Read Ebook: Chats on Old Silver by Hayden Arthur

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 850 lines and 64073 words, and 17 pages

PAGE

PREFACE 11

THE MARKS STAMPED UPON SILVER 23

ECCLESIASTICAL PLATE 65

THE MAZER, THE STANDING CUP, THE FLAGON, THE TANKARD, THE BEAKER, THE WINE CUP 83

THE SALT CELLAR 139

THE SPOON 177

THE POSSET-POT, THE PORRINGER 195

THE CANDLESTICK 221

THE TEAPOT, THE COFFEE-POT, THE TEA-CADDY 239

THE CASTER, THE SUGAR-BOWL, THE CREAM-PAIL, THE CAKE-BASKET 267

THE CREAM-JUG 299

SCOTTISH SILVER 311

IRISH SILVER 329

TABLE OF DIFFERENCES IN SHIELDS. LONDON 357

INDEX 411

PAGE

Seventeenth-century Spoons 181 Seventeenth and Eighteenth-century Spoons 185 Seventeenth and Eighteenth-century Spoons 189

Commonwealth Porringer, 1653 197 Charles II Posset-pot and Cover, 1662; Porringer, Silver-gilt, 1669 197 Charles II Porringer, 1666 201 Charles II Posset-cup and Cover, 1679 201 Posset-pot and Cover, 1683 205 Charles II Porringer, 1672 209 Queen Anne Porringer, Exeter, 1707 209 James II Posset-cup and Cover, 1685 213 Staffordshire Earthenware Posset-cup, dated 1685 213 Plum Broth Dish and Ladle, 1697 217

Charles I Candlestick, 1637 223 Lambeth Delft Candlestick, dated 1648 223 Charles II Candlesticks, 1673 227 Snuffers and Tray, 1682 231 Candlesticks Queen Anne, 1704, 1706; George I, 1721 231 Candlestick, Sheffield, 1782 235

Scottish Quaich, Edinburgh, 1705 313 Mug, Edinburgh, 1790 313 Sugar-caster, Edinburgh, 1746 317 Coffee-pot, Edinburgh, 1769 321 Tea-urn, Edinburgh, 1778 325

Caster, Dublin , 1699 331 Loving-cup, with harp handles, Cork, 1694 331 Centre-piece, Dublin, 1740 335 Cream-jug, signed by Jonathan Buck, Cork, 1764 339 Cream-jug, Dublin, 1740 339 Cream-pail, Dublin, 1770 343

Alphabets of Date Letters used at London Assay Office 347-355 Table showing variations in Hall and Standard Marks 357 Series of Examples of London Assay Marks 359-385 Series of Examples of Provincial Assay Marks 387-399 Series of Examples of Scottish and Irish Assay Marks 401-409

THE MARKS STAMPED UPON SILVER

THE MARKS STAMPED UPON SILVER

This hall-mark, or town mark as it came to be known later, denotes the place where the assay was made. It was struck on all such articles as would bear the "Touch"; this is the technical term synonymous with assaying. As will be seen subsequently, the hall-mark does not stand alone. Very early it was deemed expedient to stamp some further mark, which should denote the date when the piece was actually assayed at the hall or assay office.

This second assay mark, or warden's mark, is known as the date letter.

The Company of Goldsmiths in London, incorporated by charter in 1327, possessed plenary powers which they exercised with considerable rigour. They framed stringent regulations determining trade customs, they kept a watchful eye on recalcitrant members who showed any tendency to lower the dignity of the craft, and they punished with severity all those who counterfeited the official marks of the hall.

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.

Eighteenth Century Assay Offices

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

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" . 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 , 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.

The result of this is that before 1701 Chester had four marks, sometimes only three, but after 1720 five were used; when the duty mark was added six marks were employed. The leopard's head was not discontinued till 1839, reducing the marks to five, and now, since the abolition of the duty mark in 1890, there are only four. Exeter had, with the use of the leopard's head, five marks, but in 1748 the leopard's head had disappeared. Newcastle continued the leopard's head during the period of the duty mark, thus making six marks, till the closing of the office in 1884.

