How to Read Hallmarks on Silver Spoons

A Pocket-sized COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE SILVER
AND OBJECTS OF VERTU
THE WHAT IS? SILVER DICTIONARY

HOW TO READ ENGLISH / BRITISH STERLING SILVER MARKS THE UK SYSTEM OF HALLMARKS From the cease of the 12th century the craft of silversmith has been regulated in conformity with Royal Ordinances and Acts of the Parliament. In England the arts and crafts was regulated by the Order of Goldsmiths at London and in Ireland past the Guild of Dublin. In Scotland the craft was theoretically supervised past the Edinburgh Goldsmiths' Incorporation, but in exercise its influence outside the capital was limited and a plethora di unofficial Scottish Provincial marks was created. HOW TO READ, DECRYPT AND IDENTIFY THE MARKS ON ENGLISH SILVERPLATE AND ELECTROPLATED SILVER

MARK OF ORIGIN - Town Marking

Identifies the Analysis Office where the argent detail was verified.
London origin is identified past the use of the leopard's head, crowned and uncrowned from 1821. In reality the leopard'southward head was a standard mark and its utilise applied to all goldsmiths throughout the land. It was not until 1856 that the leopard'south head mark could take been used for whatever purpose other than a fineness mark.
Birmingham has the anchor, Chester the three wheat-sheaves and sword, Sheffield the crown and the Tudor rose (from 1975).
York has a v lions passant in a cross, Exeter a castle with three towers and Newcastle-upon-Tyne 3 castles.
In Scotland, Edinburgh has the castle and Glasgow the "tree, fish and bell".
In Ireland, Dublin origin is deduced by the presence of the figure of the crowned harp and Hibernia.

London leopard's head crowned (until 1820)	London leopard's head uncrowned (1821-present)	London (1696-1719) king of beasts head erased	Birmingham ballast (1773-nowadays)
Birmingham bicentennial commemorative (1973)	Sheffield crown (1773-1975)	Sheffield Tudor rose (1975-present)	Chester a sword erect betwixt three wheat-sheaves (1784-1962)
Exeter a castle with iii towers (1701-1856)	Newcastle-upon-Tyne iii castles (c.1658-1883)	York v lions passant on a cross (c. 1710-1856)	Edinburgh castle (1483-nowadays)
			.
Glasgow tree, fish and bell (1681-1963)	Dublin crowned harp mark (until 1806)	Dublin Hibernia (1807-present)	.

STANDARD MARK

Since the 14th century the standard for silver in England was set up at eleven ounces and 2 pennyweights in the Troy pound (925 parts in 1000), it was related to coin and as far every bit wrought plate was concerned it had to be as good equally money. The Statute 28 Ewd. Cap. Twenty which introduced this standard reads equally follows: "It is ordained, that no Goldsmith of England, nor none otherwhere within the King's Dominions, shall from henceforth....... work worse silver than money".
The 925/thousand (sterling) argent fineness is certified in London and other British Assay Offices by the use of the "lion passant" mark.
For a short period (1696-1720) the standard was elevated to 958.4/k and the "Britannia" mark replaced the "lion passant".
Different standard marks are used in Scotland ("thistle" in Edinburgh and "panthera leo rampant" in Glasgow and, later on, Edinburgh) and in Republic of ireland ("crowned harp" in Dublin).

DATE LETTER

A date letter kickoff appeared on English language silver plate in the twelvemonth 1697 as a upshot of legislation. In clause VIII of the Act 8 & 9 William III c.8 which, amid other things, deals with the marks that must be applied to assayed plate at Goldsmiths' Hall the following wording is used: " .... and a singled-out variable mark to be used past the warden of the said mystery, to denote the year in which such plate is made;..." This legislation remained in place until 1999 in which year the Government adopted European hallmarking practice which does not require that an assayed item of plate must be dated.
Series of alphabetical messages were chosen to indicate the year of assaying (appointment letter) using "cycles of letters" of dissimilar font and size inside punches of various shapes.
Any Assay Office adopted its own bike of date letters so that only from the 1975 the four surviving Analysis Offices use a compatible system of dating (optional from 1999).

These are the links to the date messages tables of master Assay Offices:

London Birmingham Sheffield

Chester Dublin Edinburgh Glasgow

London Analysis Office Letters, as illustrated in "Hall Marks of Golden and Silver Plate", past William Chaffers, 10th Edition, London 1922

MAKER'S MARK

In early times the maker'due south marking was constituted past a symbol simply from the 15th century the mark was formed past silversmith'due south proper noun and surname initials.
Only for a short catamenia (1696-1719) the maker's marker was formed with the first ii letters of silversmith'southward surname.
Various fonts, sizes and outlines were adopted to differentiate the marks of silversmiths having the same initials.

List OF MAKER'S MARKS

ILLUSTRATED Choice OF MAKER'S MARKS

LIST OF NAMES

DUTY MARK

The Sovereign's Head demonstrates the payment of the duty on the slice bearing information technology. It was introduced in 1784 and lasted until 1890. In Glasgow the Sovereign's Head was introduced in 1819 while, from 1798, watchcases were exempted from the fee.
From July 15 1797, for nine months, the King's Caput was duplicated owing to the Duty beingness doubled.
The "Duty Drawback" mark was used from Dec i, 1784 to July 24, 1785 to claim back the duty when the item was exported.
A special duty mark (Hibernia) was used in Dublin from 1730 to 1806.
"Duty dodger" is the definition of unscrupulous silversmiths that used fraudulent methods to avoid paying the tax (e.thou. inserting into a large piece a minor disk bearing marks from an article on which a low tax had been paid).

