This dominance over the everyday transactions of the worker in plate was supported by a series of Acts of Parliament extending over a lengthy period. They are highly technical, and the study of hall-marks is of a complex nature, and adds no inconsiderable task to the hobby of collecting old silver. In the main it will be seen that the power at first exclusively conferred on the London Goldsmiths’ Company, and afterwards distributed to various assay offices in the United Kingdom, has been kept under due subjection by the Crown and by parliamentary legislation. There is no trade more protected by Acts of Parliament governing the details of its procedure. The fashioning of gold and silver plate being so intimately related to questions of currency and affecting the coin of the realm, it is not surprising to find that the tendency of legislation has been to relieve the old guilds of much of their former power. We find that one of the recommendations of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on hall-marking, in 1879, was that the whole of the assay offices should be placed under the supervision of the Royal Mint, in order that a uniform standard of quality should be guaranteed.
We have seen that the London assay office is the doyen of assay offices. At first, plate, although wrought elsewhere, had to bear the London hall-mark of the leopard’s head. Seven cities were appointed, by a statute of Henry VI in 1423, to exercise the right of assaying plate, viz. Salisbury and Bristol for the West Country, Newcastle and York for the North Country, Coventry for the Midlands, Lincoln and Norwich for East Anglia, and London, of course, continued its functions.
Eighteenth Century Assay Offices
At the beginning of the eighteenth century three out of these seven, Lincoln, Salisbury, and Coventry, had discontinued to assay silver, and it was not thought necessary to reappoint them. In 1700 York, Bristol, and Norwich were, in the reign of William III, reappointed for assaying and marking wrought silver. By the same Act, 12 William, cap. 4, two new assay offices were appointed, Exeter and Chester, and in the beginning of the following reign by 1 Anne, cap. 9, Newcastle was also reappointed. At the end of the eighteenth century, in 1773, two additional assay offices were created at Birmingham and at Sheffield by 13 George III, cap. 52. London, during all this time had continued to assay silver in unbroken continuity from the fourteenth century.
It has been estimated by those who have a large quantity of old silver plate passing through their hands, that, in spite of the number of provincial assay offices, over 90 per cent. of old English silver bears the London hall-mark.
The Hall-marks of the Various Assay Offices
In the Appendix ([pp. 347-409]) are illustrations showing the various hall-marks used at different periods by the wardens and assay masters of the appointed cities. The following indicate the chief marks used. London (the leopard’s head, sometimes like a king on a pack of cards, and later, when uncrowned, like a tiger’s head). Chester (an upright sword between three wheatsheaves). Newcastle, closed in 1884 (three castles set in a shield, two over one, similar in arrangement to the Chester wheatsheaves). Exeter, closed in 1883 (early mark letter X with crown above. After 1701 three castles, sometimes joined together as one castle with three towers, similar to Edinburgh mark). Norwich (castle above with lion beneath; the castle is less like a castle than any other of the castle marks). York, closed in 1856 (early mark a fleur-de-lis, showing only half, the other half undecipherable, conjectured by some authorities to be a rose, by others a leopard’s head; this latter is now accepted as correct, and clearly shows in some examples; later mark shield with cross of England and five lions). Birmingham (an anchor), Sheffield (a crown), Edinburgh (a castle with three towers). Glasgow (a tree with a bird perched on top, and a tiny bell suspended from boughs, a fish transversely across the trunk). Dublin (figure of Hibernia since 1730). Cork (ship and castle, two marks).
The Varying Number of Marks Used
It is an interesting fact, and extremely puzzling to beginners in the study of hall-marks, to find that the provincial offices used, in addition to their own place-mark, the leopard’s head of the London assay office. From 1697 to 1719 the leopard’s head disappears from all silver, for the reason which is given in detail in Section V of this chapter—“The Higher Standard Mark” ([pp. 49-59]). In its place two other marks occur—the lion’s head erased and the figure of Britannia. These were only used in London between the years 1697 and 1701, during which five years provincial offices ceased to assay any silver. This is a hiatus in provincial marks which the beginner should note. From 1701 to 1719 the provincial offices used their place-marks together with the two new marks (the lion’s head erased and the figure of Britannia), which were compulsory by law. This law was repealed in 1719 and London reverted to the old style mark of the leopard’s head, so that London-marked silver of 1720 is marked with the same number of marks as that before the Act of 1697, that is four marks. But it appears that the provinces for a long period did not revert to the old style of marking. Newcastle, for instance, adds the leopard’s head from 1720 in addition to her town mark; Exeter similarly took the leopard’s head in 1720. Chester also added another mark, the leopard’s head, at the same time.