Throughout the history of the manufacture of English silver plate the standard maintained has been always equal to that of the silver coinage, and sometimes higher. The control of the standard has long been in the hands of the State, and, it has already been shown, the proving or assaying of all articles, in order that they may be officially stamped as of sterling silver, was allocated to the wardens and assay masters of the London and other assay offices. Obviously if it had been permitted to manufacture silver plate at a lower standard than the coin of the realm, the latter would have been melted down to be made into plate at a profit. In order to regulate the uniform procedure of the trade throughout the country the amount of alloy to be added to silver was very clearly laid down by law. The standard for silver has been in force for six hundred years, since the reign of Henry II, viz. 11 oz. 2 dwts. of silver and 18 dwts. alloy in every pound troy of plate; that is 925 parts of silver in every thousand parts. From the year 1697 to 1720 the standard was fixed at 11 oz. 10 dwts. of silver to the pound troy, that is .958. This higher or "Britannia" standard is described in Section V of this chapter . In regard to this new standard, that is a standard above the sterling of the coin of the realm, special marks were used during the above period and have been used since then to the present day whenever silver plate is of the new standard. It was illegal to make silver plate of less than this new standard during the period 1697 to 1720; after this period there are two standards, the higher being optional.

On two occasions, therefore, the silver plate of this country was of finer quality than the coin of the realm: on the first when the coin of the realm was debased, and on the second when silver plate was compulsorily raised to a higher standard than the coin of the realm.

Among the various marks used for the purposes we have indicated, the date mark is one which has a vital significance. It establishes with certainty the year in which a piece of silver was fashioned and taken to the assay office to be stamped as sterling silver. The easiest plan in regard to date marks would have been to stamp the actual date upon each piece of silver or gold assayed, but this was too simple a procedure for the "Mistery of the Goldsmiths." They employed alphabets of various styles and each year was represented by a different letter, and to add further to the puzzling difficulty of deciphering these symbols, certain letters were omitted. Moreover, each assay town has its own series of date marks. Letters of the alphabet are used sometimes from A to T, or A to U, or from A to Z; sometimes the letters J and V are omitted, and in one case for a considerable period the letters of the alphabet were used indiscriminately. Various kinds of type were used and they appear in shields of differing shapes. The study therefore of the date marks of the London assay office and of the various provincial assay offices together with the date marks used in Scotland and in Ireland is very intricate, and the determination of these with exactitude might occupy a man the greater portion of his life. The standard work on the subject is "English Goldsmiths and their Marks," by Mr. C. J. Jackson, which contains over eleven thousand marks reproduced in facsimile. Mr. Jackson in the 1905 edition had worked for seventeen years at this subject, and his labours have been stupendous; a new edition shortly to appear will represent a quarter of a century's work. There is no other book on the subject within measurable distance of this encyclopaedia.

It is obvious that in the present volume only a limited number of marks can be illustrated, but the author has given typical examples covering the London marks, which are the most important, and a few examples from most of the provincial assay offices as well as from Scotland and Ireland. These will be found in the Appendix .

London

The Goldsmiths' Company of London has an honourable and ancient history and must be regarded as the leading spirit in regard to hall-marks. It is admitted that, from a public point of view, the hall-marks stamped on silver by the various assay offices have a very definite meaning. "Our hall-marks afford a guarantee of value to which, it is not to be wondered at, considerable importance attaches, since these goods may safely be regarded as an investment." The true function of the Goldsmiths' Company is a protective one--protective in the interests of honest traders, protective in the interests of public buyers. We suggest that they might perform an educational service by throwing open their assay office to public inspection. Neither the Royal Mint nor the Bank of England may be said to be an inaccessible holy of holies. The assaying of silver and gold is a process which affects the pocket of the public to a large extent.

As custodians of historic archives of no insignificant value, there is no reason why such records should not be as readily accessible to the general student as are the papers in the Public Record Office which divulge bygone State secrets. Possibly if the assaying were placed under Government supervision, as has so often been strongly advocated, these things might come to pass.

In regard to data undoubtedly the Goldsmiths' Company can claim an ancient record. They are proudly jealous of their reputation and rightly anxious to guard the public interest. There is no doubt that "the laws of hall-marking, scattered as they are over a multitude of statutes, are highly technical, and not the least necessary reform is their consolidation." The Goldsmiths' Company was once a trade guild, but this is the twentieth century, and they exist solely in the public interest. To-morrow they could be swept aside by an Act of Parliament, and all silver could be assayed and stamped at the Royal Mint or by Government assayers.

In regard to the date letters the London Assay Office has consistently, with one exception, 1696, adhered to twenty letters in each alphabet, that is from A to U . But the provincial offices were wofully erratic and exhibit a looseness and want of system in not adhering to the same arrangement of alphabets in succeeding periods. It is not necessary to follow these eccentricities in detail, a few examples will suffice. Newcastle from 1702 to 1720 employed the alphabet as follows:--A , B , D , F , M , O , P , Q , D , E . Some of these were used for more than one year. In the next two periods, 1721 to 1739 and 1740 to 1758, the alphabet ends at T. Later alphabets run to Z. Chester employed an alphabet sometimes ending in X, sometimes in V, and sometimes in U, and one series runs from A to Z from 1839 to 1863.

