r I UNIVERSTTY OF CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF DECORATIVE ART U^^^u^ % . ^^^ \^ /l-^;.^^ tJ? . /^^^ OLD ENGLISH PLATE. I SALVl'lR ( 1595 ) AND EWKR ( 1617 ) ( In the possession of Her Majesty llie Queen at Windsor Castle (Bin €ngU0i) ^late. ECCLESIASTICAL, DECORATIVE, A^D DOVESTWi ITS MAKERS AND MAEKS. Bv AVILFRED JOSEPH CHirPS, C.B., F.S.A., AUTHOR OF "college AND CORPORATION PLATE." " OLD FRENCH PLATK," ETC. SIXTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. WITH 123 ILLUSTRATIONS, and UPWARDS OF 2,600 FACSIMILES OF PLATE MARKS. LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1899. ^^..X^ 0^ %^f^ BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 0-^X^ tig,/ - OLD FEENCH PLATE. EuexNishing Tables OF THE Pakis Date-Letters and Fac-Simii.es of other Marks. With Ilhistrations. Second Edition, 1893. 8vo. 105. 6d. PKEFACE. In tlie course of the twenty years which have ehipsed since the appearance of the first edition of this Handbook, Old English Plate has attracted a constantly increasing share of public attention. A knowledge of its many points of interest has become more general : and whilst specimens of ancient secular plate are more eagerly sought for than ever before by collector and connoisseur, the preservation of our old church- plate has become better assured owing to the lively interest now taken by County and Diocesan Archceological Societies in what remains of it within their respective districts. Before these days fevf persons, whether amongst the clergy or laity, understood the great interest of old English church-plate, or possessed the requisite knowledge to take proper account of it ; and the literature on the subject con- sisted of tlie papers of the late Mr. Octavius Morgan, upon which the chapter on Ecclesiastical riate in this volume is founded, together with the not less valuable notes and observations of the late Sir A. W. Franks, the late Ilev. J. 671,924 vi Preface. Fuller Eiissell, Mr. J. T. Mickletliwaite, Professor A. H. Church, and others. It was not, in fact, till the year 1880, two years after the first publication of Old English Plale^ that the author, by the kind present from the Rev. C. R. Manning of a copy of his interesting pamfthlet on the church-plate of the Deanery of Redenhall, IN^orfolk, became aware that he and his earliest coadjutor, Mr. T. M. Fallow, had any fellow- labourer in the work of making systematic local enquiry into the history of old church-plate. Mr. Manning's work, brought to the notice of the late Rev. II. Whitehead by the present writer, suggested the paper on the plate of the Deaner}^ of Brampton in Cumberland, which led up to the publication, in 1884, of a complete account of the church- plate of the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland forming the Diocese of Carlisle, under the able editorship of Chancellor Ferguson. This admirable treatise drew general attention to the great interest of its subject, and was the means of inducing the late Mr. J. E. JN'ightingale shortly afterwards to undertake an examination of the old e(iclesi- astical plate of Dorset and Wilts. It is not too much to say that the volume relating to Wiltshire church-plate is the model of what such a treatise should be. Since then the late Rev. A. Trollope has written very fully on the church-plate of Leicestershire ; that of the small county of Rutland has been catalogued by Mr. R. C. Hope ; Mr. C. Markham has Preface. vii coini3iled a good account of the Xortliauts cliurch-plate ; the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology has completed one for that county, edited by the Eev. F. Haslewood ; and Mr. E. H. Freshfield has devoted three beautifully illustrated quarto volumes to the plate of the churches in the city of London and in the counties of London and Middlesex. Besides these complete histories, a great deal of material has been collected towards similar descriptions of the treasures in Kent, Northumberland, Durham, IN'orfolk, Berks, Surrey, and Oxfordshire, chiefly in the form of papers in the Transactions of the Archaeological Associations of those counties. A good commencement, and in some cases more than that, has been made in Herefordshire, Devon, Cornwall, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucester- shire. The Eev. E. H. Bates has described very carefully the plate of several deaneries in the county of Somerset. Besides the above local enquiries, jxnd following upon an excellent general notice of Scottish communion-plate by Prof. IS^orman Mac]3herson, a complete and quite monumental work on the same subject by Rev. T. Bui'ns and Mr. A. J. S. Brook, most admirably illustrated, appeared in 1892, whilst a valuable classification of media3val English chalices and patens by Mr. W. H. St. John Hope and Mr. T. M. Fallow has been contributed to the Archceological Journal. As regards Yiii Preface. secular plate, CorjDoration plate and insignia have been treated of in a large work by the late Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt and Mr. W. II. St. John Hope ; an account of the curious and rare plate of the Hull Trinity House has been published by Mr. T. M. Fallow; and papers on Mazers and Spoons are to be found in recent volumes of Avchmologia. It is good evidence of the great interest now taken in old plate, that latter writers should devote time to enlarging chapters or sections from the following pages into articles, such as those last named, in preference to spending it upon more original work. The sections relating to Salts. Ewers and I3asins, and the like, are as suitable for treatment of this kind as those upon Mazers and Spoons. It ma}" here be mentioned that a great part of Old English Plate has been reproduced, almost word for word, with many of its illustrations and all its tables of date-letters, in an American work, described in the preface as "based upon" it : and to this it is by no means a satisfactory set-off, that the work of a foreign author may be similarly ai:»pro- priated by the English book-maker, and with as little acknowledgment, or none at all. If Old English Plate has been not indirectly the moving- cause of these widely spread researches, it is to some of them Preface. ix that its oAvn pages owe, from time to time, mucii of their fresh information. This is especially the case as regards the late Mr. J. E. J^ightingale's volnme on Wilts church-plate, and the great work mentioned above on Scottish Communion Plate, to the authors of which the present writer is in- debted for man}- names and dates added to former entries in Chapter YI. It is plain that if the successive editions of Old Englkli Plate aimed only at being a summar}- of the literature on its subject, brought up as far as possible to date, they would need all the careful emendation the}^ have re- ceived ; and the author can hardly acknowledge too freely and fully the hel^^ in this behalf of the friends, but especially the Eev. C, E. Manning and Mr. Fallow, Avhose names have been already mentioned in these prefatory words, and also ]\Ir. Edwin H. Freshfield, as well as the kindness of many correspondents, amongst them Mi-. T. Wainwriglit, of Barn- staple, the Eev. AY. H. Wayne, the Eev. E. H. Bates, Mr. Eobert Harvey, of Thorpe, Norwich, ]\Ir. J. E. Boyle, of Hull, and Mr. Cecil C. Woods, of Cork, who luue favoured him with notes of much interest. To Mr. Thomas Taylor of Chipchase Castle the author is indebted for nearly all tlu; newer information given about X ^ Preface. the goldsmiths of jN'ewcaV;tle-upon-Tyne, in the eighteenth centnry ; and to the Kent Archseological Society for wood-cnts. From the Memorials of tJie Goldsmiths' Company compiled by its learned clerk, Sir Walter S. Prideaux, and privately printed in 1896, it has proved possible to identify the marks of a number of working goldsmiths of the seventeenth century with so high a degree of probability as to amount in most cases to certainty. For the privilege of access to these Memorials^ as well as to the original records, when necessary, the writer of these lines has to thank the Worship- ful Company, which has also done him the honour of giving him its Freedom and Livery. And lastly, by the express and most gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen, a new and interesting Frontispiece has been provided for the present edition of Old English Plate, giving the oldest specimens of English silver work remaining in the Eoyal Collections at Windsor Castle. W. J. C. ClEENCESTEK : March, 1899. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Preliminary — Gold — Silver — Their alloy's — The Englisli standards — The assay — Coloured gold — Frosted silver — A simple test for silver — Care of old plate — Goldsmiths' weights — Mint prices for gold ] CHAPTER II. The medingval guilds of goldsmiths in France and England — The Goldsmiths' Com- pany of London — Regulations of the Goldsmiths' Guild at Montpellier — Charters of the London goldsmiths, and early legislation relating to them and their marks — The Coronation Regalia — The banker-goldsmiths — Legisla- tion from the time of Charles II. — Table of London marks . . . .19 CHAPTER III. The marks found on plate assayed in London — The leopard's head — The maker's mark — The date-letter — The lion passant — The lion's head erased and figure of Britannia — The Sovereign's head ....... 48 CHAPTER IV. The Provincial assay-l owns and their marks, prior to 1701 — The Act of 1423 — Historical notes of the goldsmiths of Newcastle and York — The relations of the London with the provincial goldsmiths from time to time — Extinction of the old provincial Goldsmiths' Companies in l(i97 — York — Newcastle-upon- Tyne — Norwich — Chester — Exeter — Hull, Gateshead, Leeds, Carlisle, Lincoln. Taunton, Dorchester, Barnstaple, King's Lynn, Sandwich, Sherborne — Doubt- ful provincial marks — Table of old pi-ovincial marks . . . . .72 CHAPTER V. The provincial assay-offices and their marks, since 1701 — The Acts of Parliament establishing them — York — Exeter — Chester — Norwich — Newcastle-upon- Tyne — Birmingham — Sheffield — Table of modern provincial marks . . 1 l.J CHAPTER VI. Scotland — Scotch legislation — The iMlinburgh goldsmiths — Their marks, deacons, and assay-masters — Old provincial marks — ^Modern (ilasgnw — Table of Edinburgh and Glasgow marks I'.iG xii Contents. CHAPTER VII. PAGE Ireland — The Goldsmiths' Company of Dublin — Cork— New Geneva — Table of Dablin marks . . ........... 158 CHAPTER YIII. Frauds and offences — Old offences — The report to Parliament of 1773 — The Acts of 1739 and ISii — Cases proceeded against under their provisions — An amateur's experiences ........... 170 CHAPTER IX. Ecclesiastical plate — Episcopal constitutions relating to church-plate — Church goods, how affected by the events of the reigns of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth — Chalices exchanged for communion cups — Pre-Reformation chalices and patens — Elizabethan communion cups — Modern chalices, com- munion cups and patens — Flagiins — xVlms-dishes — Candlesticks . . . 181 CHAPTER X. Decorative and domestic plate — Introduction — Effect of the Wars of the Pioses — Prosperity of the sixteenth century — Great destruction of old plate at various times — Gold Plate — Obsolete vessels — Spoons — Mazers — Salts — Stoneware jugs — Ewer^, basins, and salvers — Standing cups and hanaps — Tankards — Smaller cups of various kinds — Plates — Forks — iVIonteiths — Candlesticks, sconces, etc. — Toilet services — Casters and cruet-stands — Tea and coffee services, kettles, etc. — Cake baskets and epergnes — Maces and oars — Piacing-bells, etc. ........... 231: APPENDIX A. Chronological List of the Examples used as Authority for London Date-letters and Makers' Marks. Part 1 305 Part II 413 APPENDIX B. Improved Tables of the Date-letters used by all the English, Scotch, and Irish Assay-Halls from the earliest times 135 INDEX 463 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece — SALVER (L")S).5) AXD EwER (1617), the Property of Her Majesty THE Queen. 1. pewter coffin chalice and PATEX, loTH CEN'TURY 2. CHALICE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 13tH CENTURY .... 3. COFFIN CHALICE OF ARCHBISHOP MELTON (D. 1340) AT YORK MINSTER i. CHALICE (147!)) AT NETTLECOMBE, SOMERSET 5. CHALICE (C. 149.")) AT COOMBE KEYNES, DORSET .... 6. BISHOP fox's gold CHALICE (l.")07) AT CORPUS CHRISTI COLL., OXFORD 7. CHALICE (1521) AT JURBY, ISLE OP MAN S. CHALICE (1527) AT TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD 9. CHALICE (1525) AT WYLYE, WILTS 10. PATEN (C. 1200) AT WYKE, HANTS 11. COFFIN PATEN OP BP. CANTELUPE (D. 121)!)) AT AYORCESTER CATHEDRAL 12. PATEN (1479) AT NETTLECOMBE, SOMERSET 13. PATEN (1527) AT TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD 14. COMMUNION CUP (1570) AT CIRENCESTER 15. COMMUNION CUP AND PATEN-COVER (1576) AT CHRISTCHURCH, CO. MON MOUTH ll). COMMUNION CUP (1568), NORWICH PATTERN 17. TWO COMMUNION CUPS (1600, 1622) , 18. TWO COMMUNION CUPS (_1630, 16S6) 19. PEWTER COMMUNION VESSELS, CIRCA 1640 20. COMMUNION CUP (1676) AT ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCHB .... 21. COMMUNION CUP (C. 1510) AT SANDWICH, KENT .... PAGE 195 196 197 198 199 203 204 205 206 208 209 210 211 212 22, CUP (1535) WITH COVER SURMOUNTED BY THE BOLEYN BADGE USED A A CHALICE AT CIRENCESTER 23. CUP (1540) USED AS A CHALICE AT GATCOMBE, ISLE OF WIGHT 24. COMMUNION VESSELS (1707) AT HYATTSVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A. 25. PATEN (1673) AT ST. CUTHBERT'S, YORK 26. COMMUNION FLAGON (1576) AT CIRENCESTER .... 27. COMMUNION FLAGON (1664) AT CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL 213 215 216 218 219 220 221 222 223 225 226 228 230 XIV List of Illustrations. PAGE 28. SIDEBOARD OF 16TH CENTURY '2'^^ 29. MAIDENHEAD SPOON, CIRCA 1540 243 30. SET OF THIRTEEN APOSTLES' SPOONS (1620) 244 31. apostles' SPOONS, IGTH CENTURY 246 32. SPOONS OP 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries 249 33. TEA-SPOONS, CIRCA 1760, AT BAEBER-SURfiEONS' HALL, LONDON . 2.")0 34. MAZER (loTH CENTURY) 256 35. THE SCROPE MAZER (C. 1400) AT YORK MINSTER, AND INSCRIPTION ON THE BAND 257 36. MAZER (C. 1440) AT ALL SOULS' COLL., OXFORD 259 37. BOSS OR PRINT IN THE BOTTOM OF THE LAST MAZER .... 260 38. MAZER (C. 1450) AT IRONMONGERS' HALL, LONDON 261 39. MAZER (C. 1470) AT ORIEL COLL., OXFORD 262 40. MAZER (1532) FORMERLY AT NARFORD HALL, CO. NORFOLK, PART OT ENGRAVED BAND, FULL SIZE 263 41. MAZER-BOWL (C. 1530 — 40), IN THE FRANKS COLLECTION .... 263 42. STANDING MAZER (1529) AT ALL SOULS" COLL., OXFORD .... 264 43. SILVER-GILT CUP, "WITH ARMS OF THE RODNEY FAMILY .... 265 44. SILVER-GILT CUP OF MAZER FASHION, FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF THE DUKE OF HAMILTON 266 45. CUP OF WOOD MOUNTED IN SILVER-GILT, DATED 1492, FROM THE SOLTY- KOFF COLLECTION 267 46. CUP OF WOOD MOUNTED IN SILVER-GILT, IN THE FRANKS COLLECTION 267 47 THK HUNTSMAN SALT (15TH CENTURY) AT ALL SODLS' COLL., OXFORD . 270 48. SALT (1498) AT NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD 271 49. SALT (1518) AT IRONMONGERS' HALL, LONDON 272 50. CYLINDRICAL SALT (1567), IN THE POSSESSION OF THE CORPORATION OF NORWICH 273 51. SALT (1569) AT VINTNERS' HALL, LONDON 274 52. SALT (1595) AT HABERDASHERS' HALL, LONDON 275 53. SALT (1607) AT CHRIST'S HOSPITAL, LONDON 276 54. SALT (16G1) AT CLOTHWORKERS' HALL, LONDON . . ... 277 55. OCTAGONAL SALT (1685) AT MERCERS' HALL, LONDON .... 277 56. THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE SALT (1698) 278 57. TRENCHER SALTS (1629, 1667) 279 58. STONEWARE JUG MOUNTED IN SILVER-GILT (1562) AT VINTNERS' HALL, LONDON 280 59. STONEWARE JUG (1581) FORMERLY USED AS A COMMUNION FLAGON AT WEST MALLING, KENT 281 List of Illustrations. XV 6 0. fil. f)2. 63. 64. 65. 66. 6 7. ^i. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 86. 87. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 9G. SALVER (1545) AT CORPUS CHRISTI COLL., CAMB EWER (1545) AT CORPUS CHRISTI COLL., CAMBRIDGE ROSE-WATER SALVER (1597) AT MERCHANT TAYLORS' HALL, LONDON- EWER (1617). THE PROPERTY OF THE CORPORATION OF NORWICH SALVER (1617). THE PROPERTY OF THE CORPORATION OF NORWICH EWER (1741), BY PAUL LAMERIE, AT GOLDSMITHS' HALL, LONDON COCOA-NUT CUP (C. 1.500) AT IRONMONGERS' HALL, LONDON OSTRICH-EGG CUP (1610) AT EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD . OSTRICH-EGG CUP (1623), THE PROPERTY OF H. WILLETT, ESQ. WASSAIL HORN (14TH CENTURY) AT QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD MOUNTED DRINKING HORN AT CHRIST'S HOSPITAL, LONDON THE CAWDOR HORN (TEMP. HENRY VII.) THE foundress' CUP (C. 1440) AT CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE CUP (15th cent.) at oriel COLLEGE, OXFORD .... BEAKER (1507) AT CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE . THE LEIGH CUP (1499) AT MERGERS' HALL, LONDON THE RICHMOND CUP (C. 1500 — 1520) AT ARMOURERS' HALL, LONDON STANDING CUP (1569) AT CORPUS CHRISTI COLL., CAMBRIDGE . THE CHAPMAN CUP (1580) AT ARMOURERS' HALL, LONDON PEA-HEN CUP (C. 1643) AT SKINNERS' HALL. LONDON DOUBLE CUP (17th CENTURY) AT VINTNERS' H \LL, LONDON . THE EDMONDS CUP (1613) AT CARPENTERS' HALL, LONDON THE BLACKSMITHS' CUP (1655) THE ROYAL OAK CUP (167(>) AT BARBER-SUBGEONS' HALL, LONDON THE PEPYS CUP (1677) AT CLOTHWORKERS' HALL, LONDON TWO-HANDLED CUP AND COVER (1739), BY PAUL LAMERIE, AT G SMITHS' HALL, LONDON CUP (1795) AT MERCHANT TAYLORS' HALL, LONDON . TANKARD (1574) AT THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD . THE POISON TANKARD (C. 1565) AT CLARE COLLEGE, CAM l!RI I)(;K TANKARD (1618), IN THE POSSESSION OF THE CORPORATION OF NORWICH TANKARD (1634), THE PROPERTY OF THE CORPORATION OF BRISTOL IRISH TANKARDS (1680) AT MERCHANT TAYLORS' HALL, LONDON TAZZA (1()33), FROM THE OCTAVIUS MORGAN COLLECTION. SAUCER (C. 1632) USED AS AN ALMS-DISH AT BREDGAl!. KENT BEAKER (1604) AT MERCERS' HALL, LONDON .... CAUDLE-CUP (1657) AT CLOTHWORKERS' HALL, LONDON . CAUDLE-CUP (1670), THE PROPERTY OF KARL BATHIIiST . AGE 283 284 285 286 287 288 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 313 314 315 316 3 IS 319 320 321 322 324 823 327 328 329 xvi List of Illustrations. PAGE 07. PORRINGER (1674) 330 98. FLUTED PORRINGER (1690) 330 09. FORK (TEMP. CHARLES II.) DUG UP IN COVENT GARDEN •. . . 335 100. MONTEITH (1702) AT VINTNERS' HALL, LONDON 337 101. CANDLESTICK (C. 1670) AT PENIARTH 338 102. CANDLESTICK (1735) 339 103. CANDLESTICK (1773) AT NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD 339 10-t. TOILET-BOX (1682) 341 105. FIRE-DOG (C. 1685) AT KNOLE 3*2 106. JAR (C. 1685) AT KNOLE 343 107. WINE-CISTEBN (1734) AT THE WINTER PALACE, ST. PETERSBURG . . 345 108. OCTAGONAL COFFEE-POT (1715), THE PROPERTY OF AUTHOR . . . 347 109. COFFEE-POT (1764) AT SALTERS' HALL, LONDON 348 110. TEA-URN (1771) AT BARBER-SURGEONS' HALL, LONDON .... 349 111. CHOCOLATE POT (1777) IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. . . 550 112. CAKE-BASKET (1731), BY PAUL LAMERIE 351 113. CAKE-BASKET (1740), BY PAUL LAMERIE 352 114. MACES AT WINCHCOMBE, CO. GLOUCESTER 358 115. MORPETH GREAT MACE (1604) 354 116. MACE OF WARD OF CHEAP, LONDON (1625) 355 117. THE "HOWARD" MACE (1671) AT NORWICH 358 118. MACE OP TOWER WARD, LONDON, TEMP. CHARLES II 359 119. OAR-MACE (C. 1690) OF CINQUE PORTS ADMIRALTY COURT , . . 360 120. DOVER WATER-BAILIFF'S MACE 361 121. RACING-BELLS (TEMP. ELIZ.), THE PROPERTY OF THE CORPORATION OP CARLISLE 362 122. COCKING-BELL (1655) 362 OLD ENGLISH PLATE. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY — GOLD — SILVER — THEIR ALLOYS — THE ENGLISH STANDARDS— THE ASSAY — COLOURED GOLD — FROSTED SILVER — A SliFPLE TEST FOR SILVER — CARE OF OLD PLATE — GOLDSMITHS' WEIGHTS — :\riNT PRICES FOR GOLD. Gold and silver, the best known of the noble metals, seem marked out by their natural beauty, their cost, and by the facility with which they lend themselves to the designs of the artist and the craftsman, as the appropriate materials for all the articles, whether of utility or ornament, that are specially devoted to the service of magnificence and splendour. From the earliest times devotion and luxury have habitually taken expression in their use. The beauty and rarity of these metals having thus early attracted attention, it is not wonderful that the properties which render them so available to the workman should have long been understood and appreciated. Their malleability, ductility, and the brilliant polish of which they are susceptible, have been known from time immemorial, and valued by every nation that has left any distinct mark upon the pages of history. The Egyptians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans, were all well acquainted with both gold and silver, and high authority places the vessels recently found on the supposed site of Troy and at Mycente amongst genuine relics of pre-Hellenic or, more indefinitely still, Homcri<- times. The early historical books of the Bible show that even a nomad tribe in their desert wanderings were able to carry the art of the goldsmith to a high state of perfection fifteen centuries before the commencement of the Christian era. The malleability of gold must liave been well understood by him who " did beat gold into thin l)lates " (Exod. xxxix. 3), and could " cut it into wires to work it into line linen with cunning work." Adorning it with jewels must have been a familiar art to those who "■ wrought onyx stones enclosed in O.E.P. B Old Eiwlish Plate. [chap. i. ouches of gold " (Exod. xxxix. 6) ; and what more like work of some modern artist than the candlestick wrought hy the Israelitish smith of old, with its six hranches of beaten work, " his shaft, and his branch, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers of the same ; three bowls made after the fashion of almonds in one branch, a kuop and a flower ; and three bowls made like almonds in another branch, a knop and a flower : so throughout the six branches going out of the candle^stick'' (:Exod. xxxvii.). It is unnecessary to multiply these early Biblical evidences — gold a,n^ silver are .ir^entioned on every page ; the fining pot for silver, the faruace for gold, and the refiner's fire are used as familiar images; suflice it to say, that from the time of Joseph's cup of silver and Solomon's drinking vessels of gold, all the more costly articles of household decoration and use have been made of tbose precious metals, and that from the time of the ark and the tabernacle, devo- tion has lavished them upon the adornment of its shrines and the fabrication of utensils dedicated to the service of religion. Turn we to Homer and we find the same ; the Kparr/p, wine bowl of silver, sometimes with brim of gold, sometimes all gilt, stands in the entrance hall on a tripod ; silver wine cups are given as rewards ; gold thread, gold plate, refined gold, gold vessels of every kind con- stantly mentioned ; Gi-eek words compounded of xp^-o-os (gold) and apyvpos (silver) are to be counted by hundreds, Roman homes gleamed with silver in the days of Horace — ridet argento domus (Hor. Od. iv. 11. 6). Cicero speaks of a shipload of wrought and stamped silver ; Pliny of suppers served on pure and antique silver (Plin. Ep. iii. 1. 9) ; Virgil of libations poured out of golden bowls — patcris lihamus et auro (Georg. ii. 192). Silver and gold have ever since been prized in the same way, and modern nations vie with the ancients and one another in the taste and art with which they apply them, and add to their beauty and value, whether by the aid of jewels or enamels, chasing, engraving, or the exquisite work that may be produced by even the hammer alone, wielded by skilful hands. Before proceeding to consider the gold and silver plate of our own country, and the makers' and other marks from which, as we shall find, it is often possible for the expert to gather much curious information, it will be well to note what may seem to be of use to the amateur and collector of old plate, as to the precious metals them- selves and their alloys, and as to the modes adopted from time to time of ascertaining the proportion of pure gold and silver contained in given portions of such alloys, or articles made of them, not forgetting CHAP. I.] Gold. 3 some remarks upon the English standards, and the weights used by the Enerlish groldsmiths. And first as to gold. GOLD. This is one of the most widely distributed of all metals, being found alike in volcanic rocks and alluvial deposits, sometimes in small masses or nuggets, but more often in a granular form. It is found both in the old and new worlds ; Hungaiy, Brazil, the Ural Mountains, Mexico, and Peru, have all furnished large quantities, but none of them anything like the amount supplied by California, Australia, and South Africa in modern times. According to Cer- nuschi, whilst its production annually up to 1850 was but equal to i'6,000,000, it was not less than £36,000,000 in 1852. From 1872 to 1878 it averaged about £19,000,000 ; in 1889 it amounted, according to the Director of the United States Mint, to about 179 tons of the metal, which would be worth something like £25,000,000 ; and in 1896, the latest date available, it had risen to more than £43,000,000. The British Isles have contributed their share, gold having been found in Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, and in the Wicklow ^klountains in Ireland ; we find the Crawford Moor district (Wanlockhead, &c., in Lanarkshire) once yielding no less than £100,000 of gold in three years' washing ; and Mr. Patrick Dudgeon of Cargen notices a mention of gold in Scotland, in a grant by King David I., a.d. 1125, to the Church of the Holy Trinity at Dunfermline, of his tenth of all the gold found in Fife and some other places. In Wanlockhead nuggets of gold have been found, and gold in grains may even now be obtained by washing. A piece of quartz having veins of gold in it was found there in 1872, and is described by Mr. Dudgeon. An analysis of this gold, made by Professor A. H. Church, gave him the following result, viz. : Gold ,S(•,•(;l)^ Silver I2-8y! ,,. -^ i-Sn. ^V. l()-;)0 Iron -H-)! ^ '^ Other substaiiresniid loss •()(>/ A sample of Sutherlandshiro gold has given the same analyst a smaller proportion of pure gold, viz. : Gold 7'.i-22> ,,.,.., Vsi). "T. lb-(>2 Silver 2U-78i To these may be added analyses on the same and other high authoritj', from each of the other districts mentioned above, and also b2 4 Old English Plate [chap. I. one of gold from Ashanti by way of comparison. The Wicklow and Wales analyses are by the late David Forbes, F.R.S. Wicklow... Gold 92-82 Silver (rl7 Wales Gold 90-16 Silver 9-26 Corn wall... Gold 9012 Silver 9()."> Ashanti ...Gold 90-(i.> Silver 9-94 It will be observed that in the specimen from Ashanti there was found butij^Q^ part of anything but gold and its invariable companion, silver. It remains to notice the physical properties of gold, which are the same wherever it is found, — its great density and weight, its malleability, ductility, its beautiful yellow colour, and the brilliant polish of which it is susceptible. Even in its least dense state, as cast gold, its specific gravity is 19"25, that is to say, it is 19^ times heavier than water, whilst, by hammering or rolling, its specific gravity can be made up to 19'30 or even 19"40. Its weight is correspondingly great: a cubic inch weighs 10'16 oz. Troy, and a cube measuring six inches every way will therefore weigh no less than 182*88 lb. Troy, or about as much as a man can lift. Gold is so malleable that it can be beaten into leaves the 200^000 P^^"^ ^^^ an inch thick, and so ductile that a grain can be drawn into more than 500 feet of wire ; it is these properties that are of such importance to the worker in gold. SILVER. This metal is also very widely distributed ; the chief sources of supply in former days were Hungary, Transylvania, and Spain, but since the discovery of America an enormous quantity has come from thence, and especially from Peru and Mexico ; it also exists in large quantities in sea water. It is, however, very seldom found pure, being usually in combination with other substances, often with lead, and it is by separating silver from lead that a great deal of British silver is produced at the present time. A mention of this process is noticed by Mr. Dudgeon in an Act of Parliament of James I. of Scotland, passed in 1424. It has been estimated that up to 1830 silver was produced in three- fold quantities compared with gold ; the annual production for the ten years ending 1871 being about £10,000,000. In 1872 and up to 1875, valued at the same rate in relation to gold, it would be i'13,700,000; and if we assume that the ratio of 1 : 15A represents the proportion between the value of silver and that of gold, then the CHAP. I.] Silver. 5 annual production of both metals for twenty-foui" years represents £83,000,000, It is said that the total amount of silver produced throughout the world in 1889 was 3920 tons, which would at 4s. per Troy ounce, represent a value of rather more than £25,500,000 ; and, further, that the production of silver in 1896 would be worth about fifty-one millions of money at its coin value in England of 5.§. 6(/. per ounce. Its intrinsic value would be much less than half of this sum at the market price. A specimen of native Cornish silver (Wheal Ludcott) has given Professor A. H. Church — Silver '.»7-8(j Silver Chloride -71 (xold and antimony -21 Iron •].*) Loss. &c 1-07 -sp. gr. 10-2G Silver is not so malleable as gold, although it may be beaten into leaves no more than the too!ooo P'^^'^ of an inch thick, and it may be drawn into a wire finer by far than human hair, such is its ductility. Its specific gravity differs greatly from that of gold, being from 10"40 to 10*60 according to circumstances, and the weight of a cubic inch is 5*52 oz. Troy, or not much more than half the weight of a similar cube of gold. ALLOYS. We have now noted what is necessary as to pure gold and pure silver, and the importance of some of the details recorded, especially those relating to their specific gravity, will presently be seen. But both these metals when in a state of purity are too soft for the purposes of either coin or plate. It has therefore been found expedient from the earliest times to employ some other metal as an alloy to give them the required degree of hardness without materially afiecting their colour. l^iii it be remarked in passing that the word alloij is often said to be derived from the French a la loi, the proportion of baser metal that might be used for the purpose having been from very early days regulated by law. But the word seems more often than not used for the mixed metal itself rather than for the portion of base metal added to the pure gold or silver ; and coupling this with the fact that the French express it by (dUa ditto (1 — (■) tannia " standard.) 