Chaffers' Concise Hallmarks on Gold and Silver.

Chaffers, William

ISBN 10: 1853269344 / ISBN 13: 9781853269349

Published by Wordsworth, London, 1989

About this Item

119pp. Light wear, DJ: wear extremities, soiling, rubbing.

Seller Inventory # 216039

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Chaffers' Concise Hallmarks on Gold and Silver.
• Publisher: Wordsworth, London
• Publication Date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1853269344
• ISBN 13: 9781853269349
• Binding: Hb
• Condition: VG-
• Dust Jacket Condition: VG-

About this title

Synopsis

THE hallmarking of English gold and silver wares as a certification of their degree of quality was introduced by Edward I in 1300. The statute of that year obliged the makers of all such wares to have them assayed by the Goldsmiths’ guild and, if genuine, struck with a mark attesting their quality. That first mark was a leopard’s head, and some form of leopard’s or lion’s head has subsequently always appeared as one of the elements making up a complete hallmark on English gold and silver manufactures. To it were gradually added other identifying emblems showing the year and place in which the piece was assayed and the maker’s mark, and it is the purpose of this book not only to enable the identification of these marks from those earliest days, but also to illustrate their wide variety and their historical background. William Chaffers first published his ‘Handbook to Hall Marks’ in 1897, and after his death this was enlarged by C. A. Markham, who edited the work and added almost 200 further marks for the new edition in 1907. They are presented in tabular form for easy reference, and each section — covering the main assay offices in England, Scotland and Ireland — is prefaced by an historical introduction outlining the development of the hailmarking style in that city and illustrating the changes in the characters, the manner of framing and other such local idiosyncrasies. The author’s own style is not without its pleasantly idiosyncratic manner, and the introduction to the London marks, describing the progress (or otherwise) in the styling of the ‘Liberdes Hede’ from its beginnings, remarks that by 1822 ‘the leopard’s head was deprived of its crown, and denuded of its mane and beard.. .and it has ever since looked more like a half-starved cat than a lion....’ The assay offices covered are London, Birmingham, Chester, Exeter, Newcastle, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin and Date and the Maker marks.