IRISH SILVER
The ancient art of the silversmith—The seventeenth century—The inventiveness and originality of the Irish craftsman—Eighteenth-century marks—The figure of Hibernia—The Harp and Crown—The Potato or Dish Ring.
There is no doubt that the art of the goldsmith and silversmith was practised at a very early period in Ireland, as the various ornaments discovered in excavation clearly prove. There is something characteristic in this early Irish metal work, as especially noteworthy in its ripe and accomplished art as is the illumination in the Book of Kells. Old records show that goldsmiths were working in Dublin in the thirteenth century, though there is no mention of the actual formation of a guild or company till 1498. Apparently these early records do not determine what marks were in use. It is not till 1605 that mention is made of a maker’s mark and a town mark on Dublin plate. In 1637 a charter was granted to the goldsmiths of Dublin by Charles I, and it was laid down that no gold or silver was to be of less fineness than the standard of England. From 1638 onwards there appears to have been a date letter, though in some cases its use was erratic, the same stamp being used for succeeding years.
In 1729 the Irish Parliament enacted that plate should be assayed by the assay master and bear the maker’s stamp, the harp crowned, and the date letter. In 1730, by the order of the Commissioners of Excise, a fourth stamp was added, the figure of Hibernia, to denote that the duty had been paid. In 1807 the sovereign’s head was ordered to be placed on all plate as a duty mark, and the figure of Hibernia was allowed to remain, so that till 1890, when the duty was taken off silver, the two duty marks ran together. But Hibernia may be regarded as a hall-mark, though that was not its original purpose.
The city of Cork never had a date letter. Prior to 1715 the city arms, a ship in full sail between two castles, was used together with the maker’s mark, which latter embodied some heraldic device. Later the only mark used at Cork was the maker’s initials and the word Sterling, or the word Dollar; this took the place of the town mark. The official guide to the Irish metal work at the Dublin Museum, to which we are indebted for much information, states that “Immense quantities of silver were manufactured in Cork during the eighteenth century, but comparatively little remains at the present day, most of it having been melted down as the fashions changed.”
CENTREPIECE. DUBLIN, 1740.
Maker, Robert Calderwood.
(The design of a Potato Ring by same maker is shown on cover of this volume.)