37 ditto 4 — S <5 George I. . . 11 2 — 18 2 Edward VI. . (■) — (j () Being the oltl sterling 4 ditto 3 — i» standard restored ; G ditto 11 1—0 111 this and the above 1 Mary . . . 11 — 1 new sterling have 2 Elizabeth . . 11 2 — . 18 both been legal stan- Being sterling standard dards from 1720 to restored, at which it , the i)resent day. has remained ever 1 smce. i It must be understood that the standard of fineness remained the same from any one date in the above table, until the next entry occurs. cHAi>. I.] The English Standards. g Formerly, the standard gold of the English coinage was alloyed ■with silver as well as copper, and it was consequently of the paler yellow colour we notice in the case of old sovereigns, and Australian sovereigns up to recent years. This older mixture contained according to the standard trial plates of 1728 and 1829 respectively, the following proportions of gold and alloying metals : 1728 JS2'.t Gold 916-1 '.n.-.-S Silver M-i 37-(; Co})per 3i^"") 1<'>'"> Since 1829 or thereabouts, copper only has been used as an alloy, and the specific gravity has been reduced from about 17'82 to 17"57 ; whilst more recently even the traces of silver existing in the natural gold have been removed. This is effected by passing a stream of chlorine gas through the molten gold, by a process invented by Mr. F. B. ]Miller, which purifies it not only from the silver, but from other metals, some of them injurious to the gold if required for coining purposes. This process has been of late years extensively employed for recovering silver from gold, and for toughening the latter metal. The trial plate of 1873 shows gold 916-61 and copper 88-39. The specific gravity of our English standard or sterling silver is 10-30. The last three Mint trial plates for silver show respectively : — 1728 1820 1S73 Silver !)28-'J 'J2:)() '.>24'J(J Copper 71-1 7:)0 7.".-Ut The remedy or permitted variation from standard has varied from time to time in the case of gold as well as silver. The earliest known remedy for the gold coin, then of 23-3?. carats fine, was ^th a carat, or 5-2 thousandths. This was allowed by Edward III., in 1345. The most ancient trial plate now preserved is for this standard, and is of the year 1477. It shows Gold ;»;»:Mr, Silver •"cI.") Copper, etc 1'3"> This, or sometimes ,Uh of a carat or 6-9 thousandths, remained the rule till 1649, since which time till 1817 itli of a carat has continually been the remedy for the 22-carat coinage gold. In this last year an effort was made to attain greater accuracy in the coinage, and the remedy was reduced from ,Uh to ,',jth of a carat, or 2-6 thousandths. It is now 2-0 thousandths. The silver remedy was 2 dwts. or 8-4 thousandths from 1601 to 1817, when 1 dwt. or 4-2 thousandths was substituted. At the present time it is 4"0 thousandths. lO Old English Plate. [chap. i. '-2.") = 10-16 oz. Troy. 1 „ pure silver 10-47 = 5o2 oz. ,, 1 ., copper 8-72 = 4-(iU oz. „ 1 ,. 11 parts of silver unci 7 of copper — TrlG oz. „ (The usual alloy for gold.) 1 „ equal parts of silver and coi)pcr = oMMj oz. ,, The writer now quoted draws attention to the fact that a quantity of the last alloy mentioned in this list is almost exactly half the weight of an equal bulk of pure gold. There are two cases in which these facts can be made of use ; if the quality of the metal be known, it can be ascertained whether an article made of it is solid throughout, or hollow ; and again, if it be known to be solid throughout, as for instance in the case of a beaten plate of metal, its specific gravity will The Book of Hall Marks, by A. Lutschaunig, Loudon, 1872. CHAP. I.J Tlic Assay. II readily sLoav wliotlier it is formed of pure ji:old, or of "-old mixed with alloy. Archimedes must have satisfied himself that Hiero's crown was solid throughout, hefore he could have founded a decision that it was alloyed with silver on the fjict that when immersed in a vessel con- taining water it displaced a certain greater quantity of water than was displaced when the same weight of pure gold was put into the vessel. It will of course be a good test for articles suspected to be plated. But as these early times do not immediately concern the present inquiry, we must pass to the mode used in what are called the Middle Ages, and even in more modern times, of testing the fineness of gold and silver by the touchstone, or pierve dc ionche. King Henry Til. by his will directs that " there be made a tomb of stone called Touche sufficiently large both for our dearest late wife the Queen and ourself." This Touchstone or Basanite is an imperfect black jasper or black flinty slate, originally brought from Mount Tmolus in Lydia, and therefore called lapis Lj/diiis ; it is, however, found in various parts of the world, and indeed any hard black siliceous substance, or CA'en a piece of black pottery, will serve the purpose. The great Josiah Wedgwood made such, stamped with ^\fj^uK°iT* about 1770 or 1780. This mode of trying the fineness was called " touching," and the word obtained for a long time after the adoption of the chemical assay. The word " touch " seems to have been applied indifferently to the trial, to the quality of the metal tested, and to the mark impressed upon it. A curious mention of the word in this last sense occurs in 153G, when it is said that a report was widely spread in the north country that everybody was to bring in his plate in order that it might have the " touch of the Tower" struck on it.* This has, however, in all probability little really to do with our present subject, most likely referring to a matter of taxation, and to what in modern French plate affairs is called a " rceciisc,''' and not to assaying generally. For the trial of gold, sets of touch-needles or bars were used, one set alloyed with copper, another with silver, and in some cases a third set alloyed with silver and copper mixed, twenty-four in each set, according to the twenty-four carats' fineness of gold. The streak or touch made on the touchstone with the piece under examination was compared with the streaks made by the needles, these streaks were also washed with aipiajnrtis, which dissolving the alloying metals, left the gold pure, and ]>}' the comparison its fineness was determined. For testing silver, sets of needles were also used. In (ieiinany the State Papers, Domedir, Henri/ VIII. {\:>^,ii). Vol. XL, No. 768, fo. 206. 12 Old English Plate. [chap. i. set consisted of sixteen, after the sixteen loth* according to which the standard of fineness was there computed, but doubtless the number varied in different countries according to the computation of the standard. In skilful hands much information could be derived from the sensations of greasiness or dryness, roughness or smoothness, imparted by the stroke ; but this test has been little used for many centuries, and it could never have been a satisfactory mode of ascer- taining the purity of silver, into Avhich so much copper could be introduced without materially affecting its colour, though it is prob- able that the hardness of the alloy aided in the detection of fraud. The " touch," however, long continued the mode of trying gold, and indeed is even used at the present day for rough examinations. The period at which the chemical assay or assay by the cupel was first introduced is not exactly known, but it was certainly practised in the thirteenth century, and, as we shall see, was the mode of exami- nation adopted by the authorities in the fourteenth century. In the latter it was practised at Montpellier in France, a city famous for its goldsmiths. In the following chapter we shall come to definite mention of the " Assay " in 1300, which is early enough for our purpose. The process of the assay in contradistinction to the touch is as follows : — for gold, to a portion of metal scraped oft' the article to be examined, say about eight grains, after being accurately weighed, is added three times its weight of silver, and a proper proportion of lead, the latter by wrapping the gold and silver in a piece of sheet-lead. The whole is placed in a small shallow porous crucible made of bone ashes, called a cupel, and exposed to a bright-red heat ; the metals melt, and whilst the silver and gold combine, the lead and alloying metals become oxidised, and the oxides are absorbed by the cupel, leaving a button of pure gold and silver. This button is then fiattened, rolled out into a strip, which is then coiled into a sort of screw, called a " cornet " ; this is placed in hot diluted nitric acid, by which the silver is dissolved and the gold alone remains, the cornet is then treated with stronger nitric acid, washed, and lastly made red- hot : when cold it is weighed again, and the difference between its present weight and the original weight of the scrapings carefully determined. For silver the process is much the same : a certain portion, usually about ten or twenty grains, is scraped oft' the article, some being taken from each separate part : this is wrapped in lead of proportionate weight, and the whole heated in the cupel. The result * The Cologne pound was divided into 2 marks, and each mark into 16 loth. The mark = 3608 gr. English. cHAi'. I.] The Assay. 13 is the same as in the case of gold, except that the l)iitton remaiuinii- is of pure silver onl}' ; the difference between the weight of this button and the original weight of the portion operated upon, shows the amount of alloy. The portion of metal taken off for examination is called the " diet." Of this process a minutely-detailed account was given in a small book published more than two centuries ago, called A ToiicJistoiicfor Gold and Silrcr ]V((yes,* and the process is now carried on at Gold- smiths' Hall in precisely the same manner as then, even to the mode of folding up the papers to contain the scrapings of the metal to be assayed. If the article examined is found to be of the required fineness, the marks are stamped on it with punches ; but if the metal is not of the proper qualit}', the article is crushed, and so delivered back to the maker. It is scarcely credible that every separate part of every separate article made of gold or silver (with the few exceptions that Avill appear later) in this country, goes through this process of examination, either in London or in one of the provincial assay-towns, but such is the fact ; and the public are greatly indebted to the com- panies of goldsmiths, and especially to the great London guild, for the effectual protection afforded by their vigilance against the frauds which prevailed in earlier times. ' There is yet another mode of testing silver, an account of which has been partly taken from Brande and Cox's Dictionary of Science, lAterattive, and Art, together with some of the notes which follow it. This mode, the assay of silver in the humid way, may be adopted where the quality of the alloy is approximately known. The process depends upon the precipitation of the silver by a standard solution of common salt, each 1000 grains of which contain a sufficient quantity of salt to precipitate ten grains of silver, so that supposing the silver and the salt to be pure, ten grains of silver dissolved in nitric acid would be entirely precipitated by 1000 grains of the standard solution. The process is as simple as that of assaying by the cupel. The metal scrapings after being weighed are put into a small bottle and dissolved in nitric acid, to this solution is then added the standard solution of salt, as long as it produces cloudiness ; at the moment when no further change occurs, the number of measures of salt solution used is read off, and the fineness of the alloy determined with great accuracy by the amount of the standard solution of salt which has been required to precipitate completely the silver from its solution ; thus supposing * The title of the edition quoted is 1 irarr.?, l)y \V, I'.., of London, gold.siuith, '^cd. .1 Ncio Touchstone for Gobi and Silver \ 1679. 14 Old English Plate. [chap. i. ^ve were operating upon fine silver, we should have used 1000 such measures, hut with the same weight of sterling silver, say silver coin, ■1)25 only would have heen required. It may he that assaying hy means of the spectroscope may some day supersede these older methods, but the attempts which have been made as yet in this direction have only served to prove that in the present state of science, little or no practical use can be made of this beautiful instrument for assaying purposes. Some experiments made by Mr. Chandler-Roberts at the mint with Professor Hughes' Induction Currents Balance seem to show that it is more probable that some day electricity may be pressed into the service of the assayer. A detailed description of this invention would be out of place here, suffice it to say, that it is capable of revealing the existence of very minute proportions of gold in silver, and of silver in gold, and thus, already useful in the examination of certain alloys of the precious metals, may eventually become of practical value in assaying them. It was thought at first that by its means when combined with what Professor Hughes calls a sonometer, and with a telephone, the difference might be detected in the sound produced by two shillings both fresh from the Mint, one of which has been rubbed between the fingers and the other not.* This is perhaps rather more than can be said to have been really accomplished as yet, but it will' doubtless be achieved at no very distant day. Enough has now been said about processes, which after all can only be carried out by expert hands, and we may pass on to a few notes of general utility belonging to the chemical part of the subject, referring those whom the subject of practical assaying may interest to the standard works on Metallurgy, especially Dr. Percy's volume on Silver. A word will be expected about the "frosted" silver, and what is called the "coloured" gold, that is so often seen in the windows of the goldsmiths' shops: and first, what is "coloured gold"? It is metal from the immediate surface of which the copper or other alloy has been removed, so as to leave an outer coat of pure gold. An article treated in this way has all the appearance of being made of purer gold than it is, but the coating of fine gold is one of almost inconceivable thinness, "not thicker," says Mr. Lutschaunig, "than the hundredth part of the breadth of a hair. It is the same as if the article were gilt or electro-plated, only that in the one instance the alloy is taken out of the gold on the surface, leaving the pure gold, Nmetee7ith Century Beview, October, 1879. CHAP. I.] Care of Old Plate. 15 and that in the other tlie gold is put on. Any gold over nine carats can he coloured hy hoiling in nitric acid, or other preparation acting in the same manner." "Frosted" silver is silver similarly dealt with. If silver mixed with copper, our own standard silver for example, he heated to a dull red heat in air, it hecomes of a black colour from the formation of a film of oxide of copper, and if this be removed by its being dipped in hot diluted sulphuric acid, the silver becomes of the beautiful white appearance called "frosted" silver, owing to a film of pure silver being left on its immediate surface,* We find the celebrated London silversmith of the last century, Paul Lamerie, who died in 1751, directing in his will that all the plate in hand at the time of his death should be " forthwith finished and made fit for sale by being boiled and burnished." New coins owe their brilliancy to this mode of treatment before being struck, the darker appearance of their projecting parts after some wear is occasioned by the alloy showing through the pure surface. Articles of ^jlate may also be deadened, matted, or frosted by being boiled in bi-sulphate of potash, which acts in the same way as the diluted sulphuric acid. The bad quality of the silver of which base coin or any other article of base metal is made may be detected immediately by the use of a solution of common nitrate of silver. If thirty grains of this salt be dissolved in an ounce of distilled water, and a drop or two of the solution be placed upon the suspected coin or metal, a brown or black film or spongy mass of metallic silver will appear in the case of base metal, and its quantity will form a rough measure of the degree of baseness. Some interesting directions for the care and cleaning of silver-gilt plate, are preserved with the church-plate of Stinsford, in Dorsetshire.! They are dated June, 1737, and are headed " Directions to keep the (lilt Plate clean from the Silversmith that made it," the silversmith being noue other than Paul Lamerie himself. They run as follows : — " Clean it now and then with only warm water and soap, with a Spunge, and then wash it with clean water, and dry it very well with a soft Linnen Cloth, and keep it in a dry place, for the damp will spoylc it." Compare with this extract, the instructions given by the silver- smith who made the plate for Carlisle Cathedral in 1679, for they arc equally well worth our attention. " Be carefull," he says, " to wipe it with a clean soft linnen cloath, and if there chance be any staines or spotts that will not easily come off with a little water, the cloatli being * In Mint language this is called "blanching." t The Church Plate of Jhr^et. Salislairy, 1889. i6 Old English Plate. [chap. i. dipp'd therein, and so rnbb the flagons and chalices from the topp to the Bottome, not cross\Yise, hut the Bason and patens are to be rubb'd roundwise, not acrosse, and by uoe means use either chalke, sand, or salt."* These last words cannot be too strongly emphasised. It is sad to see how much damage has been done to beautiful old plate by excessive rubbing and the use of injurious cleaning materials. The simple directions given above by Paul Lamerie and his brother silver- smith are still as good a guide as those can wish for, who value their old silver and silver- gilt plate. GOLDSMITHS- WEIGHTS. In former times the Tower pound, or ijois d'orfevres, the old pound sterling of silver, was used by the goldsmiths, and in the earlier inventories, such as those of the Treasury of the Exchequer and in the Wardrobe Accounts, the weight of articles of plate is recorded in such pounds, and in marks, shillings, and pence for sub-divisions. This ancient pound was equal to 5400 grains Troy, and was divided into twenty shillings, and these last into twelve pence or pennyweights ; the mark was two thirds of the Tower pound. These, however, ceased to be legal mint weights in the reign of Henry Till. They had long before that fallen out of common use, but in 1526-7 (18 Hen. VIII.) the Tower pound was abolished by royal proclamation. The Troy pound then substituted for the Tower pound is said to have been introduced into England as early as the great French wars of the reign of Edward III., or perhaps earlier, and its name was no doubt derived from the French town of Troyes, where a celebrated fair was held. It has been used ever since by the trade of goldsmiths for all gold or silver wares in England, but as its sub-divisions are not so commonly known as the avoirdupois weights of commercial life, it will be useful to give in addition to a table of the Troy weights, a table by which the weight of plate as ascertained by the ordinary domestic avoirdupois scale, may be easily and quickly converted into the Troy reckoning by which it would have to be valued or sold. TROY WEIGHTS. 24 grains = 1 dwt. (pennyweight). 480 grains = 20 dwts. = 1 oz. (ounce). 5760 grains = 240 dwts. = 12 oz. = 1 lb. (pound). * Old Church Plate in the Diocese of Carlisle, by E. S. Ferguson, If. A., F.S.A. London, 1882. CHAP. I.] Gohhinitlis' Weights. ij AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHTH. 437^ grains = 1 oz. 7000 grains = IG oz. = 1 lb. The grain is the same in both cases. Comparative Table of Troy and AvoiRorrois Wkkjhts. Aroirdi'pois. Tro>/. — • i dwts. 13^ gr. Acoir(hij)^ ., 10 ^. = '.» ,■ 2 7 2 ., = 1 oz. IG ,, 11 „ 11 ., = 10 V 12.1 3 „ = 2 „ 14 ,, IH :, 12 „ = 10 ., 18 18 4 ., = 3 „ 12 22 ., 13 .. = 11 ., IG , 231 5 ,. = 4 ., 11 ,, ^ .., 14 .. = 12 .. 15 5 6 :, = 5 „ y ,, 9 M 1.-) „ =: 13 .. 13 m 7 „ = G ., 7 , 14.1 .^ IG ,. = 14 .. 11 IG 102 oz. (12 lbs. ) Avoirdupois = 175 oz. Troj^, being 84,000 gr. each. The weight of an article of phite was always given in ounces and pennyweights ; thus 5 lb. 5 oz. 5 dwts. would be called 65 oz. 5 dwts., but it is uow-a-days given in ounces and decimal parts of an ounce, in compliance with modern legislation on the subject. It will be convenient also to remember that a pound Troy of standard gold is coined in England into 4Gf§ sovereigns, the weight of a sovereign being 123*27447 gr. A pound Troy of sterling silver is coined into 66 shillings, the weight of a shilling being 87'27272 gr., and of a sixpence 43' 63636 gr. New silver coins, therefore, to the amount of 5s', 6(?. will weigh an ounce Troy, and could be used at that rate as a substitute for ordinary weights on an emergency. The intrinsic value of plate made of sterling standard silver would be at present (Dec, 1898) prices about 2.s. 4f?. per ounce. It has varied but very little since 1894 ; having fallen about one penny halfpenny an ounce in the course of the last three years. MINT PKICES FOR (JOLD. Lastly, dividing the number of sovereigns contained in one pound Troy of standard gold by twelve, the value of an ounce of such gold (22 carat) will be found to be J63 Us. lOhd., or 3.s. Qld. for each t]-:^ part (or carat) of tine gold in the ounce weight. The following table gives the value per ounce of all the other qualities of gold that it has been necessary to mention, at this Mint price. No account is taken of the material used for alloying the gold, which would in any case be of trilling value. The alloying metal in an ounce of 22 carat gold, if sterling silver alone were used for the alloy, would hardly be worth 21,(1. at the present market price of silver : in other words the silver o.E.r. c i8 Old English Plate. [chap. i. in a sovereign made of such an alloy, would be worth less than a single penny. £ .f. d. 24 carats (or pure gold) -i 4 11 2 per oz. 23 car. 3:} gr. (old gold coin. See table, p. 8) 4 4 i>\ ., 22 car. (present gold coin and first goldware standard) 3 17 KJi „ 20 car. (gold coin temp. Henry VIII. See table, p. 8). Also an Irish standard) 3 10 'Ji ,, ] 9^ car. (touch of Paris. See table, p. 8) 3 7 lU „ 18 car. (second goldware standard) 3 3 85 „ 1 5 car. (third ditto) 2 13 1 „ 12 car. (fourth ditto) 2 2 5| „ 9 car. (fifth ditto) 1 11 lOi „ CHAPTER II. THE J[EDI.EVAL GUILDS OF GOLDSJIITHS IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND — THE GOLD- SMITHS' COJIPANY OF LONDON — REGULATIONS OF THE GOLDSMITHS' GUILD AT MONTPELLIER — CHARTERS OF THE LONDON GOLDSMITHS AND EARLY LEGISLATION RELATING TO THEM AND THEIR MARKS — THE CORONATION REGALIA — THE BANKER GOLDSMITHS — LEGISLATION FROM THE TIME OF CHARLES II. — TABLE OF LONDON MARKS, There are no articles in the niauufacture of wliicli such extensive frauds can be committetl in so small a compass as those made of the precious metals, and there are no frauds more difticult of detection by ordinary persons. We have seen, too, that ^Yhilst a certain amount of base metal must needs be introduced into all such articles, it is only by a minute scientific examination that the proportion of base metal so introduced can be known for certain, and but few persons can possess either the skill or the means to conduct the necessary operations. The great profit to be made by fraudulent practices, the difiiculty of detection, and the consequent probability of escape from it and from punishment, have at all times exposed the dishonest workman to irresistible temptations. In very early times, those who carried on particular trades or handicrafts were accustomed to form themselves into guilds or fraternities for the purpose of protecting and regulating the trade, or mystery as it was called, which they exercised. These were at subsequent periods incorporated by royal charters, which gave them power and authority to carry out their objects more eftectually. Amongst such associations, those of the goldsmiths seem to have been early formed in many countries of Europe. In 1260 it became necessary for the provost of Paris to issue a code of statutes for the regulation of the goldsmiths, who already existed there as a corporate body. Not only was gold of an inferior quality substituted for good gold, but articles made of laten were gilt and palmed ofl" for gold, and pewter was silvered and sold for the genuine metal. In these statutes, gold is ordered to be of "the touch of Paris," and silver as good as "Sterlings" (estoiins), which was the standard of the English coin, as we have seen. In 1300 the mark of Paris was known even abroad, for it is referred to in the iMiglish Wardrobe Accounts of that year (28 Edw. I.) in these terms : — c 2 20 Old English Plate. [chap. II. " 8 C'ocleav' argenti signata in collo signo Parisius, scilt. de quodam flore glegelli." A second and more extensive code was issned by John II. of France, in the shape of Letters of Confirmation given at St. Ouen in Aug. 1355,* when it was ordered that every goldsmith who was approved by the masters of the craft should have a puncheon with a counter- mark of his own. Amongst other things they were forbidden to work in gold unless it be of the touch of Paris, or better, and the statutes add that this standard is better than all the gold which they work in other lands {en. milk terres), and that its fineness is nineteen and one-fifth carats. They are also forbidden to work in base metal, to use false stones or glass, or to put coloured foil beneath real stones. Their silver was to be argent de roij, 11 deniers 12 grains fine,f and jurors (jirudhommcs) were appointed to guard the trade, with power to punish those who worked in bad metal. At Montpellier the gold- smiths in the fourteenth century constituted a fraternity governed by statutes, and they had a standard of their own, which, however, does not seem to have been a high one, since silver might contain one-third part of alloy, or such silver as would come white out of the fire, and gold of fourteen carats fine might be worked. They were expressly forbidden to manufacture articles in gilt or silvered copper or brass, save ornaments and utensils for churches, to mount real stones in jewellery of base metal, or to set false stones in gold or silver. "We shall presently see how much light the history of the goldsmiths of Montpellier throws upon that of their English brethren. At Nuremberg and Augsburg, cities most famous for their metal- workers, as w^ell as in many other places, similar guilds of goldsmiths, regulated by statutes, existed. In England a fraternity or guild of goldsmiths had existed from an early period, for in 1180, the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Henry II., it was amongst other guilds amerced from being adulterine, that is, set up without the king's licence. It was not, however, incorporated by charter for nearly a hundred and fifty years aftei- this time, although it had special duties assigned to it, one of the duties of the wardens of the craft being to protect their trade against fraudulent workers by holding otficial examinations of the above-mentioned kinds, and placing marks upon articles so examined. * Collection de piices relatives a Vldstoire de France, par C. Leber, Paris, 1838. Yol. XIX. 348. I Denier was the term used in France to denote the fineness of silver as carat is for gold. The silver is divided into twelve deniers, and each denier into two oholes or twenty-four grains ; hence silver of twelve deniers was pure, and eleven deniers one obole had only one twenty-fourth part alloy. This quality w-as the Argent de Roy. Earlv Gohisinitlis' Guilds. 21 Some such marks must have been necessary in order to certify to the purchaser, and for other purposes, a certain standard purity of metal in articles so examined, and the ofificial stamps by which it was certified seem to have been the origin of the marks which arc found on the gold and silver plate of most countries. Every person who is possessed of any article of gold or silver plate, has, most probably, observed a small group of marks stamped upon some part of it. Few, perhaps, have regarded them in any other light than as a proof that the article so marked is made of the metal of which it is professed to be made, and that the metal itself is of a certain purit3^ And this is, in fact, the ultimate intention of these marks ; but besides this the archaeologist can often deduce from them other important and interesting information, — as to the year in which any article bearing them was made ; the place at which it was made, or at all events, assayed : the maker's name, and other particulars. As regards England, an historical notice of the Goldsmiths' Company of London and its charters, and the legislation which from time to time has regulated the trade of the goldsmith, will elucidate in its course the meaning of all the marks to be found on English plate. Some notes of the provincial guilds and assay offices, including those of Scotland and Ireland, and of their respective marks, will bo reserved for separate cliapters. Except for the early trace of a guild in 1180, which has already been noticed, we have to wait until the commencement of the thir- teenth century before we come to any definite regulation of the mystery of the goldsmiths of London, and even then their formal incorporation had not yet taken place. However, by this time they were a numerous and powerful craft, for in an affray which occurred in 12()7 between the goldsmiths and the tailors, those trades met and fought to the number of 500 men on each side, of whom some were killed, the dead being, it is said, thrown into the Thames, and otliers wounded, before the bailiffs of the city could part them and apprehend the ringleaders, some of whom were hanged.