The result of the somewhat chaotic alphabet marks has been to focus the attention of the collector too much on this particular side of the subject. The identification of marks, the outward symbols of time and place, have reduced the study of old silver to a somewhat lower plane than it should occupy by right. It is proper that such determining factors should have their place, but not the first place. There was a time when china collectors ignored paste and glaze and laid particular stress on marks, and it is a very happy accident that a great portion of English porcelain and much of English earthenware is unmarked. It has eventually led collectors to think for themselves and know something more of the technique and to learn to appreciate the artistic value of specimens of the potter's art coming under their hand.

The collector of old silver, however, cannot hope to escape from marks; they are an integral part of the subject, and coming as they do under the strict surveillance of the law, they offer protection to his investment and have the comforting assurance of gilt-edged security. There is nothing of the subtle speculation as to exact period which accompanies the acquisition of old furniture, nor is there the same element of chance which governs the operations of the picture collector. The hall-mark, the standard mark, the date mark, and the maker's mark stamped with mechanical precision proclaim "with damnable iteration" the string of unalterable facts.

In regard to marks it is interesting to read what Mr. Octavius Morgan, the pioneer of the study of hall-marks, says in 1852: "Every person who is possessed of an article of gold or silver plate has most probably observed a small group of marks stamped on some part of it. Few however have, I believe, regarded them in any other light than as a proof that the article so marked is made of the metal which it professes to be, and that the metal itself is of a certain purity. And this is in fact the real ultimate object and intention of these marks; but besides this the archaeologist can deduce from them other important and interesting information, as by them he can learn the precise year in which any article bearing these marks was made. It is therefore to these marks that I am about to direct attention with a view to elucidate their history and peculiar meaning." To Mr. Morgan's labours in an unknown field all subsequent writers on hall-marks are indebted. He was the first collector who realized their importance. It seems amazing that up to 1852 nothing appears to have been known to the intelligent layman or the public at large of these symbols which had appeared on plate for some six hundred years. It suggests the idea that the marking was regarded in the nature of a trade secret. The "mistery" of the Goldsmiths' Company was not to be profaned by vulgar eyes. In the light of this it may be conjectured that the chaotic arrangement of alphabets came about not by accident but by design.

What would one give for a few human touches in connexion with our old silver! We may imagine that our candlesticks of the year 1750 held the flickering wax candles which were guttering when the dawn broke when our great-great-grandfather lost his fortune at cards in the county of --, or maybe it was somebody else's grandfather. But this is in the realms of fancy, and the fortune is literally fabulous. Why are there no George Morlands in the silversmith's craft? Cannot the guilds dig out their romantic history from their archives? Just to think that our designer of candelabra and flagons ran a fine career on Hounslow Heath with gamesters and fighting men; or did he, just that once, have a duel with young Lord What's-his-Name in the Guards, and pinked him? Did not the story get to White's and to the Cocoa Tree Clubs, how the tradesman scored! But no such thing. All these initials of makers are empty of such vanities. We can do better with prints. Those who possess the engraved work of Ryland have the satisfaction of knowing that he was hounded by Bow Street runners and hid, like the modern Lefroy, at Stepney, and that he was hanged for forgery.

There is William Blake, who dreamed as great dreams as Joseph of old, who gave imaginary sittings to Pontius Pilate, who wrote wonderful poetry, and who died in a garret. Copper-plates were dear, but he had no poverty of invention, and since the days when as a child he saw angels following the reapers in the corn, he lived for posterity and left his record. But have gravers on silver and inventors of symmetrical goblets of gold less blood than those who drew lines on copper? There is something human missing in these strings of initials and bare names so sedulously gathered together by dry-as-dust compilers.

In furniture, makers' names have become household words. Chippendale, Sheraton, Hepplewhite have created styles of their own. Of Sheraton we have personal details piquant enough to add fresh lustre to his satinwood creations. There is the story of the one teacup in the back street of Soho, which was handed to his Scottish apprentice in the little shop whence he issued his religious pamphlets.

In china the personal note is dominant--Josiah Wedgwood with his wooden leg smashing vases at Etruria with "This won't do for Josiah Wedgwood." Or Thomas Cookworthy dying of a broken heart in Virginia after his life's failure at Plymouth. Or the Brothers Elers with their secret underground telephone in Bradwell Wood in Staffordshire.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet