OLD SILVER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18008, 19 November 1926, Page 13

OLD SILVER.

READING HALL-MARKS. MEANINGS OF SYMBOLS. Most of us possess at least one or two small pieces of silver which we regard as heirlooms, and without pretending to be connoisseurs it is as well that we should be able to read the various hall-marks for ourselves. To put it at the lowest, this ability enables us to bear in strict private whatever chagrin may result from a correct reading. Nothing is commoner or more mortifying than the public discovery under the horn-rimmed eye of a jeweller or other knowing person (perhaps the prospective buyer of the article in question) that one’s cherished ‘'piece” dates later by a hundred years or so than one had fondlv believed. Some, of course, of the most valuable silver of all bears no hall-marks. It is not long since a Scottish family who were clearing house came upon a discoloured little object they had been used to play with in childhood. To them it had no particular value, although they believed it to be silver, but the auctioneer’s man who had come to inspect other things was incautious enough to offer them £5 for it. on his own account. They were clever enough to refuse, and the old quegh bowl (for such it was) was sent 1 to Christie’s, valued there, and put up to auction. As it turned out it was a very early example of the Scots silversmith's art. and it fetched exactly five hundred guineas. But such early silver, especially in Scotland and Ireland, has now almost all been collected or is in private hands that know how to value it. Only since the fifteenth century has the use of hall-marks been compulsor}-

on all silverware of British make. The marks vary, however; very considerably, both according to their dates and to the sort of article upon which they are impressed. The complete hallmark consists of four, sometimes five stamps, each being rather less than a quarter of an inch in diameter. It was a criminal offence for anyone save a Government official to use the metal punches upon which these were engraved, so they are seldom forged. The most important of the symbols is the ‘‘lion passant,” which has been impressed since 1545 upon all true gold and silver ware of the usual standard (as distinguished from plated ware) until 1545. when it began to be used for sterling silver only, gold being marked with a crown and figures giving the number of carats. There were changes, however, from time to time in the standard of silver, one of these being between 1696 and 1720, and during this period the “lion passant'” is replaced'by the lion’s head erased. In 1720 the old standard was again made legal, and has persisted till the present date, the “lion passant” being restored. Next comes the symbol of the town, and it is interesting to know that 90 per cent of all the silver plate ever made in the British Isles bears the London hall-mark. The other assay offices are Birmingham, Sheffield. Chester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Each assay office had, in addition, a list of date letters which, enclosed in shields of different shapes, form the third hall-mark. Generally there were twenty letters, which were repeated five times in each century in varying kinds of type. The fourth is the maker's mark, and it is easy to distinguish. Before 1739 each silversmith had his own symbol, but it was then ordered that his mark should consist of his initials stamped in plain type y In either case, every smith had to register at the assay office, and the lists have been published containing all names and their earlier symbols for reference. From 1785 a fifth mark became com-

pulsory. This represents the head of the reigning sovereign, and is called the duty mark. It was to signify that the duty then instituted upon all manufactured articles of gold and silver, had been discharged. The position and number of the marks both vary. Tankards are usual}’ marked below the rim near the handle, and if there is a lid this'mav be stamped separately; coffee-pots in the same way or*at the bottom; teapots sometimes on the side but mostly at the bottom; candlesticks on the base and the sconce. There are no hard and fast rules. Upon very small articles the complete series of mark; is not always found. Teaspoons of about 1750 and earlier are often marked with the lion only, though after that date they generally bear all four impresses. From 1750. again, one is apt to find the marks on the back of the stem in the narrowest part, while from about 1780 one finds them on the wide portion of the stem at the back. But on very early spoons the marks are placed on the bowl. Though actual forgery is rare, the faker is not to be gainsaid. One of his ways is to cut out the hall-marked portion of an old spoon or other small piece which has become almost valueless by long use or accident, and to solder it skilfully into the correct part of some article made by himself for which he will then ask a high price. Of he mav convert a piece of genuine but unsaleable silver which bears its hallmark into something for which the original maker never intended it, making it thereby attractive to the modem buyer of antiques while at the same time destroying (if the fraud be detected) all but the scale value of the metal. Many a christening mug, by the addition of a second handle, has thus become a sugar basin for which a fantastic price is paid. And this is only one of a dozen wavs in which the professional faker can inflate the price of his antioues. The hallmark must be there, but the hall-mark is not everything. One has to look, too, for the right design, to know the wrong ornament, to recognise good workmanship, to have a feeling for quality. Then the hall-mark will guide as well as confirm. In any case it is a necessary part of the examination, and it is always historically interesting. Toasted bread formed a favourite addition to English drinks in the sixteenth and seventeenth centurieshence the custom of drinking “ toasts.” “Labour is the ornament of the citizen: the reward of toil is when vou confer blessings on others; his high dignity confers honour on the King; be ours the glory of our hands.”— Schiller. II