During the past twenty years, when the furniture of Chippendale and of Sheraton has been collected with such avidity to refurnish old homes and to give age to modern mansions, the demand for old silver accessories of the table has been equally great. In consequence, spurious silver of later date, with the old hall-marks cunningly inserted, has appeared in great quantities. As a warning to the collector of “old salts,” it cannot too strongly be urged that in his earliest flights he should consult a friend who has passed through the same stages before him. The same advice is, unfortunately, necessary in connection with collecting old china and old furniture. The literature of these two subjects is more ready to hand, and there are many popular handbooks designed to set the feet of the novice in collecting on the right path. In silver collecting there is always a sure road. In furniture or in china there is no puissant company of furniture experts or china moralists. The buyer may be advised to use his common sense and demand that the dealer put on the invoice the exact description of the goods he is selling. If after expert advice the purchaser finds he has been deceived, he has his remedy in a court of law. But with silver, there are the hall-marks determined by law for the protection of the public. The Goldsmiths’ Company exist to safeguard the public against fraud, and their honourable traditions extend, as we have seen, over four hundred years. If any buyer has any doubt as to the London marks or the provincial marks on a piece of silver he has purchased, it is easy to establish their authenticity. If, for instance, the mark is a London one, the Goldsmiths’ Company would obviously be pleased to discover the identity of any one counterfeiting their ancient marks. They have statutory powers to inflict fines on persons convicted of such malpractices, and in the public interest they would naturally prosecute inquiries as to how false marks came to be placed on silver purporting to be assayed by an old and honourable company.
CIRCULAR SALT CELLAR.
Silver-gilt. Dated 1638, and having London hall-mark of that date.
Greatest height 6³/₁₆ in.
Engraved with the arms of the Mercers’ Company and the arms of John Dethick, the donor.
(See marks illustrated [p. 365].)
(By courtesy of the Mercers’ Company.)
You may search the chronological tables of the statutes through and through, and you will find nothing relative to punishments specially laid down to meet the case of fabricators of old furniture or old china, but in regard to forging old silver marks there are a multitude of protective measures. There is reform needed in the laws relating to silver, and urgently needed. We offer this suggestion to some Member of Parliament bursting to distinguish himself. It was urgently recommended by the Committee of 1856, and a Bill was prepared by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue in 1857, but nothing came of it. The Select Committee of the House of Commons, again, in 1879 made further recommendations, but no restrictive measure has ever been laid before Parliament. “There is much to say for the old demand of the Goldsmiths’ Company for further powers of enforcing the law than the mere right to sue for penalties. Sales by auction now take place with practical impunity, no matter how spurious and debased the goods may be, and there is evidence and to spare to show that the general sense of the trade and the public is in favour of the preservations of the old guarantee.”