[Transcriber's Note: The design did not appear on the cover of this edition.]
(At the Metropolitan Museum, New York.)
The word “dollar” alludes to the silver that was used for plate, much of it being obtained from Spanish dollars. This is parallel to the usage on the coinage. The word “Portobello” is found on English silver coined about the year 1739 from silver taken at Portobello by Admiral Vernon; and the word “Lima” on George II gold coins, signifying that they were from bullion captured from the Spaniards at that place. Anne’s guineas, of 1703, have the word “Vigo,” relating to Sir George Rooke’s captures. At the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, silver coins were so scarce that Spanish dollars were made legal tender with the head of George III stamped on them.
In the early nineteenth century the Dublin marks appear added to the Cork mark Sterling. The following are among some of the Cork marks found: Sterling and maker’s mark, C. T. (Carden Terry) about 1780. Sterling and maker’s mark
C T
I W
(Carden Terry and John Williams), about 1800.
And there is Robert Goble, 1694, a piece of whose delightful work we illustrate with marks; the Cork mace at the Victoria and Albert Museum, a specimen of beautiful craftsmanship, is marked with the Cork castle and ship, and the letters R. G. There is also Jonathan Buck, 1764, and a fine cream-jug of his superb work is illustrated ([p. 339]).
Besides Dublin and Cork there were other places at which silver was assayed and marked: at Limerick, in the seventeenth century, with the mark of the fleur-de-lis; Youghal in the seventeenth century, with the town mark of a single-masted ship. In 1783 a small village near Waterford, termed New Geneva, owing to a company of Geneva watch-makers having settled there, had an assay office for a few years, mainly for watch-cases. The harp was used in their mark. Clonmel, Waterford, Mullinger, Kinsale, Kilkenny, and Drogheda all made plate which was assayed at Dublin.
The oldest piece of Irish hall-marked plate now existing is a flagon in Trinity College, Dublin, bearing the Dublin hall-mark for 1638.
The caster (illustrated [p. 331]) is in date 1699, and bears the Dublin hall-marks for that year and the maker’s initials G. L. (George Lyng). Marks illustrated [page 409]. This example is interesting as showing the type of art existing contemporary with English work. The grace and elegance of this caster stamp it as being the work of a practised artist, and though doubtless English fashions did affect the class of articles made, the native skill in the subtle use of ornament and the perfection of symmetry was in strong evidence across the Irish Channel.