1784 (LON)	1787 (LON)	1795 (LON)	1797 (LON)	1804 (LON)	1812 (DUB)	1818 (EDI)	1818 (LON)

1822 (SHE)	1823 (LON)	1824 (BIR)	1825 (DUB)	1826 (LON)	1829 (DUB)	1832 (EDI)

1833 (GLA)	1835 (EDI)	1835 (LON)	1838 (LON)	1854 (LON)	1862 (BIR)	1871 (LON)	1871 (SHE)

COMMEMORATIVE MARKS

Special temporary hallmarks are adopted to commemorate special events and anniversaries.
British Assay Offices used commemorative marks in 1935 (Silver Jubilee of King George 5), 1953 (Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II), 1977 (Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II), 2000 (Millennium Mark), 2002 (Gold Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II) and 2012 (Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II).

IMPORT MARKS

The Custom Act of 1842 ordered that imported gold and silver couldn't be sold in Britain and Ireland unless it had been assayed at a British Office.
In 1867 the Strange Mark was introduced adding an "F" to the appropriate British hallmark.

Foreign mark on London 1880 hallmark, importer Gustave Guilaudet

In 1904 an Act of the Guild of Council ordered that strange silver had to be marked with the decimal value:
.925 for Sterling Standard and .958 for Britannia Standard.
A special Assay Role mark was introduced to be used in the addition to the almanac engagement letter, while the "F" mark was omitted.

London 1904-1906	London 1906-1998 (oft upside down)	Birmingham 1904-1998	Chester 1904-1962
Dublin 1904-1906	Dublin 1906-1998	Edinburgh 1904-1998	Glasgow 1904-1906
			.
Glasgow 1906-1964	Sheffield 1904-1906	Sheffield 1906-1998	.

JOURNEYMAN MARK
WORKMAN Mark

The word journeyman comes from the French word journ�e, which means a period of one 24-hour interval.
Information technology refers to the right the journeyman had to obtain a reward for each day's piece of work.
In origin he was "a man who did non gain the freedom of the City and was therefore a 'non Freeman' merely was free of a livery visitor and thus qualified to ply his merchandise could do then every bit a 'journeyman' provided he was licensed by the corporation. Oft he would continue to work for his quondam master in the capacity of journeyman but he could, if he wished, go to another workshop and sometimes a silversmith would remain a journeyman for all of his working life" (courtesy David Mckinley/ASCAS).
The majority of silversmiths never actually registered their ain mark. They were employed past big workshops of companies or were used every bit out-workers. The work they part or wholly produced was marked under somebody else's name.
These workers on plate were often paid on a pro rata ground, the foreman counting up their output each 24-hour interval so that they could be rewarded at the stop of the calendar week. The foreman also could distinguish between each of his workers' wares and so that poor workmanship could exist traced to the source. Thus a system was devised where each member of staff had his ain punch (journeyman or workman mark), sometimes cutting with the initials, but more often cut with a small symbol (a star, a leaf, a triangle, etc.) usually stamped next the maker's marking.

Spoons dated 1816 made by different workmen in Eley & Fearn workshop

CONTEMPORARY HALLMARKS

The British hallmarking system has been substantially modified in 1999.
Compulsory marks are the Analysis Part mark, the sponsor's or maker's marker (at least two messages within a shield) and the Metal and fineness marker (purity in millesimal number).
The use of the traditional fineness marker (lion passant, lion rampant, Britannia) and appointment alphabetic character is maintained only on a voluntary basis.

HOW TO READ STERLING Argent HALLMARKS

The marks of electroplated silver were often inspired to the hallmarking used for sterling argent.
The purpose of these marks hid the unacknowledged goal of confusing the customer almost the nature of the metal alloy.

silverplate

sterling silver

The mark above is a merchandise marker on a mid-19th century silverplate piece manufactured by Evans & Matthews of Birmingham, while the i below is on a sterling silver piece hallmarked by Sheffield Assay Office in 1850, maker Martin Bros & Co.
These two marks are very similar: both accept a "crown" and a set of alphabetical symbols to represent maker and date, merely the central divergence is that the standard mark (lion passant) is missing on Evans & Matthews trademark as its use on metal different from sterling silver or on silver having silver fineness below 925/1000 is severely punished in the UK. Really also the "crown" on silverplate was forbidden, just until 1895 c. its utilise was tolerated by Sheffield Assay Office.

(1) journeyman mark
(2) maker'southward marker (William Chawner)
(three) standard mark (lion passant 925/1000 purity)
(iv) town marker (leopard'southward head London)
(5) date alphabetic character (1825)
(6) duty mark (sovereign caput George IV)

I am indebted to David McKinley/ASCAS for many of the data contained in this folio

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Source: http://www.silvercollection.it/DICTIONARYDECRYPTINGUKSTERLINGMARKS.html

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