* But, truth to say, their turbulence was not their only failing, for the frauds that seemed so common in France had their place also in ]^]ngland, and by the year 1288 were of such extent as to cull for a mandate from the king, to be found in the Close PioUs of that year, t This, which is entitled " 7Aj aiivo fahriraudo in cirifnte LoNiIoniariiiit,'' commands the * Chronicles of the Mayor and Sheriffs of London, etlitcd by H. T. Riley, London, 1863. Such affrays are also mentioned in Herbert's J/istor;/ of the London Liver;/ Coiiipaiiics. i Close Rijll, -22 Henry III., in. U, 22 Old En^lisli Plate. [chai-. n. '6 mayor and aldermen to choose six of the more discreet goldsmiths of the cit}', who were to superintend the craft, seeing that no craftsman worked any gold of which a mark was not worth a hundred shillings at least, nor any silver of less intrinsic value than the king's money — " quod non valcat in se quantum valcaf moneia Regis.'' They were also to prevent any one working in secret, or anywhere but in the public street, to see that gold bore no colour but its own, except in the case of gold thread, and that no one put gold upon laton or cojjper. There are also provisions as to the use of precious and counterfeit stones. Fifty years later, the first actual statute on the subject, passed in 1300, recognizes these discreet goldsmiths by the name of wardens, and for the first time establishes their powers on a firm basis, ordaining as follows, viz. (28 Edward I., Stat. 3, cap. 20) : — " That no goldsmith should make any vessel, jewel, or other thing of gold or silver unless it be of good and true alloy, i.e., gold of the standard of the touch of Paris {taclie de Parys) and silver of the sterling alloy, or better {argent 'del alloy de le esterling ou de meilleur), and that none work worse silver than money. And that no vessel of silver depart out of the hands of the workers until it be assayed by the wardens of the craft, and marked with the leopard's head {e q'ele soil signee de line teste de leopart). That the wardens (gardlens) should go from shop to shop {de shopc en shope) among the goldsmiths and assay {assaient) the gold, and if they should find any other it should be forfeit to the King. That no false stones should be set in gold, and that all the good towns of England where any goldsmith be dwelling shall be ordered according to this E statute as they of London be, and that one shall come from every good town for all the residue that be dwelling in the same unto London for to be ascertained of their Touch. And if any goldsmith be attainted that he hath done otherwise, he shall be punished by imprisonment and by ransom at the King's pleasure." Here, then, we have mention, not only of wardens of the craft, but of an assa}^ and of a distinct mark for standard metal. Mr. Octavius Morgan notes that the phraseology of this statute more than suggests that such a mark was now ordered for the first time, it being- termed ^' iDie teste." This is indeed an important step in the history of which we are tracing the course. It is the earliest mention, too, of an assay. Now that the duty of the wardens is laid down, we have naturally not long to wait for the regular incorporation of a Goldsmiths' guild in London, and in 1327 it was so incorporated by letters-patent from CHAP. II.] The Loudon Goldsmiths. 23 Edward III., under tlie name of "The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London." This charter, which is in old French, and is dated 30 May, 1 Kdw, III., is given at length, hotli in French and English, in Herhert's History of the London Liverij Coi)q)a)iies. It first recites and then grants as follows : — that the goldsmiths of our City of London had hy their petition exhibited to the King and Council in Parliament holdcn at Westminster, shown that theretofore no private merchants or strangers were wont to bring into this land any money coined, but plate of silver to exchange for our coin ; that it had been ordained that all of the trade of goldsmiths were to sit in their shops in the High-street of Cheap, and that no silver or gold plate ought to be sold in the city of London except in the King's Exchange or in Cheap, among the goldsmiths, and that publicly, to the end that persons in the trade might inform themselves whether the seller came lawfully by it: but that of late both private merchants and strangers bring from foreign lands counterfeit sterling whereof the pound is not worth sixteen sols of the right sterling, and of this money none can know the right value but by melting it down ; and that many of the trade of goldsmiths do keep shops in obscure streets, and do buy vessels of gold and silver secretly without inquiring whether such vessels were stolen or come lawfully by, and immediately melting it down, make it into plate, and sell it to merchants trading beyond sea, and so make false work of gold, silver, and jewels, in which they set glass of divers colours, counterfeiting right stones, and put more alloy in their silver than they ought, which they sell to such as have no skill in such things ; and that the cutlers cover tin with silver so snbtilely and with such sleigh b that the same cannot be discovered nor separated, and so sell the tin for fine silver, to the great damage and deceipt of us and our people ; we, with the assent of our lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons of our realme, will and grant for us and our heirs that henceforth no one shall bring into this land any sort of money, l)ut only plate of fine silver, and that no plate of gold or silver be sold to sell again, or be carried out of the kingdom, but shall be sold openly for private use ; that none of the trade shall keep any shop, except in Cheap, that it may be seen that their work be good ; that those of the trade may by virtue of these presents elect honest and suflicient men, best skilled in the trade, to inquire of the matters aforesaid, and that they who arc so chosen reform what defects they shall find, and inflict punishment on the offenders, and that by the help of the mayor and sherifl's, if need be ; that in all trading cities in iMudand where ffoldsmiths reside, tlie same ordinance be observed 24 ^l^^ English Plate. [chap. h. as in London, and that one or two of every such city or town for the rest of the trade shall come to London to he ascertained of their touch of gold, and there to have a stamp of a puncheon of a leopard's head marked upon their work as it was anciently ordained. For some years they were governed hy the provisions of this charter, hut in 1363 further legislation hecame necessary, and hy an Act of that year (37 Edw. III. cap. 7) it was ordained that no goldsmith, as well in London as elsewhere within the realm, should work any gold or silver but of the alloy of good sterling {alloy de hon estcrhjng) ; that ever}^ master goldsmith should have a mark hy himself which should he known hy them who should be assigned to survey their work and allay ; tha fc the goldsmiths should not set their mark till their work was assayed ; and that after the assay made, the surveyor should set the king's mark upon it, and then the goldsmith his mark for which he should answer ; that no goldsmith should charge for silver vessel but l.s. Q)d. for the pound of two marks as at Paris ; that no silversmith should meddle with gilding ; and that no gilder should work in silver. This brings us another stage, and introduces us to a maker's mark fur the first time in England. We have a standard mark since 1300, and now a maker's mark dating from 1363. It is pretty clear that in the fourteenth century, owing to the frauds committed, a great move was made throughout Europe with respect to goldsmiths, France and perhaps Montpellier taking the lead. Turn we therefore, by the way, to Montpellier, of whose history the Puhluations dc la Socictc Arclicolor/iqiie de Montpellier give many interesting particulars, and we find that by 1355 a dispute which had arisen between the consuls of the town and the goldsmiths, in conse- quence of the great abuses introduced into the trade of the latter, led to the following regulations of that year : — That all vessels and works of silver made by the argentiers of Montpellier must be of the standard of eleven deniers and one obole, or twelve grains, at the least.* The goldsmiths were to make two patterns or trial pieces of silver, of the standard of eleven deniers fourteen grains, marked with the puncheon of Montpellier (for Philippe le Hardi had, in 1275, ordained that each city should have a particular mark for works in silver), after which the goldsmiths should work with an allowance of two grains. One of these trial pieces should be kept at the consulate, and the other by the warden of the goldsmiths. That a third trial piece shall be made of eleven * Sec note, p. 20. ni.w. II.] Ordinances of Montpillicr -3 (Icniers and one obole, also marked, wliicli should remain with the consuls for trial with suspected works. Every master silversmith should mark with a particular mark the pieces of his work, and deliver them himself to the warden. The warden, before marking the piece with the puncheon of Montpellier, should remove a portion of the silver, called, in the language of Montpellier, " borihl " (a technical term for a portion of metal removed with a buril, burin or graver, for the purpose of the assay), which he should put into a box, keeping a separate box for each workman, and once or twice a year make an assay of these " borihls," and if the standard was found below the eleven deniers one obole they should denounce the worker to the consuls, who should make a second assay, and if they found the fraud contirmed, should deliver him over to justice. Moreover the wardens might break such articles as seemed to them insufficient. In the original documents nothing is said of the method of performing the operation of the assay ; but as it is expressly ordered that in assaying the trial pieces and "borihls" the same ashes (probably bone-ashes t(j form the crucible), lead and fire, should be used, it is clear that the assay was by the cupel. Nothing had hitherto been done or said about gold ; but though less worked than silver there were equal abuses ; and in 1401 the consuls and Avardens of the mystery, assisted by several argentiers, made a regulation in presence of the consuls of the city, by which the standard of gold, which originally was only fourteen carats and had by a subse- quent decree been raised to eighteen carats, was now reduced to sixteen carats ; and there is here a question of the trial of gold by the " touch," showing that it was then in use. In the fifteenth century abuses and frauds in the trade had greatly multiplied. Public clamour was raised against the principal silver- smiths for working below the standard of 1355. A process was insti- tuted against them in 1427. The consuls seized several of their works, had them assayed, found them fraudulent, and made the makers appear before the tribunal. In their defence they pleaded that the ordinances of 1855 were obsolete with regard to small " orfevreries." They were condemned to pay a fine of ten marks of silver each, and on appeal the sentence was confirmed. They claimed exemption from marking girdles and small works. An inquest was held, and the following ordinances resulted, which were solemnly renewed in 1436 with still stricter conditions, and they show with what care the fabrication of works of gold and silver was regulated. To ensure the legal standard they ordained, besides the ordinary precaution of the box, the ''borihls," the trial pieces, and the name 26 Old English Plate [chap. II. of the silversmith, that the name of the warden of the mystery, inscrihed on the register of the city and on the private hook of the silversmiths, should he followed hy one of tJie letters of the alphahet, which should he reproduced heneath the shield of arms {ecusson) of the town on each work, in order that it might he laiown under w-hat warden it was made. These j)roceedings of the goldsmiths of Mont- pelUer are highly interesting, since they not only give us an account of the frauds and the alteration of the standard, together with the particulars of the assay, which in its system with the box and trial- pieces hears a very strong analogy to our trial of the Pj'x,* but also give us the date, origin and establishment of three very important marks, viz., the mark of the country or city, the mark of the maker, and the annual letter, two of which we had already adopted in this country, whilst the use of the third, the annual letter, was soon to be established. If we may turn aside for a moment to see how the goldsmilhs put their powers into actual use, we gather that their original charter must have served its purpose to some extent. Proceedings taken against one Peter Eandolfe, a Latoner, are enough to show that it was at all events not a dead letter in 1376, for upon interrogation for exposing two circlets for mazers of mixed silver, we find him promising not to interfere with the goldsmiths' trade again.! The names of many of the great London goldsmiths of this generation are known. Thomas Hessey was the king's goldsmith in 1366, and ISicholas Twyford held the same office shortly afterAvards ; the latter is mentioned in accounts of 1379. The names of John de Chichester * The important dutj' of testing tbe purit}- of the coinage from time to time has been entrusted for ages to the Goldsniitlis' Company. The ceremony of doing this lias heen conducted with the same formalities from time immemorial, and is called "The trial of the Pyx." Such a trial is known to have taken place in 9 & 10 Edw. I., and it has been held at shoit but irregular intervals ever since ; it is now an annual event. A specimen coin, taken formerly from each "journey" or day's work, but in modern days from each melting of metal, whetiier gold or silver, is placed in a chest kept at the Mint, called the Pyx. At the i)roper time a jury of the Goldsmiths' Company is summoned, who after being sworn and solemnly charged, proceed to an assay of the coins found in the Pyx, and to compare their quality with the standard trial plates in the custody of the Waiden of the Standards. Their verdict is the deliverance of the authorities of the Mint, who are virtually placed ujion their trial. Since the Coinage Act of 1870, the proceedings have been somewhat shorn of their circumstance, owing to the jury being summoned to Goldsmiths' Hall, and there charged by the Queen'.s Kemembrancer, instead of by tlie Lord Chancellor himself at Westminster, where the assay was formerly conducted, in au apartment specially prepared for the pur- pose. The mode of procedure thenceforward to be adopted on these occasions is com- pletely set forth in the above Coinage Act (33 Yict. c. 10), and in the Queen's Order in Coimcil of 29 June, 1871. f Riley '.s McnioriaJs of London and London Life in the XILI., XIV., and XV. centuries. London, 1868, p. 398. CHAP. II.] CJiai'tcrs of the GoldsmitJis' Company. 27 and Thomas Reynbam, John Hiltoft and also his executors, all occur in the Wardrobe Accounts as enjoying royal patronage between this time and the end of the century. The great goldsmith, Sir Drew Barentyn, -who died in 1415, was a man of more than civic note. Here, however, the charter of Edward III. was found insufficient for want of proper persons being named in it ; therefore Richard II. in 1392-3 re-incorporated them by another charter dated 6 Feb. l(j Ric. II., confirming the first and giving them power to choose wardens and other officers. Edward lY. in 1462 not only confirmed the charter of Richard II., but constituted the Goldsmiths' Company a body corporate and politic, with perpetual succession, power to use a common seal, hold lands, etc., and by this charter dated 30 May, 2 Ed. IV., invested them with a privilege of searching, inspecting, trying, and regulating all gold and silver wares, in the City of London, and the suburbs thereof, and in all fairs and markets, and all cities, towns and boroughs, and all other places whatsoever throughout our kingdom of England, with power to })unisli offenders for working adulterated gold or silver. These powers were continually exercised, and from the records of the Company it appears that periodical progresses through the country were made by the assay-wardens for that purpose. Several kings at various times have given them new charters, enlarging and confirming the older ones. The latest are Inspeximus Charters of James I. (2 Juc. I) and Charles 11. (18 Car. II.), which recite and confirm all those previously granted. The latter of these is recited in the Act of 12 Geo. II., c. 26, and empowered the wardens to commit offenders to prison and to set fines upon them. The guild thus incorporated is now one of the greatest and wealthiest of the City Companies, and one to which the archaeologist and antiquary are indebted for the ready information and assistance it has given to those who have from time to time sought permission to consult its records, which, commencing about 1331, are carried down to the present day. They consist of the wardens' accounts, which begin in that year, and amount to many large volumes, the ordinances, and other books relating to their estates, all of which contain curious and interesting particulars. The members of the fraternity were originally all gold- smiths, as mentioned in their first charter, and the Company is governed by a Prime Warden, three other wardens, and twenty-one assistants, with a livery of 150 members, exclusive of honorary members and members by special grant. The wardens are now annually elected on May 29th ; lu-eviously, however, to the Restora- tiiin, in compliance with their ordinances, St. Dunstan's ]~>ay, being 28 Old English Plate. [chai.. n. that of tlieir paLvoii saint, was their proper day of election. On the day of election, when the new Prime Warden enters upon the duties of his office, the new punches for the mark having heen prepared, are delivered hy him to the officers of the Assay Office. Formerly the old punches were all preserved, hut not many years ago the accumulation hemg very great and found inconvenient, it was considered that such a mass of old iron was useless, and they were destroyed. It is much to he regretted that impressions were not taken of them on a copper-plate previous to their destruction, though it is hardly probable that there were any earlier than the time of the lire of London in 1666. The ordinances or statutes of the Company are contained in a fine MS. on vellum, with illuminated initial .letters. It is therein stated that " thys boke was made and ordeynyd by Hugh Bryce, Altherman, Henry Coote, Mylys Adys, and Willyam Palmer, wardens, the xx day of September in the yere of our lorde god mcccclxxviij and in the xviiJ yere of the Reigne of King Edward the fourth. Humfrey Hay- ford then Mayre of the Cyte of london, John Stokker and Henry Colctt, Sheryfiys of the same Cyte." The index of the same volume is further described as follows: "Thys Kalendar was made and ordeynyd for this boke by Henry Coote, Stephyn Kelke, John Ernest, and Alen Newman, wardens, the last day of August in the yere of oure lorde god mcccclxxxiij and in the fi'urst yere of the Pieygne of King- Richard the thiyd. Sir Edmond Shaa, Knyght, then Mayre of the Cyte of london, "Willifi Whyte and John MatheAv, Sheryffys of the same Cyte." It contains first the oaths for the wardens and officers ; and secondly the ordinances for the government of the Company, which chiefly consist of regulations for the masters of the craft and the taking, keeping and conduct of apprentices; but also "for the working of gold and silver to the standard, and how it shall be delivered." The following may be quoted as examples : — "Also it is ordeyued that no goldsmith of England, nor nowhere else within the realme, work no manner of vessel nor any other thing of gold nor silver, but if it be of the verry alloy according to the standard of England, called sterling money or better." " That no manner of vessel or any other thing be borne out from the hands of the workers, nor sold till it be assayed b}- the wardens of the craft or their deputy, the assayer ordained therefore, and that it be marked with the lyperde's head crowned according to the acts of diverse parliaments, and the mark of the maker thereof." No worker was to be a freeman of the Company until he had been CHAP. II.] Records of the Goldsinitlis' Coinpany. 29 apprenticed seven years ; luul tliu ordinances were to be read puldicly on St. Dimstan's Day. At the end of the book are some additional ordinances of the year 1507, being the twenty-second of Henry VII., by which it was provided that no goldsmith should put to sale any vessel or other work of gold or silver until lie had set Itis )itark upon it; that he should take it to the assay house of the Hall of the Goldsmiths to be assayed by the assayer, who should set liis viarJc upon it, and should deliver it to the warden, who should set on it tlie IcopanVs head crowned. Again, in another MS. book on vellum which has the arms of the Goldsmiths' Company emblazoned on the first page, and contains ordinances dated July 5th, 1513, being the fifth year of Henry Till., we find that it is ordained that before any work of gold or silver is put to sale the maker shall set on it his own mark, that it shall be assayed by the assayer who shall set on it his mark, and that the wardens shall mark it with the leopard's head crowned. Here then in both these sets of ordinances we have three distinct marks mentioned : the maker's, the assayer's, and the leopard's head or king's mark. What this assayer's mark was w:e are not expressly told, but it must almost necessarily be the annual letter, now there- fore to be added to the leopard's head of 1300 and the maker's mark of 13G3. We shall give reasons when dealing specially with this mark for attributing its inauguration to the year 1478. The course of State legislation had proceeded pari jyassu with the ordinances of the Goldsmiths' Company, and before passing the ill- omened gulf in the history of English plate which occurs between 1513 and the commencement of the reign of (^)ueen Elizabeth, we must bring it down to the earlier of these dates. And first comes a statute which, but for the fact that it is not found amongst "the statutes " properly so called, and seems therefore to have been only provisional and not confirmed on the assembling of parliament, would appear to have crippled the new-found powers of the goldsmiths' guild, and to have rendered them inoperative outside the city of London. Indeed, it was only assented that tliis ordinance should commence at the feast of St. John, and should last till the next parliament, to try in the meantime if it were profitable or not. It is found in 1379 on the Rolls of Parliament of the second year of Ptichard II., No. 30, and would have ordained not only that each smith should put his mark on his work, but that it should be marked with the mark of the city or borough wherein it was assayed, and that the assay should belong to the mayors, etc., of the cities and boroughs, with the aid of the master of the mint. For the reasons mentioned, 30 Old English Platte [chap. ir. this statute was probably not acted upon very generally ; though, as we shall presently see, in the case of York, a recognised touch is mentioned in civic records of 1410. The next Act, in 1381 (5 Richard II., ciq). 2), forbade the export of gold and silver in any shape, or ct argent si lien iiioiioic ressell plate* et joialx. These provisions are reinforced in ]402 by another Act forbidding any person to carry gold or silver in money, vessell or plate out of the realm, without the king's licence. In 1404 (5 Henry IV., cap. 13), in order to prevent frauds, it was enacted that no artificer, nor other man, whatsoever he be, shall gild nor silver any locks, rings, beads, candlesticks, harness for girdles, chalices, hilts, pomels of SAVords, powder-boxes, nor covers for cups {p}iv hanapcs) made of copper or latten, on pain to forfeit to the king c shillings at every time that he shall be found guilty ; but that chalices excepted, artificers may work ornaments for the Church of copper and latten, and the same gild and silver, so that at the foot or some other part, the copper and the latten shall be plain, to the intent that a man may see whereof the thing is made for to eschew the deceit aforesaid. In 1414 (2 Henry V., Stat. 2, cap. 4) it was enacted for that the goldsmiths of England, of their covin and ordinances, will not sell the wares of their mystery gilt, but at the double price of the weight of silver of the same, which seemeth to the king very outrageous and too excessive a price ; the king for the ease of his people hath ordained that all goldsmiths of England shall gild no silver Avares worse than of the alloy of the English sterling ; and that they take * The word "plate" here stands for bar or sheet gold aud silver, rather thrai for articles made of them, which were called "vasa" and "jocalia," or, in English, "vessel," until about the middle of the fifteenth century. In the wills and inven- tories of the latter half of that century, the word begins to occur in its modern sense ; to give a single example, one Thomas Brygg, in 1194, bequeathes " omnia mea vasa argen- tea voc' le plate," iising the ordinary Latin word and the less familiar term then just coming into use in juxtaposition. In the following statutes of the fourteenth ccnturj', "plate" appears to mean merely the wrought or flattened metal, which is a more strictly accurate use of the word, derived as it is from a common origin with the Greek irXarxis, our own flat, and the Spanish plata, than its later and secondary application as a general term to vessels formed of such metal : — 9 Edw. III. Stat. 2. Statute of Money : c. 1. " Argent en ijlate ne vessel dor ne dargent." " iMonoie plate ou vessel dor ne dargent." 27 Edw. III. Stat. 2. The Statute of the Staple : "Plate of silver and billets of gold." A ' ' plate of ale " is the expression used at Trinity College, Cambridge, for one of the silver tankards purchased by fellow-com- moners for their own use, and left by them as a parting present to the college (Words- worth's Social Life at the English Universi- ties in the ISth Century) ; and the same term is applied at Queen's College, in the sister university, to the caudle- cups with ring-handles which are now used for beer. CHAP. II.] Acts of Parliaincnt. 31 for a pound of Troy gilt but 4G shillings and 8 pence at tlie most ; and of greater weight and less according to the quantity and weight of the same ; and that which shall be by them gilt from henceforth shall be of a reasonable price and not excessive, and if any goldsmith do contrary to this statute, he shall forfeit to the king the value of the thing so sold. In 1420 (8 Henry Y., c. 3) it was forbidden to gild any sheaths or any metal but silver, and the ornaments of Holy Church ; or to silver any metal but knights' spurs, and all the apparel that pertaiueth to a baron and above that estate. A more important statute now follows, viz., that of 1423 (2 Henry VI., cap. 14), by which it was ordained that no goldsmith or jeweller within the City of London should sell any article of silver unless it was as fine as sterling, nor set it to sell before it be touched with the touch of the leopard's head if it may reasonably bear the same touch, and also with the mark or sign of the workman of the same, upon pain of forfeiture of the double as afore is said ; and that the mark or sign of every goldsmith be known to the wardens of the same craft ; and that the keeper of the touch if he shall touch any harness with the leopard's head, except it be as fine as sterling, shall for everything so proved not as good in alloy as the said sterling, forfeit the double value to the king and the party. By this statute also it is ordained that the city of York, Newcastle upon Tine, Lincoln, Norwich, Bristol, Salisbury, and Coventry, shall have divers touches, and farther that no goldsmith anywhere shall work silver of worse alloy than the sterling, and shall set his mark upon it before he set it to sale, upon the same penalties as if in London. This is the first mention of provincial assay towns, of which more will be said in a succeeding chapter. Next, in 1477 (17 Edward lY., cap. 1), by reason of the provisions of the Act of 2 Henry YL, cap. 14, having been daily broken by the goldsmiths and other workers of silver, as well in London as else- where, it was directed inter alia that no goldsmith or worker of gold or silver should work or put to sale any gold under the fineness of eighteen carats, nor silver unless it bo as fine as sterling, except such tiling as requireth solder; also that no goldsmith work or set to sale harness of silver plate, or jewel of silver, from the feast of Easter, within the city of London or within two leagues (leukez) of London, before it be touched witJi the leopard's head crowned, such as may bear the said touch, and also with a mark or sign of the worker of the same so wrought, upon pain of forfeiture of the double value of such silver wrought and sold to the contrary ; that the mark or sign of 32 Old English Plate. [cnw. n. every goldsmith be committed to the wardens of the same myster}' ; and if it be found that the keeper of the touch of the leopard's head crowned, do mark or touch any harness with the leopard's head, if it be not as fine in alloy as sterling, he shall forfeit double the value of the silver ; and that the craft of goldsmiths of London shall be answer- able for the non-sufficiency of the warden. The statute was enacted for seven years, and was afterwards re-enacted for twenty years in 1489, and again for twenty years in 1552 by 7 Edward YI., cap. 6. In 1488-9 (4 Henry VII., Pari. 3, cap. 2) it was found that whereas in previous times finers and parters of gold and silver had used to fine and part all the gold and silver needful for the mints of London, Calais, Canterbury, York, and Durham, and the fellowship of gold- smiths, under the rules and orders of those mints, but now they dwelt abroad in every part of the realm, and out of the rules aforesaid, and carried on their trade so that men can get no fine silver ; and it was enacted that the finers and parters should not alloy fine gold nor silver, nor sell anything else, nor to any persons except the ofiicers of mints and the goldsmiths ; that silver be made so fine that it bear 12 pennyweight of alloy in the pound weight, and yet be as good as sterling, and that all finers set their marks upon it. We have now brought down both the ordinances of the goldsmiths and those of the statute book to the time of Henry YIIL, and it will presently be seen what a disastrous period in the history of the art has been reached. AYe have come to the time when the accumulated treasures of the Church were swept away, and the wealth of lay corporations extorted for the service of the crown and state. Monastic and cathedral plate disappears on the Eeformation in the reign of Henry YIIL, the possessions of the parish churches follow at the end of that of Edv»ard YL, whilst the " benevolences " of Queen Mary ransack the treasure-rooms of the great secular guilds and companies. A number of goldsmiths' names occur in the Church inventories of Edward YL, and it may be as well to give a few of them for the chance of their initials being here and there recognised on vessels made by them for the reformed use, some of which, as we shall see, still remain. One Cbristopher Terry, is noted about 1515 ; and between 1530 and 1553 maybe found working at their craft in London Thomas Calton, Robert Danbe, John Palterton, Eaufe Lathom, John Waberley, Thomas Metcalfe, John Danyell, Robert Reyns, Fabyan Wythers, and Robert ^Yygge— Wigg and Dickson are mentioned in the inventory of St. George's Chapel, Windsor — and to these must be added the name of a lady, one Margery Herkins, who carried on business in Lombard Street. In various accounts rendered by London CHAP. II.] Elirjabctlian Goldsuiiths. 33 cburcliwardeus, temp. Edward VI. occur : — Jasper ftyshcr, George Daltoii, William Kehvaye, Jolm Wickes, John Clarke, 11. Maynardo, Mr. Hartop, W. Dyckeson, Tlios. Muschamp, Thos. Dewey, Kobert Trappes, Eichard Lounde, John ]\Iabbe, William Soutbwood and Robert Danbe. Of these, Jasper ftysher was Prime Warden, and Eobert Wygge and John Clarke were Wardens of the (Toldsmiths' Company in 1566. In the early years of Queen Elizabeth the names that most frequently occur are those of Eobert Tayleboys, found from 1559 to 1572, Thomas Muschampe, who made a communion cup for Chelms- ford, which is unfortunately not now in existence, and Thomas Turpyn. Mr. Anthony, of the Queen's Arms in Cheapside, was one of the Queen's goldsmiths at the beginning of her reign, and it was under the auspices of this respectable tradesman that the first lottery of which there is- any record was brought out in 1569 ; a little later one Hughe Kayle held a similar appointment amongst the Queen's servants. The pedigrees and coats of arms of no fewer than thirteen gold- smiths were entered at the visitation of London by the heralds in 1568, those of the above-mentioned Dericke Anthony, Thomas Metcalfe, and Thomas Muschampe among the number. In this record Affabel Partridge, Esq., is styled " Principal Goldsmith" to Queen Elizabeth. The others were George Dalton, Henry Gilbert, John Mabbe, Francis Heton, Christopher Wace, Francis Jackson, Henry Gaynsford, and Thomas Gardiner. Four of these were members of the Court of Assistants of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1566, Metcalfe, Mus- champe, Mabbe, and Gardiner. There were sixty-eight goldsmiths living in Chepe in 1569, besides some twenty in Lombard Street. These were the chief resorts of the craft. It is curiously seldom that the name of the maker can be traced by the sign of his shop forming part of his registered mark, but it may be interesting to record some of them, as the following : — (ioUhmiths ill ChcjH-, 15G'J. John Lannyson Acorn. , Ant. Bate St. John's Head Christopher Wace < i reen Dragon . Manasscs Stockton Keyc. Wni. Marten White Lyon. Win. ffynstwayte Myter. Hy. Gilberd Kose. Edmund ('ornwall Sf(uirrell Thos. Gierke Angell. Dirickc Antonie Queen's Arms. Wm. Dyxson Flour de hice. Fras. Jackson Black Spread Eagle. Thos. liarriKOn Swan. John Harryson Broad Arrow. Hy. Sutton J'lougho. i John Goodrich Unicorn. Nichs. Sutton Harrowe. ' Kobt. I'.randon Uylte Lion. Richd. Howe (Jriilon. i Uobt. Durrant Half Moon. Thos. Bamptou Falcon, i llobt. Medley White Horse. o.E.r. D 34 Old English Plate. [chap. II. Goldsmiths hi Chcpc, Antonie Bate Black Boye. Thos. Hartoppe White Cocke. , Nichs. Bartlcmewc Woolsacke. ' Affabell Partrige Black Bull, j Aldeiii. Langley Adam and Eve. Robt. Sharpe Basket, j John Mabbe Cuppe. I W. Calton Wheelbarrow. | Beereblocke Legge. John Mabbe, si- Bottell. Thos. Metcalf Bell. Thos. Conell Talbott. j Geo. Waren Crowne. Thos. Gardener Red Crosse. I Fras. Heaton Tonne. ' Robt. Wright Wyndmylle. [ Geo. Gatchet King's Head. ; 1569 — continued. Hy. Gaynesford Crane. Gabl. Newman Byke. Richd. Hanberrie Maydenhead. Robt. W.ygge Greyhound. Stephen Durrant Blewe Bore. Richd. Hanberrie Connie. Edward Gilberd Ship. Richd. Martin Harp. Robt. Aske Lamb. Richd. Rogers Gilt Eagle. John Ealeston White Hind. Richd. Rogers Goat. Christopher Ff ulke Three Legges. John Keale Belhouse. John Foxe Gilt Fox, Geo. Martin Locke. Thos. Maye White Beare. In St. Muttlwic'.- George Longedale. Thos. Denham. John Pinfold. Wm. Holborne. Wm. Foxe. Jas. Storke. Thos. Benson. Richd. Sharpe. Wm. Jones, j^. , Robt. Tayleboyes. Hughe Keale. James AUeyn. Wm. Jones, s"^- John Kettelwood. W. Alsoppe. Edward Creake. AUry. Affabell Partridge. Geo. Warrenson. Wm. Burneye. Xoiih Side of Cliejyc. Andrew Palmer. Robt. Signell. In Luinhavd Street. Thos. Pope. John Wetherhyll. Thos. Muschampe. Umphrey Stevens. Richd. Robyns. John Bull. Robt. Hawkyns. Thos. Sympson. Wm. ffeake. Robt. ffrye. It will be inferred that with the accession of Queen Elizabeth, brighter days succeeded to a quarter of century of plunder and destruction The debased standards of the last twenty or thirty years were raised once more to their former purity, and none knew better than the Queen herself the importance of this step, in which she took much personal interest. But it was not at first a very popular measure, and the promulgation by royal proclamation was necessary of a " summarie of certaine reasons which moved the Queen's majestic to procede in reformations of her base and coarse monies, and to reduce them to their values in sorte as they may be turned to fine monies," before the public, who saw only the loss that the reform CHAP. II.] Queen Elir:ahetJi. 35 would occasion them on the coin then in their possession, realised the great benefit it would be to the nation. This was dated from Hampton Court on 29 September, 1560, and on 19 February, 1560-61, the base money was called in also by proclamation. The Queen went herself in state to the Mint, and striking some coins with her own royal hand, gave them to those standing about her, ordering that a medal should be struck to commemorate the event. The Minutes of the Goldsmiths' Company record that the diet tried on 18th June, 1561, was "the first dyett of the newe Standard." Stringent measures, too, were adopted to prevent fraud and to preserve the purity of the re-established standard. Twenty- eight goldsmiths were fined in the course of 1566, a not exceptional year in this respect ; and amongst them are some of the leading members of the craft. Legislation also was resorted to, and in 1575-6, on February 8 (18 Eliz. cap. 15), it was enacted with this view, that after the 20th of April then next ensuing, no goldsmith should work, sell, or exchange, any plate or ware of gold less in fineness than twenty- two " carrects " (carats), and that he use no sother amell or other stuffing more than is necessary for finishing the same, nor make, sell, or exchange, any wares of silver less in fineness than 11 ounces 2 penny- weight, nor take above twelvepence for the ounce of gold or pound of silver "beyond the fashion" (more than the buyer shall or maybe allowed for the same at the Queen's exchange or mint) ; nor put to sale any ware before he hath set his own mark on so much thereof as may conveniently bear the same ; and if after the above day any gold or silver Avares shall be touched for good by the wardens or masters of the mystery, and there shall afterwards be found fraud or deceit therein, the wardens shall pay forfeit the value of the thing so marked. The Goldsmiths' Company, resuming its good work, seems to have exercised its powers even harshly. There are constant entries in the Minute-Books of plate broken and penalties exacted for silver work, usually buckles or clasps, but often larger pieces, found on assay to be worse than standard, and goldsmiths of good name and standing are found amongst the defaulters, and were dealt with as stringently as the rest. Great dissatisfaction was given in 1583 by one Thomas Kclyuge, then the assayer at Goldsmiths' Hall, who from over zeal, or baser motives as it was alleged, made himself very unpopular with the craft. Amongst the records of the Mint are preserved some papers detailing " the grefes of us poor goldsmiths against our assay master," one Richard Mathewe and a fellow-craftsman named Henry Colley charging Kelynge with breaking their plate unjustly, and "d 2 " 36 Old English Plate. [cuap. it. stating that when they had refashioned a part of the broken plate differently, and sent it in again under another maker's mark, it passed. Colley describes cutting out part of a condemned platter and making it into a taster which passed, and he further complained that out of a nest of bowls or of a tankard of no more than thirty ounces, Kelynge took as much as a quarter of an ounce, or at least half a quarter, for himself.* There were however faults on both sides, and the strict supervision of the Goldsmiths' Company was still both exercised and needed, as the following entry found among their records testifies : — ** 4th May, 1597— Edward Cole, Attorney-General, filed an information against John ]Moore and Robert Thomas ; that whereas it had been heretofore of long time provided by divers laws and statutes for the avoiding deceit and fraud in the making of plate, that every gold- smith should before the sale of any plate by him made, bring the same first to the Goldsmiths' Hall for trial by assay, to be touched or marked and allowed by the wardens of the said company of Goldsmiths ; the which Avardens did by their indenture in their search, find out the aforesaid deceitful workmanship and counter- •feit also of plate and puncheons ; yet the said John Moore and E. Thomas being lately made free of the Goldsmiths' Company, did about three months past make divers parcels of counterfeit plate debased and worse than her Majesty's standard 12'' and more in the oz. ; and to give appearance to the said counterfeit plate being- good and lawful, did thereto put and counterfeit the marks of her Majesty's Lion, the leopard's head limited by statute and the alphabetical mark approved by ordinance amongst themselves, which are the private marks of the Goldsmiths' Hall, and be and remain in the custody of the said wardens and puncheons to be worked and imprinted thereon, and the said John Moore did afterwards sell the same for good and sufficient plate to the defrauding of her Majesty's subjects, &c." It remains to be said that they were convicted and sentenced to stand in the pillory at Westminster, with their ears nailed thereto, and with papers above their heads stating their offence to be "for making- false plate and counterfeiting her Majesty's touch." They were then put in the pillory at Cheapside, had one ear cut off, and were taken through Foster Lane to Fleet Prison, and had to pay a fine of ten marks^ Here we have the first actual mention by name of the Lion and an alphahdieal letter, though both had been long in use, the former for about half a century, and the latter for more than double that time. * Public Record Office — Exchequer, Q. R. (Mint. MiscclL), temp. Eliz. CHAP. IT.] Coronation RL\qalia of CJiavlcs II . 37 There is nothing now to note for a long time except that in 1624 (21 Jac. I. c. 28) certain portions of the earHer enactments of 28 Edw. I., 37 Edw. III., and 2 Henry A"I. were repealed, and that a few years later the goldsmiths' hall marks were fully recognised as a guarantee of the quality of silver bearing them ; for when Charles I, resorted to forced loans for the means of carrying on the war, warrants dated from Oxford in 1643, demanded of the individuals to w'hom they were addressed so much money " or the value thereof in plate, toucht plate at five shillings, and untoucht plate at foure shillings foure pence per ounce."* Mention is made in the records of 1635 of pewter marked like silver, and of a petition by the Goldsmiths' Company to the Lords of the Council, pointing out the undesirability of the practice ; and other similar entries occur later. In these and such like transactions, as well as in other greater aftairs, the goldsmiths bore an important part, and that their business was right profitable is attested by the wealthy and notable men that are found amongst them at this time. Who has not heard of George Heriot, goldsmith to James VI. of Scotland, and of the noble hospital founded by him in Edinburgh '? A goldsmith by descent, for his father was an eminent Scotch goldsmith and money dealer, like other people he removed to London with his royal master on his accession to the English throne, and there constantly increased in eminence and wealth till his death in 1623-4. The Yyners too, and the .Tenners both owed their prosperity to the great business which they carried on as goldsmiths in the middle years of this century. The tran- sactions of Sir Thos. Vyner with the Mercers' Company as their goldsmith extend from 1620 to 1643. He died in 1665. The name of A'^yner must be invoked to justify digression for a little while to a subject of considerable arclniiological, indeed national, importance. Mure than fifty years ago ^Ir. liobcrt Coh', F.S.A., read before the Society of Antiquaries a paper I upon some interesting documents that had then lately come into his possession relating to the llegalia made for the coronation of King Charles IL They were two in number, one of them being the order dated 20th June, 1662, for the payment from the Iloyal Treasury to Sir Eobert Vyner, his Majesty's goldsmith, nephew of Sir Thomas, of the sums of .i:21,U78 ih. Ihl., and i;10,()00, "for two Crowns, two Sceptres, and a Globe of Gold, set with diamonds, rubyes, saphires, emeralds, and pearls, St. Edward's Staff, the Armilla, AmpuU, and otlier the Regalia, * Coll. Top. d Lien., vol. vii., p. 102. f Ardaculojia, vnl. xxix., y. 'iOl.'. 38 Old English PI ale. [chap. n. all of gold." The second document was the receipt of Sir Robert Vyner for part of this money, and it bears the signature of Sir Eobert Yyner himself, dated July 1, 1662. A third and later document, dated Feb. 23, 1684-5, procured by Mr. Cole in the same way and at the same time as the other two, was afterwards communicated to the Society. It contained not only a list but the weights of the articles comprised in the [Regalia, and seemed to have been prepared as a sort of estimate of some of the probable expenses of the approaching coronation of James II., which took place in April, including the providing of articles such as on the former occasion were delivered to the great officers of state for fees. It is of considerable interest, and as the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries are at the disposal of comparatively few persons, no apology is needed for reprinting it here as folloAvs.* '■A List of ye Regalias jjvovided for his late Ma^y'^ Coronation, and are now in y^ C!ustoily of S'' Gilbert Talbot, Knt., Master and Treasi^ of his MatJ's Jewells and Plate, viz* : — oz. ilwt. gr. li. s. d. Imprim. S* Edward's Crowne ...... poiz 82 5 16 For ye addition of Gold and Workemanship 3.")0 00 80 For ye Loane of ye Jewells returned r.OO 00 00 It™ One Crowne of Statef poiz 72 01 00 For ye Gold. Jewells, and Workemanship 7.87<) 00 00 It'" one Scei)tcr with a Dove lioiz M 03 20 For ye Gold, Jewells, and Workemanship 41(> 00 OO It™ One other Seepter with a Cross .... poiz 32 11 10 For ye Gold. Jewells, and Workemanship 1,02.-) 00 00 I t'l One St Edward's Staffe poiz I.") 08 OS For ye Gold and Workemanship 22.") (){'> 02 It™ One Gloobe with a Crosse poiz 12 07 12 For Gold, Jewells, and Workemanship 1, ].■;(» dO 00 It™ One Pair of Spurrs poiz 12 18 00 For Gold and Workemanship ......... (JS 07 OG It™ Two Armillas poiz (! 12 22 For Gold and Workemanship . . . . . . . . . 41 18 Of> It™ One Ampulla or Eglet poiz 21 08 OH For Gold and Workemanship 1(12 0."> 00 It™ The Anointing Si)Oon poiz 3 0.") 00 For Silver and Workemanship 2 00 00 It™ One Chalice and Paten poiz (U 12 12 For Gold and Workemanship 277 OttJOO £12.050 03 0.3 G. Talbot.'' * Proceedings of the Society of Anii- \ ment for a new crown made l)y them in qunries, 1852, vol. ii., No. 31, p. 222. 1838, and is now in the possession of Lord t The framework of this crown was taken Amherst of Hackney, hy Messrs. Kundtll and Bridge, in part pay- CHAP. It.] Coronation Regalia of CJiarlcs II. 39 " A List of Regalias provided for his late Mat'^-'s Coronation, ■«•<='» were delivered for Fees, &:c., by Order, and are out of y^ Custody of S'' Gilbert Talbot, Kn', Master and Trcas"" of his Maj'' Jewells and Plate, and arc now to be provided, kc. : — ox.dwt. gr. li. s. d. Imprinis One L'l High Constable's Staffc . . . poiz 1.") 00 00 For Silver and Workemanslii[) ........ OS l'> 00 Itm One Earle Marshall's vStaft'e poiz ;» 00 Oo For Silver, Gilding, and Workenianslii[) . . . . . . . d? 1." 00 It'n Six Canopy Staves poiz ISO 02 12 For Silver and Workemanship 7f> 11 ol If" One Crown for Garter King at Arms . . . poiz 'H lo o For Gold and Workemanship lli! 17 (> It™ One Chaine and Jewell ...... poiz ."> K! 'A For Gold and Workemanship 4:; ()('> 07 It™ One Banner and Rod ...... poiz :? !."> ;! For Golde and Workemanship . . . . . . . :'>7 14 03 Im One Collar of SS poiz 10 10 For Silver, Guilding, and Workemanship 24 IS 00 It™ Two Coronets poiz .SO 12 12 For Silver, Gilding, and Workemanship ...... 22 10 04 It™ Two Collars of S'S poiz :!4 07 12 For Silver and Workemanship 33 11 10 It™ Six Collars SS poiz SO 1.") i)0 For Silver and Workemanship S2 OS oo It™ Two Ingots poiz 10 00 00 For Gold and Workemanship 7."> 0-") 00 It™ One Cup poiz 10 07 00 For Gold and Workemanship SO 0.-> 03 It™ Coronation Meddalls — Twelve .... poiz 3 lo li! For Gold and Workemanship . . . . . . . . . 2.'> 06 08 It™ Jewells, 7') for Kn*^ of the P.ath. of w'' seven are in eustody ........ poiz .'!.") lo 12 For Gold and Workemanship 433 04 4 iLl.O 4 G. TALI!0T. Interesting' as this curious history of the liegalia is in itself, and as showing that none of the okl Regalia, not even the Anointing Spoon,* as it would seem, survived the Commonwealth, it is not of less import- ance to note the mode in which these and other documents came into ]\Ir. Cole's hands. The instructive particulars of his acquisition of them shall be told in his own words. He says : " It will be in the recollection of the Society that some two or three years ago the then Lords of the Treasury directed the selection and mutilation of many tons weight of Exchequer Records (as they were not improperly called), and which, after bcnng mutilated, were sold as waste paper. It is not necessary for me to make; any observations on * Vriien cxhihited by gracious permission of her Majesty the Queen, at tlie rooms of tlie Society of Antiquaries in 1890, tlic Coronation Spoon was, however, considered liy some to be tlic original one, ami of liigh antiquity. 40 Old Englisli Plate. [chap. n. the propriety or impropriety of this order for the destruction of original documents, nor on the manner in which that order was executed : the report of the committee appointed by the House of Lords to inquire into the subject is before the pubhc, and to that, and the evidence taken on the occasion, I would refer the Society. The contractor with the Government for the purchase of the mutilated records re-sold the mass in various parcels, and a portion of about two tons weight came into my hands, from which I selected many very curious and interesting documents, one of them the subject of my present communication." In view of any similar wholesale destruction of ancient public records in future, the necessity cannot be too strongly urged of examining them far more carefully and by more expert hands than hitherto, before they are altogether condemned ; and it may help to save some of them to show, by fragments that have accidentally escaped, what curious and interesting historical information may easily be overlooked and destroyed. Returning to the Vyners and the Jenners, it must not be forgotten that from this time until 1700 or even later the London goldsmiths frequently combined the business of banking with their trade, many of the gentry in those troublous times being glad to adopt the practice of keeping " running cash balances " with their goldsmiths for safety's sake instead of keeping gold in their own houses. This, indeed, is the origin of modern London banking, and in some cases existing firms actually represent ancestors who came in for their business in this way, and gradually dropped their earlier calling for the new one. Not that the goldsmiths' craft was thought by any means a despic- able one ; they are found resenting association with men of '' meaner trades," even as dwellers in the same street, and in the time of Charles I., the influence of the king himself was on occasion exercised for the removal of such people from Cheapside, which was then almost exclusively inhabited by the goldsmiths. An account lately published of Messrs. Childs' banking house, tells of the apprenticing in early life of the great Sir Francis Child, Lord Mayor in 1699, to his grandfather, William Wheeler the elder, a gold- smith at Temple Bar ; of his marriage with his cousin Elizabeth Wheeler, the only daughter and heiress of his uncle, WiUiam Wheeler the younger, and of his succession to the business, which has ever since been carried on at the sign of the Marigold in the same name. But this brings us a step further towards modern banking, for a list of goldsmiths is given, and it includes Charles Duncomb of the cHAi'. II.] llic Banker GoldsniitJis. 41 Grasshopper, Francis Kenton of the King's Arms, Thomas Fowle of the Black Lion, J. Heriot of the Naked Boy, and John Mawson A: Co. of the Golden Hind, all in Fleet Street, and John Coggs of the King's Head in the Strand, who prior even to 1700 kept accounts with Childs' instead of carrying on a joint goldsmith's and banking business for the benefit of their customers, or even taking care of their own money. The same account gives the names of William Rawson and John Marryott in 166G, Thomas Williams of the Crown in 1677, William Pinckney of the Golden Dragon, Inner Temple Gate, in 1663, Joseph Horneby, John Portraan, Piobert Welsted, and Thomas liowe, all gold- smiths of more or less note in the time of Charles II., besides the better known one of Edward Backwell, who died in 1679, ruined by his dealings with that sovereign. In a bill drawn upon Atwills, by Francis Tyssen and accepted by Mr. William Atwill and Company, 23 March, 1703, that well-known banking firm are only called " Goldsmiths of London." But in the midst of more interesting historical remarks, the working goldsmith and his regulations must not be forgotten ; and so far as these are concerned, ^^■e find that things remained where we left them early in the century, till in 1675, for the prevention and redress of great abuses, the Goldsmiths' Company put forth a notice dated from their Hall on Feb. 23, to the following effect : — That whereas divers small wares were frequently worked and put to sale worse than standard, and also divers pieces of silver plate sold, not being assayed at Goldsmiths' Hall, and not marked with the leopard's head crowned, and whereas to prevent such frauds the wardens had formerly required all plate workers and small workers to cause their respective marks to be brought to the said Hall, and struck there in a table kept in the Assay Oftice, notice was by this order given to all goldsmiths in and about the cities of London and Westminster to repair to the hall, and there strike their marks in a table appointed for that purpose, and likewise enter their names and their dwellings in a book, and that workers and shopkeepers should forbear to sell any gold or silver wares not being agreeable to standard, gold of 22 carats, and silver of 11 oz. 2 dwts. fine, nor before the workman's mark be struck thereon, and the same assayed at Goldsmiths' Hall, and there approved for standard by striking thereon the Ujoit and Liajxinl's head rroinicd, or one of them, if the works would conveniently bear the same, and the order concludes with a caution as to the penalty for infringing it. Advantage of this order seems to have been sometimes taken in later days for the marking of small wares, such as teaspoons, with the lion passant only. 42 Old English Plate. [chap. n. Passing mention must be made of " the Plate Lotteries " of Charles II. before going on to a later reign. These seem to have been a con- trivance for rewarding the fidelity of those who had served the crown during the interregnum, and for raising money at the same time for present needs. The mode of distributing gifts of plate from the Crown as prizes by means of lotteries, probably recommended itself by the opportunity it offered of farming out to advantage the right of setting up and bringing out the lotteries, in various parts of England, and of selling the tickets. Mr. Hone, speaking of this ingenious mode of increasing the revenue, gives from Malcolm's Manners a public adver- tisement of the year 1669, as follows * : — " This is to give notice that any persons who are desirous to farm any of the counties within the kingdom of England or the dominion of Wales, in order to the setting- up of a plate lottery, or any other lottery whatsoever, may repair to the lottery office at Mr. Philip's house in Mermaid Court, over against the mews, where they may contract with the trustees commissioned by His Majesty's letters patent for the management of the said lotteries on the behalf the truly loyal, indigent officers." We now come to legislation of a different character. The order of 1675 had had its effect, and it became necessary rather to protect the coin of the realm from being melted down for plate, than to insist on the fineness of the plate itself. Large quantities of plate had been sacrificed for King and Parlia- ment, or confiscated by one or the other in this disturbed century, and now that quiet times had come again, the rich tui'ned their attention to replenishing their tables and cupboards with the necessary plate, and even tavern-keepers supplied themselves with silver drinking- vessels. We find the grand jury of Middlesex presenting in 1695 that the frequent and common use of silver basons, monteaths, silver tankards, bowls, cups and tumblers of silver in public-houses and taverns have occasioned many burglaries and murders, and praying the Bench to make application to His Majesty's Council or Parliament or both to find out means to prevent such common use of silver in such places. All classes seem to have resorted to the supply of metal that was nearest at hand — the silver coin of the realm. In consequence, therefore, of this practice of melting down the coin, legislation for its protection became necessary, and in 1696 (8 & 9 Will. III. c. 8) with this object the standard for plate was raised above that of the silver coinage, so as to make the silver of the coinage less easily available for plate making. It was enacted that on and Hone's Eve?'!/ Day BooTc, ii. 141o. cuAP. It.] The Bi'itaniiia Staiidavd. 43 after March 25, 1G97, no Avorker of plate should make any article of silver less in fineness than 11 oz. 10 dwts. of fine silver in every pound Troy, nor put to sale, exchange or sell any article made after that day but of that standard, nor until it had been marked with the marks now appointed to distinguish plate of this new standard. These marks were to he as follows : — The worker's mark to he expressed by the two first letters of liis surnawc, the marks of the mystery or craft of the goldsmiths, which instead of the leopard's head and lion were to be the figure of a lions head erased and the figure of a woman, commonly called Britannia, and a distinct and variable mark to be used by the warden of the same mystery, to denote the year in which such plate was made. The plate made at this period is often called of "Britannia standard" to distinguish it. But here another difficulty arose, for this Act mentioning no pro- vincial offices practically deprived them of the privilege of stamping any plate at all, as they were not empowered to use the marks appointed for the new, and now the only legal, standard. The result of this was that from 1G97 until the establishment of certain pro- vincial oflices, as we shall see, in 1701, no plate was properly stamped anywhere but in London, and what little plate was made in the provinces was stamped irregularly.* Leaving, however, the provincial offices for the present, some further provisions of the Act of 1G97 must not be forgotten, for it not only protected the coin by raising the standard, but adopted means for increasing the supply of it. This was effected by providing for the ready purchase by the mint of any wrought plate bearing the stamps of the Goldsmiths' Company at 5s. 4(1. per ounce, and such an ofter, no doubt, brought about a further destruction of some of the ancient plate that had escaped previous storms. From this time forward, owing to the re-vegistration of makers' marks, which now became necessary, considerably more is known about plateworkers' names than is the case in earlier days. Some of them were artists of great merit, and the names and abodes of all those of much note have been entered against their marks in an appendix at the end of this volume. The best patronised of them will be known by the number of recorded examples of work stamped with their respective marks. In the course of the next twenty years the object of the last- mentioned statute was accomplished, though somewhat slowly, and at length the necessity for its continuance no longer existed. Added to this it seems to have been found that articles made of the higher * See p. 111. 44 Old English Plate. [ohap. n. quality of silver were not so durable nor so serviceable as tbose of the old standard. Even as late as 1718, silver coin was very uncomfortably scarce,* and this scarcity was one of the principal matters to which the Parlia- ment of that year directed its attention. Lord Stanhope in his official statement as head of the Treasury ascribed it to three causes ; first, the increasing luxury in relation to plate, secondly, the export of plate or other bullion to the East Indies, and thirdly, to the clandestine trade carried on of exporting silver and importing gold to and from Holland, Germany, and other countries. In 1717 the East India Company had exported three million ounces of silver, which far exceeded the imports, so that large quantities of silver specie must have been melted up to supply the export of the silversmiths. Lord Stanhope also hinted at "the malice of some persons, who by hoarding up silver thought to distress the Government." However this may be, the "old sterling" standard was restored with its old marks from June 1, 1720 (G Geo. I., c. 11), and took its place beside the new or Britannia standard, Avhich, with its own special marks, was left a lawful standard for such as preferred it. Provisions against dishonesty were again found to be necessary, and in 1739, in consequence of great frauds which are detailed in the Act of that year (12 Geo. II., cap. 26), particularly in the use of excessive quantities of solder, the standards were again fixed at 22 carats for gold, and 11 oz. 2 dwts. for silver, though the higher standard was not abolished, and the marks to be used were resettled, the maker's initials to be those of his Christian name and surname, instead of the first two letters of his surname as was ordered in 1697, likewise the character or alphabet of the initial letters used was to be in each case changed also. The marks to be used by the country assay offices were also dealt with, but, as will be seen in a subsequent chapter, not so clearly as could have been wished.! As before, the general re-registration of marks has stored the books of the Goldsmiths' Com- pany with a quantity of information as to the names of the goldsmiths of the day. Except for the lower standards of gold, we have now been carried through all the marks to be found on plate stamped in London, save one only — the mark of the sovereign's head. This was introduced in 1784 (24 Geo. III., c. 53) by an Act granting a duty from December 1 in that 3'ear of Ss. per oz. on gold plate, and of sixpence per oz. on silver. It directed the wardens or assay master to mark the pieces * Lord Maliou's Ilidori/ of Eajland, vol i., p. 443. f See Chap. V., p. 115. CHAP, ir.] Hall Marks on Gold. 45 with a new mark, viz, the king's head over and above the several marks ah-eady used. Some further details as to duties payable, articles exempted, and dealers' licences will be found under the head of the duty mark in the next chapter. Last of all we come to some quite recent improvements in the system of marking gold, and to the authorisation of the above- mentioned lower gold standards, a step brought about by the use of that precious metal amongst larger classes of society. These pro- visions are the last on our list relating to marks, and are perhaps the least interesting of all from an antiquary's point of view, however valuable they may be to the purchaser in the every-day dealings of trade. The lower standards, or rather all those below 18 carats, have never been much used nor appreciated by the public, and it will not be necessary to refer to them at any length. The Act, however, is an important one (38 Geo. III., c. 69), which in 1798 authorised the much-used standard of 18 carats fine for gold, and provided for its being marked with a crown and the figures 18 instead of the lion passant; for it had the good eftect of giving gold a different dis- tinguishing mark from silver for the first time, a distinction which should have been made long before. It must always be remembered that until 38 Geo. III. there was no special distinguishing mark for gold, and then only for 18-carat gold, and further that it was not until 1844 that 22-carat gold was marked otherwise than as silver would have been. By 7 & 8 Yict. c. 22, s. 15, this last improvement was made, and 22-carat gold has from that time been marked with a crown and 22, instead of the lion passant, to the great advantage of the public. The still lower standards for gold were legalised in 1854 (17 it 18 ^'ict. c. 9()), by a provision enabling Her Majesty hi Council to allow any gold standard of not less than one- third of fine gold. In pursuance of this, three reduced standards were ordered to bo marked as follows, viz. : — 15-carat, with the figures 15 and •(525 : 12-carat, with 12 and '5 ; and 9-carat, with 9 and "375 — the second figure in each case being the proportion of iinc gold expressed in decimals. The Act called "the Goldsmiths' Act" of 1844, which has been already mentioned as regulating the marking of 22-carut gold (1 k 8 Yict. c. 22), also regulates the trade as regards forgeries of dies or marks, the selling of plate worse than standard, and other such frauds. But as this is rather a matter of present-day interest than connected with the history of the craft or their marks, a fuHcr 46 Old English Plate. [chap. n. consideration of it is reserved for a separate chapter devoted to frauds and offences. The result of this somewhat long historical and legal notice is that we shall find, on plate made in London, the following marks, or some of them, in accordance with the various statutes and ordinances that have been recounted. Stated for clearness in their chronological order, they are as follows : — 1. The LeoparcVs head, from 1800. 2. The Makers mark, from 18(;8. 8. The Annual letter, from 1478. 4. The Lion passant, from 154.5. 5. The Lion's head erased, and figure of Britannia, from 1697.* 0. The Sovereign's head, from 1784. The following table gives a summary of what has here been said of the London marks ; and each of them is treated of more fully in the next chapter. * From 1C97 — 1720 used for silver in- I that interval, Siuce 1720, used, when re- stead of the leopard's bead crowned and lion quired, for plate made of the higher standard passant, which were discontinued during I silver. CHAK II.] Tabic of London Marks. 47 ■■A ^ ^ A i => .-Hi -ti o 2 O 7:- -S -^ O rr. ^ •r? O r2 -r-" ."t^ ^ g -c bD i> ^ t5 'S rt p '0 JJ rt ■+-* +^ r/1 ■^ 'pi ■n <•) CO 5 s r; ;: ^ ■"■ ^ ci S S TJ r-^ O CO ^ ^ rt -t;' *tl CO <^ ^ ;^ -3 •- 00 c3 S S ^ 5 '-^ fl o O "M cj 1^^ ' lever forric )ie oiirrrr en chamhre secrete se ilz ne sojit approuvez devant lea ntaistees (hi viestier et estrc temo'Kjiier souffisamcut de ieiiirforfie ct (T avoir p<)i)ieo)i a con- ire^iaifin et autrcinent noii." This hardly, however, precludes the possibility of there being other marks also in use at the same time, and the wording seems taken from earlier statutes, in which the touch of Paris is ordained as a standard, as, for instance, those of King John of France in 1355, which again are themselves only letters of confirmation of still more ancient regulations, taking us back as far as 12G0. The parallel passage from King John's letter of confirmation provides that he who wishes to be a goldsmith of Paris must either be apprenticed, "on qu'il soil tcl eproiive par les Jiiaistres ct bonnes gens (III iiiestier estre sonjfisant estre orfevre et de tcnir et lever forge ct (V avoir poi neon a eontreseing'' ,- but a later clause adds that, "mil orfevre ne pent ouvrer eVor a Paris qu'il ne soil a la touclie de Paris, OH meilleur la quelle touche passe tons les ors dont Von euvre en mille terres.'" It must have been long a celebrated touch to be spoken of in such terms, and it is clear that in 1300 the lily was well known and recognised even here in England as the Paris mark ;* add to this that Philip le Hardi had ordained in 1275 that each city should have a particular mark for works of silver. In all these cases the word " touch " must be taken to refer to the mark by which the quality of the metal is certified as well as to that quality itself. It is so used in our own early statutes, in wdiich the phrases " touched with the touch" "bearing the touch," "touched with the leopard's head," occur as well as another set of expressions in which it is used rather to denote the standard of the metal, for instance, "gold of a certain touch." Two " chargcours de touche London," are mentioned in the inventory of the goods of llichard de Piavenser, Archdeacon of Lincoln, who died in 1380 ; a quart pot of silver with the " touche of Parys," and also dishes of silver of "London makyng " occur in a will of 1-1-13 ;f " spones marked with the touche of London " in a will proved in the Canterbury Prerogative Court in 1463 ; " peciam de/. markcs FranciiU " in 1481 ; and " spones having the toche of the goldesmytlis " in another will of 1522. * Wardrobe accounts of tliat year, 28 Edward I. (see p. 19). t 7'rst. Ehiiy., SCO note Art. Spmnii, cliap. x. 62 Old EiigUs/i Plate. [chai-. m. The foregoing remarks, it will be observed, deal with the comparative antiquitj^ of the leopard's head and the lily quite as much as with the English and French date-letters ; indeed they apply to either pair of marks alike, and have only found a place here rather than earlier, because they followed naturally upon a comparison of the periods at which the guilds of London and Montpellier respectively adopted a warden's mark. Some might say, as we have seen, that neither the leopard's head nor the lily is a guild mark properly so called, but rather the mark of the royal or national standard, each for its own country ; and in the case of England, everything points to the date-letter as the only special mark of the London guild. It is the date-letter which is described in 1597 as the mark approved by ordinance amongst the goldsmiths themselves, whereas the two other marks then used are " Her Majesty's" and " appointed by statute " respectively. It would be somewhat of an anomaly to find that of all places in the world, London should have been the one without a pecuhar mark of its own, other than its date-letter, if it were not that in times when the Goldsmiths' Company was the only keeper of the national touch, that touch might so easily come to be regarded in practice almost as much the mark of the guild as of the standard. It is a point of no practical importance, at all events since the appointment of a special mark for each provincial assay office ; but to be strictly accurate, we should have to say that London plate is distinguished by the absence of any provincial mark rather than by the presence of any special mark of its ow-n, unless we admit the claim of its peculiar series of date-letters to that character. These it has undeniably used from 1478, in the form of a succession of alphabets, each consisting of twenty letters ; J, U or V, W, X, Y and Z, being the letters omitted. From 1560-1 they have, with hardly any exception, been enclosed in regular heraldic shields of various shapes, but till then the letters are surrounded with a line more or less closely following their own outline ; the ends of the punches having been originally of the shape of the letters they bore, and afterwards of a shield shape, with the letter sunk in the centre of the shield. The most notable exceptions to this rule are the letters L of 1726-7, and M of the followdng year, which are often, if not always, found on a square punch.* From 1678, if not earlier, more than one size of punch is found to have been used, large and small articles having been stamped with marks of different sizes, the smaller ones being often on plain square punches with the corners slightly cut ofif, No doubt tlie puuch in these cases is of the second size. CHAP. III.] Tlic Date Letter. 63 instead of iu more heraldic shields. Very small letters indeed are found towards the end of the seventeenth century in the inside of watch cases. In certain years also the letters on the punches in use diSer a little in form from one another. Two forms of the letter for 1619-20 occur; and the difterences to be noted at 15G7-B, 1575-G, and at 1658-9 are also so marked as to require representation in the tables. The introduction of a shield in 1560-1, in the middle of an alphabet be it noted, curiously enough coincides exactly with the restoration of the old sterling standard silver by Queen Elizabeth, which has been spoken of in the preceding chapter ; and the probability that an event of such importance to the Goldsmiths' Company was marked by them in this or some other particular way suggested a careful examination of the journals of the Company, which resulted iu the discovery of the following minute for 16 December, 1560 : — "Also forasmuch as i\Ir. Wardens and the Assistants have found that the mi)ueys of our sovereign Lady the Quene contej'ne in fynesse (xi oz.) eleven ounces and upward tlierefore it.is by them agreed that after the feast of the Epiphainc of our Lord God next eomj'nge the assaymaster and wardens of this compauie shall touch no plate under the fynesse of (xi oz. ii dwt.) eleven ounces two pennie weight and for a certe knowledge to be had betwene the same plate and other before touched it is agreed that the letter of the yeare shall be grayved round about for a difference." This positive proof of the reason for the shield lends additional weight to the suggestion which is to be made when the lion passant comes under notice, that its invention in 1545 marks the divergence of the standard of the silver coinage from that of silver plate which then took place. It would be very odd if the degradation of the coinage from the sterling quality maintained throughout for plate, and its subsequent restoration to that standard of purity, Averc events of two years, in each of which is found to occur a novel feature in the system of hall marking practised by the Goldsmiths' Company, and if one of the alterations in the marks, but not the other, were connected Avitli the coincident changes of the standard. The lleur-de-lys and pellets which accompany in some instances the letter for 1575-6 no doubt relate to the Act of that year, as in later days the Act of 1739-40 is marked by the adoption of a new shape of shield for the rest of the letters of the then current alphabet. The variation noted for 1658 is merely due to the use of a damaged punch, probably towards the end of the year ; but the annulet under the letter for 1567, and the two forms of letter found in 1619 arc happily accounted for. In 1567 it appears from liie IMinule JJooks of the Court of the Goldsmiths' Company that a loiig-staiidiiigdispulc 64 Old English Plate. [chap. m. with the Assay Master Pdcharcl Rogers came to a head. The Company reqmred him to give up his house in Chepe and to come and dwell in the proper apartments for the Assay INIaster at the Hall, as early as in August, 1566. From that time forward there are constant entries of his delays and excuses until at last in Aug. 1567 he promised to come in to the Hall or yield up his office next quarter-day. It was then found necessary to come to close quarters, and ten days more were given him on Nov. 3, 1567, to make up his mind in. The next entry relating to the matter records that on Dec. 24, he was " discharged of the office of assayer." Thomas Keelynge was appointed to he his successor ; and on commencing work he no douht adopted the annulet under the date-letter for the remaining portion of the year. So too in 1619 the second form of the letters is accounted for hy the death of the assayer Thomas Dymock in the month of Septemher, and the appointment a month later of John Reynolds. The letters have heen annually changed on the day of election of the new wardens, that heing St. Dunstan's Day prior to the Resto- ration ; the new punches were accordingly handed to the assay-warden for use, on or about May 19 in each year, and were continued to the same time in the year following. Since 1660 the new punches have heen first used on the morning of May 30, the new wardens having heen elected the day before. No entry is found of the letter for the year in the goldsmiths' journals, until the occurrence of some dispute with the officers of the assay, after which the letters were mentioned. Their earliest note is of the letter for 1629, but from that time the notices are sufficiently regular to indicate the character of all the alphabets. For the earlier letters, it was only by the examination of a great many pieces of ancient plate, chiefly belonging to public companies, colleges, corpora- tions, and churches, of which the histories are known, that Mr. Octavius Morgan was able to collect the information necessary to enable him to construct a table of the alphabets used. The difficulty was increased by the obvious fact that the dates which are engraved on ancient plate cannot always be relied on for the date of the work. Oftentimes pieces of plate which individuals or their families have had in their possession for many years, have afterwards been given or bequeathed b}' them to public bodies, and then the date of the gift is recorded in the inscription which will not agree with the period of the work. Again, plate given to public bodies, having been worn out, has been remade at subsequent periods, or exchanged for more useful articles, and the original date has been engraved on the new-made piece. As an illustration of this difficulty, one of the loving cups of CHAP. III.] The Date Letter. 65 the Goldsmiths' Company itself goes by the name of " Hanbury's Cup," and bears engraved on it the record of its having been the gift of Richard Hanbury in 1608. The form and workmanship of the cup arc clearly of the period of Charles II., and that was confirmed by the annual letter. In searching the books of the Company, Mr. Morgan found by accident a memorandum stating that " Hanbury's cup, weight 60 oz., was sold with other plate in 1637, and re-made in 1666." This latter date agrees precisely with the annual letter it bears. The present writer's experiences on this point are the same. He was somewhat surprised to find, when examining the plate of the Salters' Company, that though bearing the arms and dates of Sir Nicholas Crispe, Knt. and Bart., and other great salters of the reigns of Charles I. and Charles II., it all seemed made in 1716 by a well- known goldsmith named Humphrey Payne. At last a Monteith dated 1660 appeared. This was too much of an anachronism ; and a refer- ence to the old books of the Company being kindly permitted, some curious facts, which had been entirely lost sight of and forgotten, came to light. It appeared that the Company had resolved, in 1711, to sell all their plate, after carefully registering the weights of the articles, and also the dates, names, and arms of the donors which might be engraved upon them, in order to invest the proceeds in lottery tickets (it will be remembered that State lotteries were then just a new thing, having been first authorized by Parliament in 1709). It further appeared that in 1716, it was determined to replace the plate, the lottery tickets were sold, tenders by London goldsmiths were invited, and the tender of Humphrey Payne and Co., which was the lowest of three sent in, being accepted, new plate of the same weight, but not in articles of the same description, as that sold in 1711, was made by him for the Company ; and it was ordered that the names, arms, and dates of the donors of the old plate should be placed upon the new. Humphrey Payne's receipt for " self and Co." is extant amongst the minutes of the year 1716. In this way were gradually put together the alphabets published in 1853 by Mr. Octavius Morgan, who succeeded in ascertaining the forms of no less than sixty-five letters previously unknown, including specimens of every alphabet as far back as 1478. To these many more have now been added, and some of the occasional gaps later than 1620, which existed in the original tables, filled up. Some time after their publication by Mr. ]\[orgiin, these alphabets were reproduced with the addition of shields, by the late IMr. W. Chafi'ers, who seems to have adopted Mr. Morgan's tables and data; but some of the letters, and the shields in many cases, were incorrect, F O.E.P. 66 Old English Plate. [chap. m. and a somewhat doubtful improvement upon the original tables thus Iaboriousl_y compiled. The cycles of twenty years seem to have proceeded regularly from 1478 to 1696, when, on the occasion of the new standard being intro- duced and new marks appointed for it, a fresh alphabet was commenced. The entries in the Goldsmiths' minutes are as follows : — " A.D. 1696, May 29th. — New puncheons received ; the letter for the year being % hi a scutcheon j^L "a.d. 1697, March 27th. — The puncheons for the remaining part of this year w^ere received, being according to an Act of Parliament, a Lyon's head erased, a Britannia, and for the letter the great court tl in an escutcheon I^J-" It must be borne in mind that as the new letters were not fixed till May 29, each letter served for a portion of two years, even in days before the change of style. This t and Jl, therefore, between them, served as the letters for the goldsmiths' year 1696-7, that is, for the year beginning May 30, 1696 ; the court-hand letter for 1697-8 coming into use on May 30, 1697. Some instances of a small black letter tt for the year 1697-8 are said to exist ; and if so, no doubt it is upon certain articles made, but not marked or sold, previous to the adoption of the new standard. It would have been very hard on those who had expended time and skill upon old sterling silver in the year 1696-7, with no notice of the impending alteration in the standard, if such wares had been thereby rendered unsaleable. The Act was, however, so worded as to avoid doing this injustice, and such articles would be stamped with the old marks, including the U that would have denoted 1697-8 in ordinary course. The new court-hand alphabet was applicable only to plate of the new standard inaugurated with it. New and carefully constructed tables of the alphabets, and their shields or other inclosures, are given at the end of this volume. THE LIOX PASSANT There is no mark so well known and at the same time so little understood as the lion passant. Far from being the ancient sign of sterling silver, it is not found at all until the middle of the sixteenth century. The most careful enquiry has failed to produce an earlier instance than one of the year 1545, and it is not mentioned in any statute, ordinance, or other proceeding until the indictment by the CHAP. III.] TJic Lion Passant. 67 Attorney-General in 1597, in which it is called Her Majcsti/s Lion, whilst the other two marks are described respectively as "the leopard's head limited hij statute," and "the alphabetical mark approved hij ordinance amongst tJionselres" {i.e., the Goldsmiths' Company). In earlier days the leopard's head was the king's mark ; does the lion passant now take its jilace ? Its origin, intention, and even the precise date of its introduction are all equally obscure. It is never found before 1543, nor is it ever absent after 1545 ; but there is no article of plate known to exist of the intervening year. In one or the other of the years 1544 and 1545 it must have been introduced. Its description in 1597 would imply that it had been appointed to be used by some royal order, but the Registers of the Privy Council and the records of the Goldsmiths' Company have alike been searched in vain ; there is no mention of it in the latter, and the volume of the former for just this period is almost the only one of a long series that is missing. We are there- fore thrown back upon a conjecture, but one which there seems good ground for adopting. It will be remembered that it was in 1542 that the fineness of the silver coin of the realm was, for the first time since the Conquest, lowered ; not that the pound sterling of silver had not been lessened in value several times in that long period, but it had always been effected by diminishing its weight, leaving the fineness of the silver unaltered. In 1542, however, Henry VIII. not only diminished the weight but reduced the standard from 11 ounces 2 dwts. fine to 10 ounces fine, and again in 1544 from 10 ounces to 6 ounces, leaving but 6 ounces of fine silver in a troy pound, this being followed by a further and final degradation in 1545. It will also be remembered that the touch of the leopard's head crowned certified only that the silver was of "the alloy of the sterling or better." What security then would the buyer have had after 1542 that plate bought by him was of any better silver than the debased coinage of the day ? None whatever. May we not, therefore, hazard a conjecture that the lion passant was adopted at about this period to show that plate bearing it was not only as good as the coin, but was of the old sterling standard '? No later writer has attempted to penetrate the mystery since Mr. Octavius Morgan first drew attention to it, and the Quarterly lleviewer, in 1876, who may be taken to sum up modern learning on the point, does so in a wish that "some of those laborious gentlemen who are engaged in calendering the State Papers, may fall,|^in the course of their researches, on some Order in Council or Gracious Proclamatiou enjoining the addition of this royal lion — for it at least came out of the f2 68 Old Eiii^Usli Plate. ["iap. m. coat-armour of the sovereign — to the three marks rendered imperative by statute." From 1545 the lion passant, or more properly lion passant guardant, has invariably been found upon silver of the old sterling, and until 1844 upon standard gold ; and, whilst it must be confessed that this theory does not account for its appearance on gold plate, there is nothing improbable in the assumption that it was thought convenient, on its adoption for silver for the reason we have given, to adopt it also for gold for the sake of uniformity in the standard marks. It is an important landmark to the archneologist, for whilst its presence or absence alone tells him something, the alterations which are observed in its size and shape from time to time are often of material assistance to him in fixing the date of the articles on which it appears. In the first few years the beast is thin and spirited in shape, and a small crown appears over the head of the lion. This is so in 1547 and 1549. From 1550 the crown disappears, and from that year till 1557, the animal is in a plain oblong shield, whilst from 1557 to 1677 the shape of the escutcheon follows the outline of the animal. THE LION'S HEAD ERASED AND FKJUKE OE BRITANNIA. Of these two marks there is little to be said. They were appointed by the statute of 1G96-7, Avhich raised the standard for silver plate from 11 ounces 2 dwts. to 11 ounces 10 dwts. tine, in order to distinguish the plate so made from that which had previously been made of silver of the old sterling, and they were for this purpose substituted for the leopard's head crowned and lion passant. The new marks were in sole use from March 27, 1697, until June, 1720, when the old sterling standard was restored, and its own old n(iarks with it, not, however, to the exclusion of the new. Since that year, therefore, both standards, each to bear its own marks, have been legal. For some short time after the restoration of the old standard a good deal of plate made of the new or higher standard silver seems still to have been stamped, but it quickly fell into disuse, and, after 1732 or thereabouts, the lion's head erased and the Britannia are very rarely to be met with. The higher standard is occasionally used even at the present day, and in such cases is of course distinguished by its proper marks. The Britannia stamp is sometimes found of a rectangular and at other times of an oval shape ; in one instance that has come under the writer's notice it is absent altogether, a set of loving cups of the year 1716 in the possession of the Worshipful Company of Salters CHAP, ni.] The Sovereign's Head. 69 bearing" no Britiinnia, but instead of it a secoiul impression of tbe lion's bead erased pbiccd beside tbe tirst, and of a different size. It may be noted also tliat several pieces of plate bearing irregular marks occur in tbe 3'ear or two next after tbe restoration of tbe old sterling standard in 1720. For old sterling silver some of tbe puncbes dis- used since 1097 neem to bave been put into commission again, and confusion was doubtless occasioned by tbe two sets of marks being in daily use at tbe assay-office. Tbe writer bas seen a candlestick bearing botb old and new standard marks. Even more remarkable is a salver of 1721 bearing tbe Britannia and an old leopard's bead crowned, but botb partially obliterated, tbe former by liaviug a lion passant and tbe latter a lion's bead erased stamped over it. Tbe original combination and tbe correction are equally witbout meaning. THK SOVEUr:iGX"S HKAD. Tins mark is found on all plate tbat bas been liable to tbe duty imposed from Dec. 1, 1784 (24 Geo. III. c. 53) ; tbat is to say, upon all plate liable to be assayed, tbe only exemptions from tbe control of tbe assay-offices, and tberefore from duty, being : — (1). Certain gold articles exempted by 12 Geo. II. c. 26.* (2). Certain silver articles exempted by 30 Geo. III. c. 31. t * 12 Geo. II. c. 2(5.— Exemptions : — s. 2. Any jeweller.s" works, that is to say, any gold or silver wherein any jewels or other stones are or sliall be set (other than mourning rings), any jointed night ear-]-ings of gokl, or gold springs of lockets. s. 6. Rings, collets for rings, or other jewels, chains, necklace beads, lockets, hollow or raised buttons, sleeve buttons, thimbles, corral sockets and liells, ferrils, pipe-lighters, cranes for bottles, very small book-clasps, any stock or garter clasps jointed, very small nutmeg-graters, rims of snuif boxes whereof tops or bottoms are made of shell or stone, sliding pencils, toothpick cases, tweezer cases, pencil cases, needle cases, any philligree work, any sorts of tip- ping.s or swages on stone or ivory cases, any mounts, screws, or stoppers to stone or glass bottles or phials, any small or slight orna- ments put to amber or other eggs or urns, any wrought seals, or seals with cornelians or other stones set therein, or any gold or silver vessel, plate, or manufacture of gold or silver so richly engraved, carved, or chased, or set with jewels or other stones, as not to admit of an assay to be taken of, or a mark to be struck thereon, without damaging, preju- dicing, or defacing the same, or such other things as by reason of the smallness or thin- ness thereof are not capable of receiving the marks hereinbefore mentioned, or any of them, and not weighing ten pennyweights of gold or silver each. t 30 Grco. III. c. 31.— I'lxemptions : — s. 3. Chains, necklace l>eads, lockets, any philligree work, shirt buckles or broaches, stamped medals, or spouts to china, stone or earthenware teapots, or any of them, of any weight whatsoever. s. 4. Tippings, swages or mounts, or any of them, not weighing ten pennyweights of silver each, save and except only necks and collars for castors, cruets or glasses apper- taining to any sort of stivnds or frames. s. .'». Any wares of silver whatsoever not weighing five iicnnyweigiits of silver each, save and except only the following silver wares (tiiat is to .say), necks, collars, and tops for castors, cruets or glasses appertaining JO Old English Plate. [ohap. m. (3). "Watch cases, by 38 Geo. III. c. 24. These are exempted from duty aud so from being marked with the Sovereign's head, but are not amongst the exemptions from the general marking requirements of 12 Geo. II. c. 26. An Order in Council of 1887 regulating the marking of foreign watch-cases imported from abroad will be found mentioned later (see Chap. YIIL). It will be observed that, from 1738 until 1790, the silver as well as the gold exempted was so under 12 Geo. II. c. 26, which was repealed in 1790 as to silver by 30 Geo. III. c. 31 ; and it must be added that by 18 & 19 Vict. c. 60, wedding-rings pay duty even though of less weight than 10 dwts. The mark itself, when first introduced, was in intaglio instead of in relief, looking like the matrix of a seal instead of its impression; in this form it is found in conjunction with the letters i aud k, standing for 1784-5 and 1785-6 respectively, specimens of both of W'hich are in the writer's possession, and the profile is, in these cases, turned to the left. The date letter for 1784-5 is of course sometimes with, and at other times without, the King's-head mark, the duty not having been imposed till the middle of the Goldsmiths' year. After the end of 1785-6 it is always found in relief like the other assay-marks, and with the profile to the right. Her most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria is, however, turned to the left again. The head is in a rectangular stamp with corners clipped in 1784 and 1785. It occurs in a sort of trefoil stamp, about 1804 to 1808. This is the case at York, Sheffield and Edinburgh; and so no doubt at all the provincial assay-offices, as well as in Loudon. At all other times it is in a plain oval shield. A duty of sixpence per ounce troy was first imposed upon plate in 1720 when the old standard of silver was revived and by the same statute (6 Geo. I. c. 11), but it w^as taken off again in 1758 (31 Geo. II. c. 32) by an Act which substituted a dealer's licence costing 40s. per annum.* to an.y sort of stands or frames, buttons to ladles, tea spoons, tea strainers, caddy ladles, be affixed to or set on any wearing apparel, buckles (shirt buckles or broaches before solid sleeve buttons and solid studs, not mentioned excepted), and pieces to garnish having a bissiiled edge soldered on, wrought cabinets, or knife cases, or tea chests, or seals, blank seals, bottle tickets, shoe clasps, bridles, or stands or frames, patch boxes, salt spoons, salt shovels, salt 1 * Dealers' licences are now regulated by 30 & 31 Vict. c. 90. Dealers in gold exceeding 2 dwts. and under 2 oz. ) £2 6s. ,, silver ,, 5 ,, ,, 30 ,, / per annum. ,, gold 2 oz. or upwards) ,, silver 30 oz. or upwards,- £5 I5s. per annum. Gold and silver refiners, etc. I TJic Sovereign's Head 7 — YORK — NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE — NORWICH — CHESTER — EXETER — HULL, GATESHEAD, LEEDS, CARLISLE, LINCOLN, TAUNTON, DORCHESTER, BARNSTAPLE, KING'S LYNN, SANDWICH, SHERBORNE— DOUBTFUL PROVINCIAL MARKS— TABLE OF OLD PROVINCIAL MARKS. We now come to the consideration of the marks found upon plate assayed in the provinces ; but as the Act of 1700 established, or in certain cases re-established, the provincial assay-offices on an entirely new basis and with entirely new mai-ks to distinguish them, the history of provincial marks divides itself into two distinct portions, the earlier of which terminates at that year. There is nothing more certain than that goldsmiths' guilds existed in mediasval days in many English provincial towns and cities. There is nothing less certain than that what is known of their work as a trade matter is practically nothing. A few purely antiquarian vestiges are what they have left behind. It is not until 1423, that provincial "touches," except the touch of York, can with any certainty be said to have existed at all, so far as any legislation about such things is concerned. In very early days all goldsmiths were required to bring their wares to London to be marked ; and even in 1379 the enactment found on the Eolls of Parliament for establishing an " assay of the touch " in cities and boroughs under the superintendence of their Mayors and Governors, with the aid of the Master of the Mint, if there be one, who should put the mark of the city or borough where it was assaj^ed upon plate, does not, as we have already seen, appear to have become law. At best, for reasons already given, its provisions were but temporary ; and it is clear that even in parts of England distant from the metropolis there was no general custom at this time of marking plate with peculiar local marks ; indeed, there is some direct evidence to the contrary in the claims of the Wardens of the Goldsmiths in 1404 to have had the right from time immemorial to have the governance of all manner of HAP. IV.] Tlic Provincial (joldsiiiitJis. 73 f>-(»kl and silver work as v.ell within the cit}' of London " as chcirhcre ivltlnn the hini De j lez sarce pixid' ij'^ De j pari precularium de le jeitt ij'l De lez swepynges dictai opelte xx^ Sunima ix^i iii^ x'l ob. Thomas Skeltou, goldsmith of York, is found selling mazers iu the middle years of the fifteenth century. It is worth noticing that the names of several of these goldsmiths point to their foreign descent. Luneburgh and Harlam must have come from those cities ; Colan, or Colam, was not improbably from Cologne ; and the Christian name of his sou Herman, who is mentioned in his will, points in the same direction. But notwithstanding these glimpses of the tradesmen of York and their families, there is no single bit of marked plate left to show that this city, nor indeed any of the others, until much later days exercised the privilege conferred upon them in 1379 or in 1423, of touching their plate with their own touches. Very interesting docuuientar}' evidence has, however, been found by Canon Raine amongst the archives of York of the existence of a common touch there in 1410-1. In that year a dispute arose in the craft as to whether there should be three or only two "'searchers," and the question is laid before the mayor, aldermen, and other good citizens on 5th March, 12 Henry IV., with the result that two searchers, Englishmen born, and no more, were to be chosen and duly sworn. The goldsmiths were to bring their touch and mark "come la statut purport," and those who had none, to make themselves new punches, " en complisent de justice come le comune lez eut demand." They were to forfeit G-s. 8(?. if they sold anything of gold or silver before " le comune touch de la dite cite " and its maker's mark were properly applied to it. All this came under review again in 1561, when the ■' ancient ordynances of the mystery or occupation of goldsmiths of the citie of Yorke " were diligently perused and examined "by the CHAP. IV.] 77/6' Provincial (joldsinitJis 77 rii;-bt worsliipfull Parsyvall Crafourth, mayonr, the aldremen and pryvay couuccir" at their assembly in "the comisell chamber upon Ousebrig," 10th April, 3 Eliz., and reformed, to be thenceforth firmly observed and kept for ever, Thomas Sympson and Eobert Gylmyn, the two searchers under the old ordinances, and the other good men masters of the craft, were present. The old ordinance of Henry IT. as regards the two searchers was ratified and confirmed and as regards makers' punches. It was also ordained that all work should be " towched with the pounce of this citie called the half leopard head and half flowre de luyce " as the statute purporteth. Gold was to be of the " touche of Paryse," and of silver none of "worse alaye than sterlyng" might be worked, except that " sowder " should be allowed for, under pain of forfeiting the double value. A great deal followed about apprentices and fraudulent work, to a great extent according with the provisions of the Acts of 1404 and 1420, especially as regards work done for Holy Church, knights' spurs, and so on. But despite all these regulations 1582 was a stormy year at York, when the two searchers, Martyne " dubiggyn " and William Peareson got themselves committed to ward — Peareson for one day, but his fellow at the Lord Mayor's pleasure, and to be deprived of his oftice. It appears from later records that the new searcher then (10th May, 1583) appointed in his place was Thomas Waddy, who, with Peareson his colleague, was soon in fresh difficulties with one George Kitchin, which were at last settled by arbitration 23 Sept., 1583. The next searchers appointed, 5 Jan., 3 583-4, were John Stockc and "WilHam ffoster : and a year later than this (27 Jan., 1584-5) it was ordained that from henceforth the searchers were to be chosen on the fourth day after the Feast of St. James, the apostle, to continue till that day year ('luly 29). In 160G some fresh orders Avere made about apprentices and searching ; and in these tlie " towcli and mark belonginge to this cittye called the halfe leopard head and half fiower-de-luce " is again mentioned. On Sept. 1, 1G84, the searchers were fined 40s. a man for having omitted to call the meeting to choose their successors, and the company was ordered to meet that day fortnight to choose them. From about 1500 the leading craftsmen occasionally figure in the list of the Lord Mayors of York. Thomas Gray serves this oflice in 141)7, William Willson in 1513, George Gaile in 1534, and Palph Pullein in 1537 ; but then several generations elapse before a goldsmith again attains the civic cbair in the person of John Thompson, Lord Mayor in 1G85, to be followed in 1(597 by Mark Gill. Charles Khoadcs was Sherift' in 1G94. The mark of each of these last tbree worthies occurs upon plate. The goldsmiths in 1G23 \kv\A luily 2s'. a year 78 Old English Plate. [chai'. iv. towards tlie repair of the Mote Hall called St. Anthony's Gild, whereas the " Merchants or Mercers " paid as much as 5 shillings. At ahout this time too, a glimpse of craft life, and the more interesting because relating to goldsmiths much of whose work remains to be seen at the present day, comes from the will of Christopher Harrington of York. Dying in 1614, he leaves to the company of the trade of goldsmiths a silver spoon of ten shillings price, and after a bequest of some tools to his ''mann .Tames Plummer," devises the rest to his son Robert Harrington, and a drawing-book between them, six leaves of paper apiece.* Plate by all these three will be found in our list of old York plate. To return from this A'ork digression, the Act of 1477 speaks of the keepers of the touch in London and other jAaces ; but in 1488, when the statute of that year notices " the rule and order of the mints of London, Calice, Canterbury, York and Durham," also of "the Gold- smiths' Hall of London," and recites that " liners and parters dwell abroad in every part of the realm out of the rules aforesaid," no men- tion is made of an}' of the country assay offices ; and it may be presumed that they did little or no business towards the end of that century. Even later, in 1509, it is expressly stated in one of the charters of the Goldsmiths' Company in London, that search for and punish- ment of abuses in the trade was but seldom executed out of London. Possibly the supervision of the Goldsmiths' Company in London was exercised at first in a spirit that did not encourage the develop- ment of the trade in the provinces ; for the confirmation of their charter by Edward TV. in 1462, gave them the inspection, trial, and regulation of all gold and silver wares, not only in London, but in all other parts of the kingdom ; and these powers were continually exercised, periodical progresses being made by the assay wardens throughout the country for the purpose. It is recorded in 1493, that the costs of the wardens to " Sturbitch Fair," amounted to £2 ; and from the accounts relating to the sixteenth century Ave may take the following extracts : — "1512. Agreed that Mr. Wardens shall ride into the country this year, to make search ' in div's fey res, cytyes, and townys,' as they had done in tymes past." " 1517. Agreed ' that the wardens shall ryde at Seynt Jamys' Eeyre ' and to such other places and towns in the west parts of England as they shall think most necessary," But such circuits as these were clearly not every-day events ; it Oommunicated by Mr. T. M. Fallow, F.S.A. cHAv. IV.] 27/6' Provincial Goldsinitlis. 79 -would seem as if notliing of the kind had taken place for some years previously to 151 '2, and the provincial authorities did hut little in the ahsence of any higher supervision. Much more plate was melted than made during the half-century which followed this outburst of energy ; and country goldsmiths gradually fell, equally no doubt with those of London, into the abuses which called so loudly for enquiry at the commencement of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Up to that time at all events their work does not seem to have been held in very high estimation. The touches of London and Paris are constantly mentioned in the wills and inven- tories of the fifteenth century ; that of Bruges is also occasionally referred to : but no mention will be found of any English touch except that of London ; and in the inventories of church furniture made in the reign of Edward VI., in which the names of many London gold- smiths occur, there are not to be found those of any provincial crafts- men, even in the case of parishes far from the capital, and compara- tively near one or other of the local centres at which that mystery would seem to have had a settlement. This is the more significant, as in the self-same documents the sale of pewter to pewterers resident in various country towns is recorded, which would Avarrant a presump- tion that broken or superfluous silver plate would have been in like manner disposed of to neighbouring goldsmiths, had there been any such to be found. The country goldsmiths shared, however, in the general revival of the trade that now followed, and provincial marks are often found on Elizabethan church plate, which is still in abundance in every part of England. This is especially the case in the neighbourhood of Norwich, York, and Exeter ; but in most other districts, even when remote and inaccessible from London, the occurrence of any marks but those of the Goldsmiths' Company is very rare. The wardens in 15G7 were again directed to " ryde a searchynge this year to Sturbridge " and were allowed four pounds for their charge " according to the old custom ; " this again showing that such an expedition was not under- taken every year. The mints in the provinces did not flourish so well, for the precious metals were somewhat scarce, and much was being made into plate. Harrison, chaplain to Lord Cobliam, writing in 1586, says that divers mints had been suppressed within his own recollection, " as South- warkc and Bristow,. and all coinage brought up to one place, that is to say, the Tower of London." Domestic as well as ecclesiastical plate of country manufacture is not unknown, and the goldsmiths of York and Norwich commanded a 8o Old English Plate. [chap. iv. j^'ood deal of the custom of tlieir counties. Apostles' spoons are marked at Norwich and Exeter in some quantity from 1560 to 1650, some of the plate of the Corporation of Norwich was home made between 1560 and 1570, and specimens of plate of all kinds from that time down to the end of the seventeenth century are referable to the goldsmiths of York. It is difficult to reconcile this entirely with the account given of the provincial assay offices by the author of the Touchstone,-^ who writes thus of them in 1679 somewhat more contemptuously than they would otherwise seem to deserve: " but what are the particular Marks the respective chief Governors of those seven places set on the Silver works I' can give no account thereof. But this I can assert, that by reason the Marks of those places are little known they bear as little Credit, and therefore the Goldsmiths in those and other remote places do frequently send up their Silver Works to receive the Londo)t toiidi.'' Our practical author remarks upon the obligation of country gold- smiths to make their marlcs known, not only to the local chief magis- trate but to the wardens of the London goldsmiths, who had the ultimate supervision of the craft in all places, including the seven towns ; and goes on to comment upon the danger provincial corpora- tions ran of losing their charters and being disfranchised in conse- quence of lax exercise of their duties and privileges, especially " now since by the favour of our King's predecessors and their Parliaments Goldsmiths in those seven towns are remitted those extremities of bringing their vessels of silver to London to be stamped Avith the Leopard Head, but arc allow^ed each of them a Touch by themselves to pass their works upon." He refers also to the debased quality of work executed in country places, in consequence of the remissness of the magistracy in prose- cuting their authority in making search, assaying and marking the goldsmiths' work, and of the infrequency with which the Wardens of the Goldsmiths of London made search in the country, and strongly recommends intending purchasers of plate to spend their money in London. If this Avas all true, it is not surprising to find that in 1697 when, owing to the scarcity of silver coin, it was desirable to encourage persons having wrought plate to bring it to be coined, although it was provided that such plate as plainly appeared to have thereupon " the mark commonly used at the hall belonging to the company of Gold- smiths in London, besides the workman's mark," should be received * See p. 1-3. cHAi'. IV.] The Provincial GoldsinitJis. 8i at the mints without question, and paid for at the rate of 5s. 4(^ per oz., no cognizance was taken of any other marks. All plate not bearing the above marks was to be melted and assayed before it was allowed for, unless the vendor were satisfied with a rough valuation made upon oath by the master of the mint. Lastly, whether pros- perous or not up to the year 1697, the provincial offices were all then extinguished at a blow, for the further provisions of this Act,* after proceeding to establish a higher national standard of fineness for silver plate as a protection to the coinage which its earlier clauses were intended to call into existence, entrusted the marking of all new plate to the warden of the craft of the Goldsmiths only, and made no mention of any other corporations whatever. That great inconvenience was by this measure occasioned to the goldsmiths remote from the city of London is clear from the preamble of the Act by which, only three years later, in 1700-1, this hardship was removed by the appointment of wardens and assay masters for assaying wrought plate in the cities of York, Exeter, Bristol, Chester and Norwich, being the cities in which mints had then lately been erected for re-coining the silver moneys of the kingdom. Newcastle- upon-Tyne was added to the number in 1702. 1'he next chapter will be devoted to these modern offices and their marks ; meanwhile it will be convenient to notice in detail the ancient marks used in the places now under consideration. The ground may be somewhat cleared by saying that nothing is known at present of any of the touches ai)pointed in 1423, except those of York, Norwich, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Minting certainly was carried on at Bristol ; but there are only the faintest indications that goldsmith's work proper was ever carried on there, nor can any town marks be appropriated to either Lincoln, Bristol, Salisbury, or Coventry. It is very probable that none of them ever availed them- selves of their privileges at all as far as assaying plate is concerned. Casual mention of goldsmiths at Bristol is all that is found in early records. One William Halteby dwelt at the end of the bridge of Avon there in 1396, and in a will of 1414 Edward Pounsot is said to have then lately possessed houses in Horse Street. These men are both styled goldsmiths. " Goldsmiths dwelling in the Goldesmytbes Rewe, nowe y callyd the Cookyn Bewe," arc mentioned amongst the benefactors of the church of All Halow Bristowe in a ledger belonging to that church, and this entry may be attributed to the first half of the fifteenth century. Early as this the row named after them had * 8 & 9 Will. III. c. 8. O.E.P. 82 • Old Ejioiish Plate. [chap. iv. '6 therefore lost its name, although goldsmiths are mentioned in various parish records later in the century, and dealings with them for church plate recorded. As to Lincoln too, there is some indirect evidence that it never marked plate, from the fact that in no less than twelve Lincolnshire parishes, Elizabethan church-plate is known with the same maker's mark without the mark of any town. The mark (an M with an I above it on a shield of very peculiar shape) is presumably that of a goldsmith residing at Lincoln. Two cities, on the other hand, the origin of whose right to stamp plate is unknown — Exeter and Chester — used marks from early times. Hull made and marked plate in the seventeenth century. These, together with the York and Norwich marks and that of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, can alone be allotted with certainty to their proper localities. YORK. It has at length proved possible, by means of the records referred to on a preceding page, to identify the well-known old English mark of a fleur-de-lys and leopard's head crowned, both being dimi- diated and conjoined in a plain circular shield, as that which was anciently used at York. The number and locale of the specimens on which it had been found by the M'riter and others had already left the matter no longer open to question, but until lately the evidence had been wholly circumstantial. Unfortunately, the mark itself being only found on old and often much-worn plate, and being nearly always very indistinct, the dimidiated leopard's head looks so much more like a half-rose that it long seemed hazardous to say which it was intended for. It is now, however, clearly proved to be the half of a leopard's head crowned. The exact date of its introduction is still unknown ; but as it is always accompanied by an alphabetical letter, it can be traced to about the commencement of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which seems to have inaugurated a new era for the York goldsmiths. A date-letter was then or thenabouts adopted for the first time, and very probably in consequence of the inquiry into the working of the craft which took place in 1561. Twenty-four or twenty-five letters must have been used, the omitted letters being I or J, and sometimes U or V. A table containing the known instances, and carried down to 1698, is given at the end of this volume. At certain points some of the letters seems just a year wrong for a short period ; but even after consultation with Mr. Fallow, who has seen more Yorkshire hall- marks than all other antiquaries put together, the author is unable to make any alteration in the tables of date-letters that would not result CHAP. IV.] York. 83 in creating far more difficulties and discrepancies than it would remove. The following are the articles which have served as authority for the construction of this table ; many of them, it will be observed, are actually dated, and the fashion of the others enables them to be placed, without any hesitation, in their proper cycles. The names are added to the initials from documentary evidence kindly contributed by Canon Raine, through the author's friend Mr. T. M. Fallow, which has corroborated in detail the correctness of the York date-letter tables originally compiled by the author without any better help than the specimens of plate which came to his notice from time to time. Examples of Old York Plate. Date. Maker's Mark and Name. 1 Article. 1570 |TS| Thos. Sym.son, 1548* . . Communion cup and cover. — Salkeld, Cumb. Do. /f>\ Christopher Ifuntoii. l.">51, Communion cup. — Thorpe Basset, ® d. 1582. Yorks. Do. ® William Foster, 15(59, d. 1610. Communion cup. — Old Byland. Yorks. Do. ^@ Robert Bcckwitli, 151G, Communion cups. — St. Mary, Bishop- d. 1585. hill, junior ; and St. Maurice, York. Also Roxby, Barnby-upon- Don, and Ampleforth, Yorks. Do. ^m Robert Gylmyn, 1550 Connnunion cups. — Crofton, South Stainley, and East Cowton, Yorks. Do. © George Kitchen, 1561, d. 1597. Communion cup. — Rufforth, Yorks. 1571 . Robert Gylmyn, as in Communion cup, with crossed belts 1570. but no foliage. — Handsworth, Yorks. 1570 W\ R. Gylmyn, see 1570 Seal-headed spoon. — From the Stani- forth Collection. 1.577 G. Kitchen, as iu 1570 Mount of stoneware jug, dated 1576. — From the Addington Collection. 1579 Small communion cui), with peculiar Elizabethan 1 jelt. — Adwick - on - Dearne, Yorks. 1583 m.\ William Rawiison . . Communion cup. — Long Preston, Yorks. 1.585 Do. Do Communion cup. rude Pjlizabethan belt. — Trout beck, Westmoreland. 1593 .... R. (lylmyn, as in 157() Seal-headed spoon. — From the Staiii- forth Collection. Do. . William Rawnsoii, as in Communion cup, with usual Ijelt. — 158:i Crathornc, Yorks. * When a date follows the name, it is the year in which the golilsinith took np his freedom. The date of his death is given where known. G 2 84 Old English Plate. [chap. IV, Date. 1600 1608 1609 Do. 1611 1612 1613 1614 1615 Do. Do. Do. 1617 Do. Do. 1619 1620 1622 Do. Maker's Mark and Name. Do. pi Do Da Do 1623 . . . . 1624 1625 . . . . 1626 ■SB) 1627 1628 Do. ^ 1630 1631 Do. Do. Do. William Eawnson, as in 1583. Peter Pearson, 1G03 . . Do Francis Tempest, 1597 Peter Pearson, as in 1 608 . Chris. Harrington, 1595, d. 1614. Do Do Do Francis Tempest, as in 1609. Peter Pearson, as in 1608. Chris. Mangy, 1609 . Francis Tempest, as in 1609. Do Do Sem. Casson, 1613 . . Peter Pearson, as in 1608. Do Robert, son of Christr. Harrington, 1616, d. 1647. Peter Pearson, as in 1608. Robert Williamson, 1623, d. 1667. S. Casson, as in 1619 . . Thos., son of Christr. Harrington, 1624, d. 1642. Robert Harrington, as in 1622. James Plummer, 1616, d. 1663. Christr. Mangy, as in 1615. S. Casson, as in 1619 . . Robert Harrington, as in 1622. James Plummer, as in 1628. Christr. Mangy, as in 1615. Article. Communion cup, from a church near Cawood, Yorks.— T. W. U. Robin- son, Esq. Communion cup. • — Brantingham, Yorks. Communion cup with cover, dated 1 609. — Sutton-on-Derwent, Yorks. Communion cup. — Cottam, Yorks. Cup, gift of Coniston Wrightington. — Trinity House, Hull. Small communion cup. — Patterdale, Cumb. Communion cu]! with engraved belt. — Pickering, Yorks. Beaker cup. — i^'rom the Dasent Col- lection. Apostle spoon. — From the Staniforth Collection. Communion cup. — Irthiugton, Cumb. Communion cup, dated 1615. — Slingsby, Yorks. Communion cup, dated 1615. — , St. Cuthbert's, York. Communion cup, Elizabethan belt. — Cleator, Cumb. Communion cup. — Hemingbro. Yorks. Do. — Spcnnithorne, Yorks. Do.— Bilbrough, Yorks. Do., dated 1619. — Bempton, Yorks. Silver rim, dated 1622, under Scrope mazer. — York Blinster. Communion cup. — Dartou, Yorks. Com. cup and cover. — Holy Trin., Goodramgate, York. Communion cup. — Howden, Yorks. Do. — Naburn, York. Apostle spoon. — From the Staniforth Collection. Communion cup. — Cawthorne, Yorks. Do. — Thornton Watlass, Yorks. Also cup, dated 1628. — Latherton, Yorks. Do. — Hayton, Yorks. Do., dated 1()30.— Bewcastle. Cumb. Do.— Pickhill. Yorks. Do. — Ebberston, Yorks. Do. — Headingiey, Yorks. Do.— Thirsk, Yorka. COAl'. IV.] York. 85 Date. Maker's Mark and Name. Article. 1081 <^ Thos. AVaite. 1013, d. 1002. Com. cup. given by Abp. Harsnet, in 1030.— AH Saints, North St., York. 1(;:}2 lloljcrt Williamson, as in 1024. (;"ommuni(jn eup. — Calvcrlcy, York. 1033 . . . . Robert Harrington, as in Cu{) and paten, dated 1033. — Chapel 1022. AUerton, Yorks. Do. . 8. Casson. as in lOl'.l . . Com. cup. — St. Helen's, Y'oi'k. Do. .... Do., dated 1632.— Kirkby Malham, Yorks. Do. .... Thos, HarrinLjtou, as in 1020. Conmiuniiin eup. — St. Olave's, Y'ork, 163i .... James Pliunmer, as in 1028. Do. — Danby Wiske. Y'orks. Do. Robert Williamson, as in 1624. Do. — Bilton-in-Ainsty, Yorks. Do. . . . . Thos. Waite, as in 1031 , Do., Elizn. belt. — Burton-in-Kendal, Westmor. lG3.-> Thos. Harrini^ton, as in Do., p.lain pricked belt, dated 1634.— 1020. Threlkeld, Cumb. Do. IT Mi John Thompson, 1(533. d. 1092. Com. cup. — ('onistone Kilnsey, l''orks. 1630 .... Thos. Harrington, as in lt;2G. Do. — ('undall, Yorks. Do. James Plummer, as in 1028. Do. — Northallerton, Yorks. 1037 FB Francis Bryce. 1034, d. Plain cup on baluster stem (bearing 1040. an inscription relating to Norwich, dated ir)78). — Formerly in the Bohn Collection. Do. Robert Harrington, as in 1022. Com. cup. — Lanercost, Cumb. Do. .James Plummer, as in 102s. Do. Billingham, Durh. 1638 Do Cup and paten. — Flaxton, Yorks. Do. ITHJ Thos. Harrington, 1024, Communion cup, dated 1 728. — Scam- ^ d. 1042. monden, Yorks. Do. Robert Hari'ington, as in 1022. Cup and paten. — Lcvisham, Yorks. Do. Robert AVilliamson, as in 1024. Plain com. cuj). — Elndey, Y'orks. 1639 Robert Harrington, as in 1022. Connnuniun cup. — Hunraanby, Y'orks. Do. Roliert Williamson, as in 1024. Do., dated l(i38.— Thorner, Yorks. 16tO Thds. Harrington, as in Com. cup. — Kirkandrew's-upon-Esk, 1038. Cumb. lOU Robert Harrin'jtun, as in Cup, used as com. cup, date 1040. — 1022. (iuisbro', Yorks. Do. Jdliii Thompson, as in 103.->. Cu)) and paten.— Melsonby, Yorks. 1012 Thos. Harrington, as in I(;3S. Counuunion cuii. — Whckhakc, Y'orks. 16.50 Jami-s Plummer, as in Commonwealth mace. — Richmond, ! 1<;2S. Yorks. 1654 ^ Communion cup. — Stockton -on - Forest, Yorks. 86 Old English Plate. [chap. iy. Date. Maker's Mark and Name. Article. 1655 1657 1660 Do. 1661 Do, 1662 Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. 1663 Do. lC6i Do. Do. 1667 1668 1669 Do. Do. 1671 1672 Do. Do. Do. 1673 Do. Do. ^ John, son of James Plum- mer, 1648. Do Marmaduke Best, 1657 Wm. Waite, 1653, d. I(i89. John Pkimmer, as in 1057 Do Do Do Marmaduke Best, as in 1660. Robert, son of Eobei't Williamson, 1653. Marmaduke Best, as in 1660. George, son of Chris- topher Mangy, 1638 ; living 1660. Robert Williamson, as iu 1662. John Plummer, as in 1657 Thos., son of Geo. Mangy. 1604. Do Marmaduke Best, as in 1660. Thos. Mangy, as in 1664 . Philemon Marsh, 1652. d. 1672. Thos. Mangy, as in 1664 . Marmaduke Best, as in 1060. Do Do Do William Mascall, 1664 . Marmaduke Best, as in 1660. Beaker used as com. cup. — Cumber- worth, Yorks. Paten. — Stillingfleet, Yorks. Cup, gift of R. Hunter, who died 1659. — Thornton Dale, Yorks. Tankard, given 1666. — Corpn. of Hull. Small two-handled basin on ball feet. — T. M. Fallow. Esq. Spoon, flat stem. — From the Stani- forth Collection. Cup and paten cover, dated 1663. — Aldbrough, E. Yorks. Com. cup. undated. — Otley, Yorks. Do., dated 1603.— BraflEerton, Yorks. Do., dated 1(;02. — Birkin, Yorks. Do., and cover, undated. — Healaugh, Yorks. Do. — Alne, Yorks. Cup and paten cover. — Bolton Abbey, Yorks. Cup and paten, dated 1663. — St. Mary, Cottingham, Yorks. Com. cup and paten. — Tadcaster, Yorks. Large paten, dated 1666. — Beverley Minster. Communion cup. — Catterick, Yorks, Large repousse dish on foot, given 1008. — Corporation of Hull. Communion cup and cover. — Cartmel, Lancashire. Communion cup. — Sandal, Yorks. Silver linin.u', dated 1069, of Scrope mazer. — York Jliuster. Paten, dated 1609. — Almondbury, Yorks. Also plain cup on baluster stem, dated 1670. — Edmund James, Esq. An "article" ordered 19 April, 1672. — Corp. of York. Gold loving cup, dated 1672. — Cor- poration of York. Cup and paten cover, gift of Leonard Milbourne. who died in 1672. — Skeltou, Cumberland. Do., no cover, given by the same. — Ousby, Cumb. Candlesticks, dated 1673. — York Minster. Communion cup. — -Aj^pleton-on -Wisk, Yorks. CHAP. IV.] Yor/i. 87 Date. Maker's Mark and Name. Article. 1673 . . . . William i\Iascall, as in 1672. Communion cup. — I'enistone, Yorks. Do. © John Thomi)SOii, see l(i:5."). Paten. — St. Cuthbert's, York. 1671 w Robert Williamson, sec Cup and cover, dated 1074. — St. Mary 10G2. 1 Bishophill, senior, York. Do. Do. '.'.'.'. Mannaduke Best, as in 1G60. John Plummer, as in ir).")7 Tankard, dated 1074. — Corporation of York. Another. Do. <^ Eoland Kirby, KiGli . . Tumbler cup. — The Author. 1675 Do, .... John riummer, as in lt>.")7 John Thompson, as in 1678. Communion plate, dated 1670. — Ripon Minster. Communion cup, dated 1676. — Ormesby, Yorks. Do. ^ Thos. Mangy, see IHiU . Paten, dated 107."). — Ecclesfield, Yorks. 1676 John riummer, as in 1657 Com. cup, dated 1077. — West Witton, Yorks. 1 1678 Do. ■ Do Marmaduke Best, as in 16611. Paten, dated 1077. — Kirby Malzeard, Yorks. Com. cup, dated 1078. — St. Micliael's, Spurriergate, York. Do. Do. . Do John Thompson, as in 1673. Cup, dated 1677. — Drax, Yorks. | Com. cup, dated 1679. — Leathlcy, | Yorks. 1679 John riummer, as in 16.") 7 Peg tankard, dated 1080 : inherited by its present owners from the family of Osbaldeston. of Hun- manby. Yorks. — Lord Amherst of Hacknev. Do. Roland Kirby, as in Uui. Cup and paten, dated 1079. — Shi[)ton Thorpe, Yorks. 1680 1681 Qgt Marmadidvc Best, as in 1 (■)(;<». George Gibson, 16 78 . . Do., dated 1681.— Skelton-in-Cleve- land. Yorks. Paten, dated 1082.— Sancton, York?. Do. @ Charles Rhoades, 1077 Com. cup. — Gargravc, Yorks. Do. 1682 Wm. Bii-field. Kn'.i . Thos. Mangy, see 1001 Com. cup. — St. Laurence, York. Also 1(;80, Com. cup, dated 1081.— Ben- tham, Yorks. Smaller cup. dated 1084. — St. Lau- rence, York. Do. Robert Williamson, see 1602. liid of com. cup. and i)aten on stem. — Guiseley, Vorks. Do. Do. 1683 Do. Roland Kirby, as in 1074. John Thomjison, as in 1073. Charles Rhoades. as in 1081. (jeorgc (iibsdu. as in 1S(;1 Com. cup. — All SS., Pavement, York. Sockets to Abp. Sancroft's candle- sticks. — York Minster. Paten, dated 1087. — Whitkirk, Yorks. Caudle eu[). — Canon Raiiu'. 88 Old English Plate, [CHAl'. IV. Datk. JIakek's Mauk and Name. Article. 1683 # Mark Gill, 1680. Com. cnp. — Carnaby, Yorks. 1684 George Gibson, as in 1681 Plain flat-lidded tankard. — Edm. James, Esq. Do. Wm. Busfielil, as in 1681. Large paten. — St. Martin's, York. Do. Thos. Mangy, as in 1G82 . Com. cup. — Todwick, Yorks. 1685 i John Oliver, l(!7i>. . . Paten cover. — St. IManrice's, York. Do. Do. Do Flagon. — Lowthcr. Westmor. Do. Thos. Mangy, as in 1682 . Paten cover. — Featherstone, Yorks. 1680 John Oliver, as in 1685 . Caudle cup. with acanthus decoration. — From the Staniforth Collection. 1688 Do Alms-dish, dated l()8y.— St. Michael le Belfrv, Yoik. Also Com. cup, tulip band, dated 1689.- Stockton. Durh. 1689 m Christopher Whitchill, 1676. Cup and paten. — Oswaldkirk, Yorks. 1690 Wm. Buslield. as in 1681. Com. cup. — Holtby, Yorks. 1692 Do. . . . Paten, dated 1694. — Farnham, Yorks. Do. John Oliver, as in 1(;85 . Com. cup and cover. — Kettlewell. Yorks. 1694 Charles Ehoades. as in 1681. Cup.— T. M. Fallow, Esq. 1696 c*». Do. (.') mark imperfect . Com. cup. dated 1700. — Mytton. MAI/ Yorks. 1697 Wm. Busfield, as in 1681. Paten. — Dartield, Yorks. Do. • * • • Do Com. Clip. — Pilstone, Yorks. 1698 Do Do. — Barmbj' Moor, Yorks. NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. Notwithstanding the proved existence of a guikl of goldsmiths in this town from 1536 and earlier, but little remains of their w^ork until we come to the later part of the seventeenth century, when specimens of church-plate are to be met with, and enough to show that a date- letter was not used in Newcastle at this period. The hall-mark, at that time, consisted of three castles, arranged, as in later da3's, two above and one below, on a shield of irregular outline, in some instances smaller at the lower part, where it had to surround only one tower, than at the top. Sometimes the castles are in a small plain shield. A good deal of church plate, dated from 1670 to 1700, is found in Cumberland, bearing the three towers in shields of one or other of these shapes. WR is the most usual maker's mark on these pieces, and it is frequently accompanied by a rose on the same or a separate punch. This is the mark of one William Ramsey, who took up his cHAi'. IV.] Neic'castlc-upou-Tyiie. 8g freedom in 1656, and worked till towards the end of the centiii-}'. He was mayor of the town in 1690, and died in 1698. Another mark, probably attributable to Newcastle, is on church-plate at Ciateshead, dated 1672, This is a single heraldic castle or tower, on a small shield, and accompanied by a lion passant on a plain oval shield, but turned to the right.* The lion passant mark is struck twice on these pieces. The same marks occur on a communion cup at Boldon, also dated 1672. The maker's mark is ID in both cases, and stands for John Douthwayte, who died in 1673, having taken up his freedom in 1666. In addition to other marks, a communion cup of c. 1685 at St. Nicholas', Newcastle, bears what seems to be a Eoman letter on a shaped shield ; but this single instance is the only trace of a date- letter that has at present been found on ancient Newcastle plate. For fifty years before 1656, the date of William Ramsey's freedom, no goldsmith's name at all appears in the Minute Book ; but from then to 1697 more than a dozen are noted in the following order, viz. : John Wilkinson, free 1658 ; William Robinson ; John Douthwayte, free 1666, died 1673 ; John Norris ; Francis Batty, who worked from 1674, and is spoken of as dead in an entry of 13th Sept., 1707 ; Albany Dodgson ; Eli Bilton, who was apprenticed to Douthwayte, became free in 1683, and died 1712; Cuthbert Ramsey; William Ramsey, junior, admitted 1691, died 1716 ; Abraham Hamer ; Robert Shrive, free in 1691, and Thomas Hewitson, free in 1697. A John Ramsey was admitted in 1698, but he died before 1708. Some of these men will be mentioned again in the next chapter. It remains only to say here that in the interval between the suppression of the Newcastle assay office and its re-establishment in 1702, the Morden Tower was partly rebuilt, and that amongst the subscribers to the cost of this were the above-named Francis Batty, AV. Ramsey, junior, Thomas Hewitson, Eli Bilton, Robert Shrive, and John Ramsey, besides Richard Hobbs, Thomas licightley, Thomas Armstrong, and Roger West, who belong more pro])erly to the later period, t * This curious variation may Lc oliserved on inoileni Newcastle plate from 17-1 to 1725. t Per Mr. J. II. Ik.yle, F.S.A. go Old English Plate. [chap. it. Examples op Old Newcastle Plate. Date. Maker. Article. 1G(!4 N. D. 1()72 Do. N. D. 1G7U N. D. K. D. 1680 N. D. 1081 Do. N. D. 1684 c. 1G85 Do. 1686 1687 N. D. N. D. 1688 1698 c. 1698 1701 @P Do. do. do. do. Do. do. do. Ij^I Do. do. do. do. Do. do. do. do. Do. do. do. do. f\XRl 1^1^ (each VJk/ I^iFI twice) Do. do. (each twice) Do. do. (each twice) Do. (^ (each twice) Do. do. (do.) Do. " Do. do. IWRI (malicr ^^ twice) W^ (5SJ twice) Do. do. (do.) Do. do.(maker twice) . . do. (twice) Do. do. (each twice) Do. Do. (each twice) John Com. cup and cover, dated 1644. — Wilkinson. Ryton-on-Tyne, Durham. Do. Com. cup. — Warkworth, Northuml). John Dow- Flagons, dated 1672. — Gateshead, thwayte. Do. Com. cup. — Boldon, Durham. Do. Do. — Ormside, Westmor. Wm. Flagon, dated 1670. — Sawley, near Kamsey. Ripon. Do. Com. cup and paten. — Aspatria, Cumb. Do. Paten. — St. John's, Newcastle. Do. Cup and paten, dated 1680. — Euner- dale, Cumb. Do. Do. — -Torpenhow, Cumb. Do. Com. cup, dated 1681. — Kelloe, Dur- ham. Do. Paten, dated 1681.— Boldon, Durham. Do. Paten. — Corbridge-on-Tyne, North- umb. Do. Com. plate, dated 1684. — Pvose Castle Chapel. Do. Com. cup. — St. Nicholas', Newcastle. Do. Do. — Brampton, Cumb. Do. Flagon and patens, dated 1686. — St. Nicholas', Newcastle. Do. Paten. — Haverton Hill, Durham. Do. Alms-dish. — Warkworth, Northumb. Do. Com. cup. — Bywell St. Peter, North umb. Do. Com. cup, dated 1688. — Howick. Northumb. Thos. Flagou, dated 1698. — All Saints', Hewitson. Newcastle Robert Flat-lidded tankard. Shrive. Eli Bilton. Porringer, dated 1701. — Taylor's Guild, Carlisle. Also Com. cup, dated 1687.— ChoUerton, North- umb. CHAP. IV.] Nonc'ic/i. gi XORWICH. Plate was made, assayed, and marked iu this city at an early period, but the trade has long ceased to exist there. It has now no Gold- smiths' Company, nor does any vestige remain of the hall which is mentioned by Blomefield. Its old distinguishing mark Avas an escutcheon with the city arms, viz., a castle in chief above a lion passant in base, and it is found on plate belonging to the Corporation of Noi'wich of 15G0-70, also on Norfolk church-plate of about the same date, in a shaped shield ; later the same arms were borne on a plain, angular, heraldic shield with pointed base. Peter Peterson, a Norwich goldsmith of eminence in the reign of Elizabeth, is one of the few provincial craftsmen whose fame as well as name has been handed down to our times ; in 1574 he is found presenting the Corporation with a standing cup gilt, on being excused serving the office of sheriff, and it is probable that the "sun" often found on Norwich plate was his mark. Born about 1518, he died in July, 1603, and his will, dated May 15, 1603, was proved at Norwich on August 1 of the same year. He left an immense quantity of plate, including a pot " of Cobbold's making," and speaks of the London and also of the " Anwarp " touch, as well as of " the castle and lion touch of Norwich." Amongst this plate is "a hanncepott graven upon the covers with the Sonne, the Lion and the Castle of Norwich touch of my owne making," and a great deal more is either "graven with the sonne " or "having knoppes of the sonne " ; pewter vessels also " marked with the sonne " are mentioned. The sun was therefore clearly Peterson's badge or crest, and as a sun in splendour is well known amongst the Norwich makers' marks of the period, it is the more likely that it was also his mark as a goldsmith. To set against this, an inscription on the " Peterson " cup, belonging to the Corporation of Norwich, presented by him in 1574 on bein^,^ excused serving as sheriff, runs as follows : THE + MOST + HERE + OF + IS + D VNE + B Y + PETER + PETERSON, and this piece bears the equally well-known maker's mark of an orb and cross, or cross-mound. At first sight this would seem to make it more probable that the cross-mound was his mark. ]3ut it is clear that this cup was not wholly of his making, and perhaps it was only finished up by Peterson, but bears the mark of him who began it. As regards the cross-mound mark too, we find a communion cup at Haddiscoe, co. Norf., with Norwich marks for 1569, bearing it, and as Avell the inscription "made by John Stone and Eobert Stone." It occurs also on the beaker cups till lately belonging to the Dutch g2 Old English Plate. [chap. iv. Church in Norwich, which are not much, if at all, earlier than 1595, and this would be probably long after Peterson had ceased to work, at all events, with his own hand. Altogether, the question is left at present in a little uncertainty ; but the w^eight of evidence seems on the side of the sun being the mark of Peterson. An almost conclu- sive fact is the sun mark upon a communion cup at St. Margaret's, Norwich, in 1568, the church accounts recording the payment to Peterson of 6d. per ounce " worken " for the making of it. Norfolk archa3ologists have collected the names and some few particulars of other less known members of the craft in their county from the reign of Edward III. It is known, for example, that two wealthy goldsmiths of Norwich, John Bassingham and John Belton, occupied the same house successively in that city, and that the mark to be found upon it belonged to one of them, probably the latter, who was buried in the church of St. Andrew, Norwich, prior to 1521, for in that year his wife was buried beside him.* John, Son of Eobert Belton, goldsmith, was admitted freeman of Norwich, Henry YII., John Basyngham in 8 Henry VIII., and John Basyngham, the younger, in 30 Henry VIII. ; Ffelyx Puttok, alderman, and goldsmith, bought plate of the churchwardens of Saint Andrew's, Norwich, in 2 Edward VI. ; whilst Peter Peterson, apprenticed to John Basyngham, was admitted in 1 & 2 Philip and Mary. A little later than this there must have been a number of gold- smiths in Norwich, the Corporation plate bearing the symbols of several different makers, whilst others occur on the early Elizabethan communion cups in the country round. One William Cobbold, a leading goldsmith, is mentioned in the Corporation records for 1581, and a Mr. Skottow as providing beer-cups and wine-cups in 1634. Cobbold is perhaps the . . . Cobolde apprenticed to one Thomas Bere, and admitted freeman in 5 Edw. VI. The name of Bere occurs in the lists at intervals from 6 Henry VI. But however many early goldsmiths worked in Norwich, there is good evidence in the city records that they went pretty much as they pleased until 1565, and that the Norwich city mark, mentioned above, was in point of fact first set up in that year. To the industry of Mr. Pt. C. Hope, F.S.A.,f we owe the interesting discovery of a petition made by the company or fellowship of the Art or Science of Goldsmiths within the City of Norwich to the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Commonalty on 2 Oct., 7 Eliz. (1565), that whereas no standard had been set up for Norwich as for Norfolk and A'orwich Arclia^ohgical Society's Transactions, vol. iii. , 19r t Bee ReUqxiarij, vol. iv., N.S., p. 208. cnxv. IV.] NoTwicll. 93 other places, and abuses had consequently hecome common, and whereas they had no common stamp or mark, it mi^'ht be ordained as follows : — that masters and servants should work honestly under penalties ; that after the ensuing Michaelmas Day the Norwich standard should be of the same fineness and goodness, and better as the standard "of the lyberds hedde with the crowne " is and hath been always hitherto adjudged ; that a common stamp or touch should be provided bearing the castle and lion, the arms of the city ; that all work should be brought to be tried before being set for sale and in an " unburnished " state, under penalties ; that the wardens should only charge a fixed fee ; that every artificer should have a several punch or mark and should set it on his work after it had been assayed and stamped by the wardens ; and lastly, that the wardens should once a quarter search for defaults and have right of entry to houses and shops for that purpose. A date-letter was used, at all events from 156(5, but probably from 15G5, when the first known alphabet seems to commence. Of fifty specimens of plate bearing the letter c, no less than seventeen are dated 1567, whilst ten are dated 1568, facts which strongly point to the commencement of the alphabet in the earlier year. Unfortunately, although a number of dated specimens bearing the letters for 1565, 1566, 1567, 1568, and 1569 exist, the writer has been able to find no dated specimens from that time until the year 1627, in which the letter was d ; luckily an i for 163'2 and l for 1684 are to be found ; n is seen on an article dated 1636, and r of the same alphabet, on a specimen dated 1640. This rather points to the use of alphabetical cycles consisting of twenty letters each, as in London, but not without some slight irregularity, and the Table at the end of this volume has been constructed on this principle, Avhich is no doubt correct, down to the middle of the seventeenth century. From about 1660 to 1685 no date-letter at all was used, but at the very end of tbe century there are traces of a renewal of the use. If the first town-mark used at Norwich was that so often found upon Elizabethan church-plate in Norfolk, a fresh punch was adopted in 1624, when an entry in the books of the Corporation of Norwich dated " 1624 ultimo Julii " states that by the authority of the Mayor, a mark, viz. the castle and lion, was then delivered to the wardens and searchers of the trade of goldsmiths. It is found on plate of 1627 and other years ; the shape of the shield containing the lion and castle being somewhat more regular than before, though still shaped out, and the castle altered from the rudely outlined building repre- sented on older stamps into a tower of the conventional heraldic pattern. 94 Old English Plate. [chap. iv. Norwicli seems also to have used various standard marks ; at one time it was a double-seeded rose, surmounted with a crown. Mr. Octavius Morgan had a spoon stamped in the bowl with that mark just in the place where the leopard's head is found on ancient spoons of London make, from w^hich it may be supposed that it was used as the standard mark. This spoon has the Norwich arms on an escutcheon with other marks on the back of the stem (see table, ]>. 96, c. 1637). This rose is not found on Elizabethan specimens, but it occurs on apostles' spoons and other plate of the reign of Charles I. ; it is also found towards the end of the century. Other specimens of plate, which seem to belong to the interval between 1660 and 1685, bear a rose-sprig or else a seeded rose, and a crown on two separate stamps, instead of the usual rose crowned. This is as far as the matter can be carried at present, except to say that a seeded rose crowned is occasionally found on plate of Dutch manufacture, and that it is no doubt a Dutch as well as an English mark. It may be put down to the town of Dordrecht in Holland, when not found in conjunction with the Norwich arms. This mark is not the only connecting link between Dutch and Norwich plate, for many pieces of known Norwich w^ork show obvious signs of Dutch influence. There was a Dutch colony in Norwich with its own church. The earliest P. Peterson in the city records is styled " Dutchman," and became free 10 Henry VII.; and the greater Peter Peterson left money to "the poorest sort of the Dutch nation " in the city. The following list of articles will serve as authority for the Table in Appendix B, and for what has been stated here as to the Norwich marks. The letter a for 1565 was discovered, and kindly brought to the author's knowledge by the Ptev. C. R. Manning, M.A., who has published most interesting lists of the church-plate in the rural deanery of Redenhall, and in the city of Norwich itself, with the marks that are to be found on each piece as well as an illustrated monograph upon the mediaeval patens in Norfolk, of which there is such a remarkable number. To his papers in the Norfolk and Nor- u-icJi Arclucological Society's Transactions, the author is indebted for many of the above particulars as to the old goldsmiths of Norwich. The TH above a star on a plain shield, which is the mark of Thomas Havers, and is found from 1675 to 1697, is almost the only mark, except that of Peter Peterson and T. Skottowe, which can be identified with any certainty. CHAP. IV.] Norwich. 95 Examples of Old Norwich Plate. Table I. c. 1550—1650. Date. Maker's Mark. Article. 1565 Do. 1566 1567 Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. 1568 Do. Do. Do. 1569 Do. c. 15'.!.") 1627 16H2 Do. 1633 1634 Do. The sun, uo shield Do Do iSJiJi Estoile of six i-aj-s Orb aiid cross, as in 1565 . Do ^ Maidenhead, in jilain 5liield Do. Do. Do. I JLJ Trefoil slipped in pla , K/ shield. Do. Do. Do. Flat fish in oval shield. Orb and cross, as in 1565 . Do Cross pattee Trefoil, as in 1567 . . . rx-] Inscribed " made by LSj John Stone and liobert Stone." A Pegasus .... Two horses passant and counterpassant, the one surmounting the other. /^r^ Lion rampant, in ^^( shaped sliield. AH, shaped shiekl. Arthur Heaslewood, free 1625. Communion cup. — Diss, Norfolk. Communion cu^) and paten. — St. Saviour's, Norwich. Cup on stem. — Lord Zouche. Paten, dated 1568. — Aylsham, Norf. Civic plate, dated 1567. — Corporation of Norwich. Communion cup, undated.— Beightou, Norf. Communion cups, all dated 1567. — Buxton, Bressingham, Pulham, and Aylsham, Norf. Communion cup, dated 1568 (formerly at Raveningham, Norf.). — A. H. Church, Esq. Do. undated. — Newton, Bootou, and Skeyton, Norf. Do. dated 1567. — Oulton and Cawston, Norf. Do. dated 1568.— Northwold, Norf. Do. undated (formerly at "Whissonsett, Norf.). — Edm. James, Esq. Do. dated 1567. — Erpingham, and Beeston Regis, Norf. ; also Wenhaston, SufEolk. Do. undated. — North Tuddenham, Norf. Civic plate, dated 1568. — Corporation of Norwich. Communion cup and paten, dated 1568. — Sail, Norf., and St. Martin-at-Oak, Norwich. Communion cup, undated. — Winfarthing, Norf. Standing salt, gift of Peter Eeade, who died 1568. — Corporation of Norwich. Communion cup and paten. — St. Martin's- at-Palace, Norwich. Cup and paten, dated 1570. — St. Stephen's, Norwich. Com. cup, dated 1567. — Stockton, Norf. Cup and paten, undated. — Haddiscoe, Norf. Mount of stoneware jug. — Edm. James, Esq. Four beaker cups. — Formerly at the Dutch Ch., Norwich. Flagon, dated 1628. — St. Gregory's, Norwich. Communion cup, dated 1632. — (ireat Melton, Norf. Do., dated IG'U.- SS. Simon and Jude, Norwich. Com. cup, dated l(i34.— Aspall, Suff. Paten, dated 1635.— Booton, Norf. 96 Old English Plate. [OHAP. IV. Date. Maker's Mark. Article. 1634 Do. 1636 1637 c. 1637 1638 Do. 1640 Do. 1641 Lion rampant, in shaped shield, as in 1632. A large bird ; j)robably peli- can vulning herself. T S. linked as below, in 1640. Lion rampant, as in 1632 . Do A large bird, as in 1636 r-—^ Probably Tniiothy )%\ Skottowe.* 2^ cf. 1680 .... Paten, undated. — Cawston, Norfolk. Paten of Commimion cup, dated 1634. — SS. 8imon and Jude, Norwich. Button-headed spoon, dated 1636. — From the Staniforth Collection ; also paten, undated.— Holton St. Peter, Suff. Beaker cups, dated 1638.— Formerly at Meeting Chapel, Great Yarmouth. Seal-head spoon, pricked with date 1637. — 0. Morgan Collection. Seal-head spoon, pricked date 1637. — Milbank Collection ; also Com. plate, undated. — South Blmham and Gislingham, Suff. Paten, undated. — Skeyton, Norf. Communion cup, dated 1640. — Lamas, Norf. Paten, lliildlesworth, Norf. Cocoa-nut cup. — Marquess of Breadalbane. Table II. c. 16:.0— 1700. Date. 1661 c. ir.(;2 c. 1()7.') 167.-. ]671t 1680 Do. 168.J c. 1689 1601 Maker's Mark. Article. Do. Do. Do. Do. do. do. do. do. do. do. do. (As on Bp.'s Palace Chapel plate of c. 1662.) [E] '''■ '''■ ^ As paten, 1675. — St. Peter's, Huugate. Do. •lo. Communion cup. dated 1661. — Southwold, Suff. Conmrunion plate, given c. 1662. — Bishop's Palace Ciiapel, Norwich. Paten, i;ndated. — Pakenham. Suff. Probably the mark of Thomas Havers, free 1674, d. 1732. Paten, dated 1675. — St. Peter's, Hungate, Norwicli. Paten, dated 1670.— St. Peter's, Mounter- gate, Norwich. Cup and paten, dated 1680.— Melton Con- stable, Norfolk. Communion cup, dated 1680. — East Dere- liam, Norf. Paten, dated 1685. — Frostenden, Suff. (town mark illegible). Tankard, c. 1689.— Rev. H. P. Marsham, Kippon Hall, Norwich. Flagon, dated 1601. — St. Michael's-at-Plca, Norwich. Timothy Skottowe became free 1617, son of Richard S., mercer. CHAP. IV.] Nonvich , 97 Date. Maker's Makk. Articles. 1692 1094 Do. c. 169.5 Do. c. 1696 c. I(;'.i7 Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. do. do. do. do. do. do. tlo. do. ED do. do. do. do. do. Ill 1^ Paten, dated 1692.— St. raid's, Norwich. Basin, dated 1694. — St. Stephen's, Xorwich. Com. cup, dated 1694. — Stockton, Norf. This maker's mark occurs by itself on an undated paten at EUingham, Norf. Flat-handled spoon. — Late Albert Way, Esq. Do., dated ICIC— Rev. W. Jex Blake, Thur- garton, Norf. Fluted porringer, c. Mi'il. — K. Fitch, Esq., Norwich. Flat-handled spoon (maker's mark illegible). —Per Rev. C. R. Manning. (EH) CHESTER. The goldsmiths of Chester, though not meutionecl in 1423, are known to have enjoyed chartered privileges from an early date — local tradition says from the time of Edward I. This seems to some extent borne out by references to ancient charters in the records still pre- served at Chester. There is a full list of the members of the guild, including its aldermen and stewards, for the year 1585, and a notice of the admission of a brother even earlier, on October 4, 1573. There is certainly reason to believe that a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth was only a confii-mation of ancient rights, for there is no mention of the receipt of a charter as if for the first time, nor of the fresh formation of a company in the records of that date. Minutes regulating the trade are found entered in the books before we come to the above entry of 1573, and they are presumably of earlier date. One of them ordains as follows : — ■ " It"' that noe brother shall delevere noc plate by him wrought unles his touche be marked and set upon the same beft'orc delevorie thereof upon paine of forfeture of everie deffalt to be levied out of his goods iijMiij'^" Another quaint notice is to the following effect : — " It is agreed by the consent of the Alderman and Steward of the Gouldsmyths that who soe ever shall make the bell that shalbe made against Shrouftide ffor the Sadlers shall have ffor his paines iij' iiij and yf any of the Compeney shall offend in the premisses shall pay unto the Alderman and Steward ane the reste of the Compeney being iij' 4 '. * One James Daniel, son of .Joseph D., took up the freedom of Norwich, 1693. — Per Mr. R. C. Hope, F.S.A. O.E.P. H g8 Old English Plate. [ohap. iv. " And yt all the oulde bells slialbe broke and not any of the Coni- peney to by any to be new burnished or sould to the peneltie aforesaid iij'iiij''-" The arms of the company of goldsmiths in Chester are mentioned in a list of 1579 ; and the coat is the same as that of the London Company, but the crest is different, being a crowned male figure holding a golden cup.* There are, however, few or no remains of the work of these ancient artificers. The large silver gilt mace belonging to the Mayor and Corporation, which was given by the Earl of Derb}^ when he was Mayor in 1668, is stamped with a goldsmith's mark and the arms of the City of Chester as they were then borne, viz., three lions ramp., dim., impaled with three gerbes, dim. It bears neither leopard's head, lion passant, nor annual date-letter, and the marks which are there have been nearly obliterated when the mace was re-gilt. It is almost too late in the day for the antiquary to suggest that when ancient plate is repaired or regilt, silversmiths should be careful not to deface the marks, for many are past recall. Possibly now that the interest, and therefore value, which attaches to plate of which the precise age and date can be ascertained is better understood, the danger lies in the opposite direction. On this point the Quarterly Reviewer in 1876 took occasion to make a remark which Avill be borne out by the experience of every one who has studied the matter, namely, that the region over which the forger seems to have specially delighted to range is England, outside the metropolitan district. The fraudulent worker has availed himself freely of the field aftbrded by the doubtful provincial marks, and the buyer cannot be too much on his guard against being imposed upon by pieces of apparently ancient plate, bearing w^hat purport to be marks of this description. Returning to Chester it may be said that its history as an assay town practically commences with its charter from King James II., dated March 6, 1685. The first notice in the books of the Goldsmiths' Company there of the marks to be used, is of the following year, 1686, a date which barely anticipates the modern re-settlement of 1701. The following extracts are all that relate to the subject down to 1697, when the ancient offices were extinguished : — 1G86. Feb. 1st. Ami it is further concluded that the Warden's Marks shall be the Coat and crest of the Citty of Chester on two punsons with a letter for the year. Harleiau MSS. 2167, fo. 230. CHAP. IV.] Clicstcr. 1G87. Paid for yc tuches engraviiiL,' ,, for ye three puusous 1090. .June 2nd. And the same day the letter was changed from A to b. and so to continue for one j'ear. 1092. April. Paid for a puncheon and engraving ye letter c . lt)92. Nov. Paid Mr. Bullen for coper plate and pnnson . . . . I(i94. Paid Mr. Bullen for a new letter punson KI97. Paid for the punson and carriage. . . . . . ■ . . 99 12 00 6 1 6 DO 0-1 00 01 00 0.5 8 This points to the adoption of a date-letter in the year 1689, and the regular change of letter each year following. The copper plate bought in 1(392 may be the very same that is now preserved in the Chester Assay Office, but none of the punch marks with which it is covered seem referable to an earlier date than 1701. The alphabet adopted in 1689 is given as of Roman capitals in the minutes ; though this is not, of course, conclusive evidence, especially as it is known that the letters for 1689 and 1690 were not of that character. In any case it must have come to a premature end with the letter i for 1697-8. This fragment of an alphabet is given after the old Norwich alphabets, in Appendix B. The coat of the city as used at this time for the " punson " was a dagger between three gerbes. It so appears on a flagon of 1690, the property of the Independent Chapel at Oswestry. The crest was a sword erect with a band across the blade. These marks disappear in 1701, having probably only been used from 1686 till that year. A number of so-called "goldsmiths" were free of the city at the end of the seventeenth century as well as at all other periods : but few working craftsmen were among them. The names of Alexander Pulford, Ralph Walley, and Peter Pennington are all that seem known of the latter class. After these comes the Richardson family, which temp. Queen Anne seems to have made nearly all the Chester plate, though some may have been sent from Shrewsbury and other places to be marked there. ExAJiPLES OF Old Chester Plate. Date. JIaker's Mark and Name. Article. 1089 1 1190 SJ-dl (^^^P^ CfC^^ Ralph Walley, Flat-handled spoon — lE^ ent. 1082. Noted by author. \tUj / »^^v>.^^ Do. ! Flat-lid tankard. In- dependent Chapel, Oswestry. H>2 loo Old EiiQ-lish Plate. [chap. iv. 'evon. Communion cup. dated 1582. — Cadljury, Devon. Communion cup and cover, dated 1590. — St. Andrew's, I'lymouth. Apostle spoon, pricked date 1637. — Staniforth Col- lection. Apostle spoon, pvicked date 1638. — Sir T. Thornhill. i Bart. j Communion cup, dated 1640. — St. Petrock"s, Exeter. ! Seal-head spoon, dated 1641. — Cotehcle House. { rit.U'. IV.] Hull. 103 HULL. The mark now to be mentioned is one that can no longer be called donbtfnl. Though Hull had been made a mint town in 28 Edw. I. it was not included in the Act of 1423, and does not seem to have assayed plate in early times ; Imt in and near that town there is a great deal of plate of the seventeenth century bearing the town arms of three ducal crowns one above another for assay mark. So much, indeed, is to be found, that it would almost lead to the conclusion that Hull must have had some charter such as those which Exeter and Chester are supposed to have enjoyed, entitling its goldsmiths to their ov,u proper provincial mark. The " Company of Goldsmiths and l^raziers " there are found presenting a petition to James II. with other loyal burgesses of the toAvn. To set against this it must be said that the Hull mark only occurs just when other unauthorised marks vrcre much in vogue. Further it is not mentioned by the author of the Touchstone in 1679 ; nor was it recognised by the Acts of 1701 and 1702, any more than in 1423. It is clear, howcA'er, that whether authorised or not to use a special mark of its own, the goldsmiths residing there did a good trade amongst their neighbours, at all events from about 1625 to nearly the end of the century. About 25 specimens have come to light, bearing various dates from 1021 to 1697, and the marks of nine different makers. Many of them are in the possession of the Hull Trinity House, others are from village churches in the neighbourhood, and one piece of some his- torical interest is in private hands in Yorkshire. The nine makers' initials are IC. CW. RR. HR. IB. EM. TH. KM. and AB. They are in shields of very marked shapes, and all but one of them have some distinguishing emblem, such as a crown, star, or other like addition. With one example of the KM mark, which is of the very end of the seventeenth century, is found a large letter f like the York letter for 1G61-2. Whether this is intended for a date-letter it is im- jiossililc to say. A similar letter SZ' occurs once with the EM maker's mark, and a letter ^J' has once also been noted. It looks as if for some half dozen years or more a date-letter was tried, but after a very short trial abandoned. The only other circumstance to be observed is that on a piece or two of al)()ut 1():50 both the [h] mark and the three-crowns mark are to be found. This perhaps marks the period of the change from the one mark to the other as that of the Hull local touch. I04 Old English Plate. [chap. IV. The first two of tlie makers' marks given below are to be expected rather with the H than with the crowns, the third and fourth Avith both these marks, the rest with the three crowns only. The three- crowns mark is always struck twice, usually on each side of the maker's mark ; and very likely by the makers themselves, and not by a warden at all. Examples of Hull Plate. Town Marks. Maker's Mark. Article. H H (\q\ Probably James ^ Carlill, free 1591.* Do H (twice) . i (^l) Chr. Watson H • • Do. (twice) . H. 3 crowns (^^ (twice) Do. . . r*^ R. Robinson, free 1617.t Do. Do. Do. . Do. 3 crowns (twice) Do. . Do. Do. . Do. Do. . Do. Do. . Do. Do. . Do. Do. . Do. Do Do I IB I (twice) Jas. Birk- k*^ by, free IC^l.t ^y^ Edw. Mangy, free Do. Do. Do. Do. IGGO.f ]km ) P [ K. Mangy jXuT'i Thos. Hebden, free Do KM as above . . . Do t (twice) Abraham Barachin, free 17U6.* Do Communion cup, dated 1587. — Trinitj' Ch.. Hull. Seal-headed spoons. — Trin. Ho., Hull. Communion cup, dated 16.SS. — St. Marv's. Hull. Seal-headed spoon. — Trin. Ho., Hull. Beaker cup, dated 1621.— Trin. Ho.. Hull. Cup and paten, dated 1G29. — Nth. Frodiiig- ham, Yorks. Rim, dated 1G29, of cocoa-nut cup. — Trin. Ho., Hidl. Communion cup, dated 1630. — Hessle.Yorks. Cup and paten, dated 1638. — Burton Pidsea, Yorks. Two-handled porringer. — Hon. and Rev. S. Lawley. Communion cup, dated IGiJG. — Beverley Minster. Paten, dated 1671.— Barno]d))y-le-Beck, Yorks. Communion cup, dated 167G. — Kirk Ella, Yorks. Communion cup. — Copgrove, Yorks. Tankard.— Trin. Ho., Hulk Com. cup. — Trin. Ho., Hull. Peg Tankanl, dated 1689. — Corpn. of Hedon. Tumbler cup, dated 1689.— Trin. Ho., Hull. Communion cup, dated 1695. — Skeffling. Yoi-ks. Tobacco box, dated 1697.— Trin. Ho., Hull. Com. Cup. — Preston, near Hedon. Small Tumbler cup. — T. M. Fallow, Esq. " Per Mr. J. K. Boyle, F.S.A., Hull. t Per Mr. R. C. Hope, F.S.A. CHAP. IV.] Gatcslicad. lo- GATESHEAD. A little plate was made and marked in Gateshead at the same period as in Hull. A tankard with flat lid of the later part of the seventeenth century, and a small mug in the possession of the Right Hon. Sir J. E. Mowhray, Bart., both of which can be traced to a Northumbrian family, have a goat's headcouped in a circle and the initials A'F, also in a circular stamp, both marks twice repeated. The goat's head was a sort of rchiis for the name of the town. It is found on a carved chair of the year 1666 in the vestry of Gateshead church ; and it also occurs on a tradesman's token of a certain John Bedford, who was one of " the twenty-four of Gateshead " in 1658.* LEEDS. The mark of a pendant lamb, like the badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece, is possibly referable to Leeds. It occurs with a maker's mark of TB in a heart-shaped shield on a paten at Almond- bury Church in Yorkshire, and on a tumbler cup in the author's possession. It is also found Math maker's mark of ST in linked letters on a shaped escutcheon on a pair of patens, one of which is dated 1702, at Harewood Church in the same county. |VSv) vi?y ' 'om. cup. — Almoiulbiiry. Yorks. ^ Do. do. Tumbler cup. — The Author. 1") "t^ ^'^^^' °^ Patens, one dated 1702. — Harewood, Yorks. 1*1 Also com. cup. — Darrington, Yorks. CAUL ISLE. A single maker of village church plate in the neighbourhood of Carlisle seems to have used a seeded rose as well as his initials. His name was probably Edward Dalton, and his mark is found on small and rudely made communion cups of the early Elizabethan period at Ireby, Bolton, Long ^Marton, and Cliburn, all in the county of Cumberland. (^^ f©) (^^ VmAc Comuiunioii cups.— Ireby, Dolton, kc, Cumb. There are two other cups in Cumberland of precisely the same make and fashion in every detail, both dated 1571, but bearing no marks, — one at Uldale and the other at Lazonby. As it is practically certain * IJoyne's Tokens of the Seventeenth Century. io6 Old Encrlisli Plate. [chap. iv. '^ that, though unmarked, they must be by the same maker as the Ireby cup and the other examples mentioned above bearing the ED mark, the date of the whole group may be considered not to be a matter of any doubt. The seeded rose is taken from the old city arms; and the same mark Avas used for stamping weights and measures at Carlisle. LIXCOLX. A mark usually found alone, and therefore only a maker's mark, occurs on a number of Elizabethan communion cups in Lincolnshire, and may pretty safely be assigned to a Lincoln craftsman. It is on a specimen of 1569 at Osbournby and of 1570 at Auboru and L'pton- cum-Kcxby, besides being on undated pieoes at Haxey, Boultham, Scotton, Lea near Gainsboro', Heapham, and Thimbleby. S Communion cup. dated 1569. — Osbournby. North Cockerington, and Marsh Chapel, Line. Do. dated 1570. — Auborn and Upton-cum-Kexby, Line. Do. undated — Haxey, Boultham, Scotton, &c., Line. On the two examples of the year 1570, at Auborn and Upton-cum- Kexby respectively, a seven-pointed star, formed of seven small heart- shaped indentations without any shield or escutcheon, is found, as well as the above-mentioned maker's mark. TAUXTOX. A mark of considerable interest is on a spoon pricked with 1673 for date. It consists of a tun or barrel placed across the stem of a large letter T, and no doubt stands for the town of Taunton. It is in the bowl of the spoon, which has TD with a fleur-de-lis under the letters on an escutcheon for maker's mark on the back of the handle. This spoon is in the collection of Mr. Chichester of Hall. The same marks are found on a beaker in the Staniforth collection ; on a paten dated 1676 at "SVootton Courtenay in Somersetshire ; and on spoons of 1686 and 1691, noted by the Somersetshire Archaeological Societv. Do. I'aten, dated 1(J7G. — Wootton Courtenay, Som. DOECHESTER. The following mark has lately been identified as that of Lawrence Stratford of Dorchester, who in 1579, 1583 and 1593, is mentioned in the Corporation and other records. "^ C^^ * I'aten cover, dated 1574. — Maiden Xewton, Dorset. CHAP. IV.] Dorclicstcv 107 This mark is found on Elizabethan communion phxte in uo less than thirty Dorsetshire parishes ; and the pieces are dated from 157B to 1578, but most of them are of 1574. His mark is also found on a communion cup with cover, the latter engraved 1578 at Weston Bamfylde, Som. One John Stratforde, also goldsmith of Dorchester, is mentioned in 1526 ; and a man named lladcliffe, described as a goldsmith at Dorchester, was fined £5 by the Loudon Goldsmiths' Company in 1G17. BARNSTAPLE. A spoon, bearing the following group of marks, viz.: — m (ISP) m \ VM was made by John Peard, of Barnstaple. He was buried there 15 Nov. 1680.* It is a flat-handled spoon, having some good chasing on the bowl, and was in the late Mr. R. Temple Frere's well-known collection. KING'S LYNN. Two examples of plate are known, marked \\'ith the arms of Lynn accompanied by a maker's mark. This town mark consists of a shield bearing three congers' heads erect, each with a cross croslet fitche in the mouth ; and it is found on a communion cup at the church of St. Peter, Southgate, Norwich, and on a paten in St. Nicholas' Chapel, King's Lynn. SANDWICH. A very peculiar communion cup of tazza form and early sixteenth century date, at St. Mary's, Sandwich, bears with other marks a lion passant and ship's hull dimidiated and conjoined, from the town arms. Its approximate date is known by the coincidence of the cup exactly matching a tazza, also used as a chalice, at Wymeswold in Leicester- shire, which is hall-marked 1512, and also a similar tazza in the posses- sion of Mr. H. Willett, of the year 1500. Both these last-mentioned ]>icces l)car an iiiscri])f inn round the bowl in Tudor capitals SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA, whilst the Sandwich cu). has in the same way the words, also in Tudor capital letters, THIS IS THE COMMVNION COVP ; but this last inscription can hardly be much earlier than 1550. Mention occurs of a goldsmith of Sandwich * Communicated by Mr. T. 'WiiinwiiL^ht, Sor. of tlie Nortli Devon Atlion:kiun, IJarnstaple. io8 Old Eudisli Plate. [chap. n-. '6 in 1514, named Christopher Johnson, alias Coper, alias Goldesmyth, and called " of Sandwich Goldsmith." This occurs in Foreign and Domestic State Papers, Henry VIII., Vol. I., No. 5548. SHEllBORXE. A mark frequently found by the late Mr. J. E. Nightingale, in Dorsetshire, has now been identified as that of Kichard Orenge, of Sherborne, in that county. Of fourteen specimens of Dorsetshire church-plate, three were dated 1574, 158'2, and 1607 respectively ; and a number of examples have since been found by Rev. E. H. Bates, in the adjoining county of Somerset, dated pieces of 1572, 1573, 1574, and 1G03 being amongst them. ^^ jltiisetshire church -plate fiom 157-1: to 1(J07. Suiiiersetshire ^\o. from l.")72 to 1603. It was the example of 1603 at Charlton Horethorne, Som., which led to the identification of the mark, owing to its having a second mark of RO struck upon it. All the pieces Avere found within a moderate distance of Sherborne, and as the result of further local research it was found that one Richard Orenge was churchwarden there in 1585 and 1596, and dealings with him are mentioned in the church accounts of 1594-5. His will, proved Nov. 24, 1606, describes him as "of Sherborne, goldsmith." The later examples of his mark from 1582 onwards show a sort of small stem or handle projecting from one side of the device. It has been suggested that this version of the mark represents a " range " which is the -local word for a sort of sieve, whilst the older mark may represent an orange, both by way of rebus for the maker's name. DOUBTFUL AND OTHER rilOYlXCIAL MARKS. The above are perhaps all the local marks which can at present be traced home with certainty. But there are other marks, many of them pretty well known, that are of interest to us to note. Of some of them all that can be said is, that as they are found on plate, often spoons, apparently of English make, and of the middle of the seventeenth century, the articles bearing them probably escaped more regular marking owing to the social disturbances with which their makers were surrounded. Others occur repeatedly in certain districts, and become almost identified with the localities in which they are found. One of the best known of such marks is a fleur-de-lis within a plain or sometimes beaded circle. It is often found in the bowls of spoons of that date ; examples occur in both the Staniforth and Octavius jNIorgan collections. c'HAi'. IV.] Doubtful Proviiu'ia! Marks. 109 Another is a small and iiulistinct mark of a circle crossed and re-crossed with lines, some of them running-, like the spokes of a wheel, to the centre. This was found in the howl of a spoon in the collection of the late Mr. R. Temple Frere, and of one at Cotehele : hoth of these have a small sitting figure like Buddha, hy way of knop, and hoth have as maker's mark the letters RC with a five-pointed star hetween them on the back of the stems; a seal-headed spoon also at Cotehele hears the same marks, and 1647 for date pricked upon it. A fourth mark of the same kind is formed of four small hearts arranged with the points inwards, so as to form a sort of quatrefoil. Other such devices and monograms in great variety occur, sometimes the same monogram in the bowl and on the handle of the spoon, two or even three times repeated in the latter position. Amongst them is occasionally to be recognised the registered mark of some London maker, but so seldom that in most cases they may safely be said to be of provincial origin, and of about the period we have mentioned. Exceptions may of course be found : some few are certainly of the earlier part of the same century ; but as a general rule, this class of marks may be referred to the reign of Charles I., or else to the time of the Commonwealth. The most puzzling doubtful mark that has ever come under the author's notice is ou a piece of church-plate at Bradford. It bears a Catherine wheel, and italic // for date-letter, and as maker's mark the letters SS crowned on a shield repeated twice. It is dated 1691, and is almost certainly of Yorkshire make, for the same set of marks are to be found on plate at Todwick also in Yorkshire, and of the very same year, 1691. The maker's mark is one of those registered at Goldsmiths' Hall, but may well belong to a provincial maker for all that ; and as the Catherine wheel occurs on more than one specimen of plate, and in more than one form, it is in all probability the local mark of some northern town. It is engraved in the following list together with a few other such marks : — S (S°2) lAVOREl <'on)miinion cup, Kliz. band. — Halwell, Devon. ®J II IjdWl nini tu-ici; Jraidunlicad s[/00ii (from Edkius collection) — The Autlior. (ill handle. In rSrtl /n c I C.-Xl 'I'lir. A ij thor. %^ bowL®(0)® i,;i.Seal-l,ead spoon. c.IG2U.-ThcAut ]K\ \sh\ (.^S^ ]^S\ ^I'lirch plate, (hited IG'.M.— P.radl'urd and Tudwick, Yorks. no Old English Plate. [chai\ iv. Some spoons with very similar marks to the above-meutioned example of 1620 were in the late Mr. R. Temple Frere's collection. They are of about the same date, one being pricked 1629. The following marks occur alone as follows : — Pre-Reformatiou paten. — Hartshorne, Derbs. Also an Elizabethan com. cup at Suare. Kent. Com. cups, with Eliz. bands, dated 1.570-7(5-77. — Cricklade St. Mary and Somerford Keynes, Wilts, and Winchcomb. Glouc. Com. cup, dated 1571. — Upcerne, Dorset. Com. cups, dated 1573 and 1577. — Swepston and Dadlington. Leics. ^~^ Alms dish — St. Mary, South Baily. Durham City : and on the smaller (IG) mace at Wilton. Wilts. The latter piece is inscribed Ivic. Graftou fecit. ^-^ l(J3y. Wfs Paten, c. 1G40. — Tisbury, Wilts. VHw Com. cup. c. 1055. — Wraxall, Dorset. (JYy) (Probably Thos. Vyner, see. p. 37.) Gold chalice of middle of seventeenth \±r century. — Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace. {GlI Com. cup and paten, dated 1677. — Bishop's Knoyle, Wilts. Also jiaten, O^ undated. — Winktield, Wilts. [7P/y] Flagon, given 1700. — Corslev, Wilts. Also paten given 1704. — Kinestun LC^ Deverill, Wilts. ■ ■ , Set of church-plate, dated 1700. — Bruton, Som. Also paten, undated. IQJT Ansford, Som. Also cup and its salver with casing of pierced work. — ' Colerne, Wilts. Also paten, dated 1707.— Poulshot. Wilts. Sometimes the same single mark, usually a very indistinct one, occurs on a good many examples of church-plate in the same neighbourhood. Eev. A. Trollope found a sort of indistinct rose very prevalent in Leicestershire, and also instances of a leopard's head uncrowned without any other mark, on village church-plate; just as Mr. Nightingale found in Dorsetshire a quantity of examples of the marks engraved on p. 106 and p. 108. Mr. Trollope also found in Leicestershire the curious mark of a small and indistinct shield flanked by the letters N and G, one on each side of it. In two examples of this last the letters appear upside down and turned the wrong way. This list will be prolonged by the experience of most readers of this volume. It remains to notice in conclusion another very interesting and perhaps unique mark, though it can hardly be called a doubtful one. It will be remembered that no provincial offices seem to have had any right to mark plate from 1697 to 1701, and the inconvenience to the CHAP. IV.] Doubtful Provincial Marks. 1 1 1 trade uud the public occasioned by tbis bas ah-eady been noticed. It appears, bowever, tbat plate made in tbe provinces between tbose years is not entirely unknown, as a saltcellar (see engr. cbap. X., art. Salts), in tbe form of a ligbtbouse, formerly amongst tbe family plate at Tredegar, will sbow. It bears for goldsmitbs' marks tbe tbree words Britan, Rowe, and Plin", eacli on a plain oblong punob (like tbe word Radcliffe on page 101), and it maybe safely attributed to the year 1698 or tbe early part of 1699. Tbe marks taken together indicate tbat it was made by one Rowe of Plymouth, of silver of the then new Britannia standard. Tbe piece is not only of considerable historical interest, as will be seen later on, but of great rarity as a specimen of provincial silversmith's work and marking at a period when but little was made, and none could by proper right be marked, except in London. The following table gives a summary, in a form convenient for reference, of all that has been said about ancient provincial English ball marks, and some illustrations of tbose which are of tbe most importance to the collector of old plate : — 112 Old English Plate. [CHAI- ^ u;. "o ei rJ2 < d 6 d d d H-3 03 ?:! ^ "S O "■ ^ • -H "b3 ^^ a O ft fi S Q W ai tH o < g '3 I— 1 »^ j2 „ C . q;" ;- . John Busficld. goldsmith, son of Wm. Busfield, goldsmith, fi'ee 1727. Jonathan Atkinson, goldsmith, 1735. The above-named Joseph Buckle, John Busfield, and William Hudson, together with a Stephen Buckle, son of Joseph Buckle, are all who voted as goldsmiths according to poll-books of 1741. Stephen Buckle was apprenticed to Cookson of Newcastle in 1732, for seven years. Goldsmiths are found voting also in 1758, amongst them Stephen Buckle again. In 1774 John Prince of Coney Street appears with others. Several names occur in 1758, 1774, and 1784 ; but few or any of them were working goldsmiths, though two or three w'ere watchmakers. Examples of Modern York Plate. Inscribed Date. Date- Letter. Makers Mark. Article. 1702 ® [pvl Probablv John l5£^ Best, free 1694, Racing cup, inscribed '■ Maggot on Kip- liugcotes, 1702."— Rise Park, Hull. 1705 6 r^*"-\ Probably Wm. ^"^ Busfield, free 1679. hjNVl John Lang- li-^l -with,* free Cup and paten, dated 1705. — St. Michael's, Malton, Yorks. 1714 /kn Communion cup, dated 1714. — Hawks- % well, Yorks. w 1699. K. D. Do. Do. . . . Tumbler-cup. — The Author. X. D. Dm. ]^ Probably Wm. \lip Williamson, free 1694. Communion cup. — Kirkby Ravensworth, Yorks. 1777 None. ,1-H Hampston Communion cup, dated 1777. — Selby Il-P and Prince. Abbey, Yorks. 1 780 ® Do. . . . Flagons, dated 1780.— All Saints', North Street, York. K. D. Do. Do. Connnunion cup and salver. — Burnsall, Yorks. * He registered his mark also at New- castle-on-Tyne, see p. 127. His mark occurs alone oa a plain com. cup. at N. Otterington, Yorks. A com. cuj) at Sherburn is marked IL in a sort of quatrefoil shield, probably his old sterling' mark. cii.vr. \.] Modem Exctcv 117 : Inscribed Date- Date. Lett KK. Maker s mark. Article. 1780 © Do. . Paten, dated 1780,— All Saints', North Street, York. X. D. Do. Do. Communion cup and cover. — St. Michael- le-Belfry, York. 1780 (D Do. . Paten, dated 1780. — Kirk P)Urton, Yovks. 1784 Do. Do. Communion cup, dated 1784. — Huntiiif,^- ton, Yorks. X. D. Do, Do. . Paten, given by Mary Lady Goudrickc. — Hunsigore, Yorks. .' 178.") Si |H*Pl Communion cup. — Holnie-on-Spalding Moor, Yorks. This piece bears the incused King's Head mark. I7yi ® rrlo . Hampston Fla.L^on, dated 1791. — St. JohnV, Ouse- (IP J and Prince. bridge, York. 17ti2 © Do. Flagon, dated 1702.— Kirk Deighton, Yorks. ' 1 X. D. ® Do. . j Communion cuji. — Askham P.ryan,Yorks. '' 17!)8 ® HP &;Co H. Prince and Co. 1 Flagon, dated 17'.»8. — AVarter, Yorks. The firm of Prince was in 1805 Prince & Cattle, and until 1807, when it is Ptichard Cattle. From 1808 Cattle k Barber till 1814 ; then Barber & Whitwell. The only other makers of the early part of the present century were W. Astley of York, and G. Booth of Selby. EXETKi;. This city availed itself forthwith of the powers conferred upon it in 1701, and its office has continued to work until recently. Eleven goldsmiths met on August 7th, 1701, and proceeded to elect William Ekins and Daniel Sladc as their first wardens. Steps were taken to procure a convenient house for an assay office, resolutions for its management passed, and punches for marking plate ordered in November, one Edward Ptichards having been appointed assay-master in the preceding month, an office which he seems to have held till January, 1707-8. Early in the following year such goldsmiths of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, and Dorset, as had not yet entered their marks, were notified that the office was ready to assay plate according to the Act of Parliament. The distinguishing mark of the office is a castle of three towers. At first the mark used was a somewhat bold one : the two outer towers, Ii8 Old English Plate. [chap. v. wbicli are lower iu the shield than the central one, are bent inwards towards it, and the shield is shaped ; but after 1709, or thereabouts, the shield was reduced iu size, and was made of the ordinary plain angular heraldic pattern, with the towers smaller and upright. In the case of both the shields there is what might be taken for a small flaw running from the central tower to the bottom of the shield ; this in reality denotes the partition per j)rt?e of the field on which the triple castle of the city of Exeter is borne. (See Table, p. 134.) The minutes of the year 1710 give the first actual mention of the alphabetical date-letter, which was for that year k ; we may say, therefore, that the first alphabet used was one of Roman capitals, and commenced on Michaelmas Day, 1701, in which year the observance of the Act became obligatory. The letters a and b are found in ornamental or shaped shields. Later on the letter was changed on August 7th. It will be seen from the Table given at the end of this volume that Eomau letters, capital or small, were used until the commencement of an alphabet of old English capitals in 1837 ; we shall also notice that since 1797 the same letters have been used as at the Goldsmiths' Hall in London. This Table shows them just as they are Avritten in the minute-book, which is the safest course to adopt, even though printed letters may not be exact facsimiles in all cases of the punches used. The letters for the present century, and perhaps a longer period, have been in square shields with the corners slightly cut oft", or sometimes with the upper corners of the shield cut oft' and the lower end rounded, as best suited the letter enclosed. The early makers' marks were, in compliance with the Act, the first two letters of the surname ; but, most unfortunately, a leaf is now missing from the Company's record-book which contained the first tAventy-three entries. The earliest of those left is the twenty-fourth, entered on Nov. 13, 1703, and is that of "Mr. Peeter Ehot of Dartmouth," whose mark was to be EL. Other marks follow at the rate of one or two in each year, entered by goldsmiths residing at Launceston, Plymouth, Dunster, Truro, and other places as well as Exeter, some examples of which may be given, viz. : — CHAP, v.] Modern Exeter iig 17031 EL Do. Do. I iji'j 171I4| Wj Do, Name. Do. Do. 1705 Do. Do. Do. Do. Peeter Eliot, of Dartmouth. Jacob Tytli, of Launcestoii. Mary Ashe, of Laiinceston, Eiehard Wilcocks, of Ply- mouth. Mr. Richard Holin, of Truro. Edward Sweet, of Dunster. Name. HO VA Ca, St ®^ ^E) i Thos. Eeynolds, Exon ^K I Piichard Plint. Truro. Pilchard Vavasor, of Totto- ness. Robert Catkitt, Exon. James Strong. Exon. John Maubv. Dartmnuth. 170." [Tf^] Thos. Haysham,Brid|rcwater. 17()(; (§^\ Thos. Sampson, p]xon. Do. j (SY) Pent. Simons, Plymouth. 1710' (^^ I Cieo. Trowbridge. Exeter. Tolcher, Plymouth. I'll I '77..] 1714 (u/^ , Andrew Worth. I jcK 1 i Pent. Symonds. Abraham LovelU John Elston, junior, Exon. In 1723 may be noted an instance of the change to the initials of the Christian and surname when John Elston, junior, of Exeter, entered as his mark JE under a small heraldic label on a shield. •An example of his work remains in the shape of a plain two-handled cup of 1725, at the Baptist Chapel in South Street, Exeter, of the congregation of which he was a member. The other makers, Avhose names and marks are entered or re-entered up to about 1730, arc : — John Suger, 1712. Adam Hutchins, 1714. Peter Arno, 171(). Pent. Symonds, 1720. Joseph Collier, 1720. John Reed, 1720. John Marsh, 1720. Zachariah Williams, 1720. Sampson Rennett, 1721. Samuel Rlachford, 1721. Henry Muston, 1721. James Stevens, 1721. Andrew Worth, 1721, Jane Maryen, 1722. Abr. Lovell, 1 722. Samuel Wilmott, 172:5. Philij) Elston, 1723, John Webber, 1724. Thos. Clarke, 1725. Anty. Tripe, 1725. Jas. Marshall, 1725. Jas. Strong, 172G. John Boutell, 172(5. John Torkington, 1727. Sand. Rlachford, 1728. Richard Plint. 172!). These all used from 1720 the usual initials on old sterling silver, I20 Old English Plate. [chap. v. or the first letters of the surname when new sterling was worked. But singularly little of their plate has ever heen found by the author in Devon, Cornwall, or elsewhere. The names of some Exeter goldsmiths in 1701 are recorded, but not their marks nor whether they were all goldsmiths by trade. They are John Audry, Wm. Briant, Nichs. Browne, Wm. Drake, John Ekins, John Elston, Thos. Eoote, Joseph Leigh, John Mortimer, E. Eichards, Danl. Slade and Edw. Spicer.* Some rites and ceremonies took place on the initiation of new members of the Company, for, say the minutes of Aug. 7, 1767, "at this Court appeared Mr. Thomas Kaynes and Mr. Richard Freeman, Paid their coltage, and were duly shod." From the parliamentary return of 1773 we find that the Company then consisted of five members (but seventeen plateworkers' marks were registered, being those of tradesmen residing at Plymouth and Dartmouth, as well as Exeter itself), and that the average weight of plate assayed in each of the seven preceding years was about 4479 oz. The names of 1773 were : Edward Broadhurst, Roger Berryman Symons, Mr. Welch, Jason Holt, James Jenkins, Thos. Thorne, Benj. Symons Nathan, John Tingcombe, David Hawkins, John Brown, Thos. Strong, William Harvey, Thos. Beer, and Richard Bidlake, all of Plymouth or Plymouth Dock, William Eveleigh of Dartmouth, and Richard Jenkins and AVilliam Coffin of Exeter. According to the later return of 1848, the office was carrying on an extensive business, more, in fact, than any other provincial office except Sheffield. It had stamped, in that year, no less than 44,451- oz. of silver, besides 266 oz. of gold. In 1856 its business had some- what increased, but almost all its work came from a single firm at Bristol. At last in the early part of 1885, this firm finding it more con- venient to have its produce assayed elsewhere, the Exeter office was closed from want of work, and it is not likely ever again to be re-opened. Except for the city arms, the marks of Exeter are the same as those given in the Table for York ; and, as at York, the Exeter office adopting the leopard's head in 1720, continued its use long after the passing of the Act of 1739. It may be again remarked here that the retention of that mark after 1739 by those offices was probably owing to a misinterpretation of the Act of that year, which no doubt intended to confine the use of the leopard's head for the future to London. It was used at Exeter on an unusually large oblong stamp, ■• EiiffUsh Goldsmiths, by R. C. Hope, F.S.A. CHAP, v.] Modern Exeter. 121 and forms a fine bold mark ; indeed this may be said of all the punches employed in this city, the lion's head erased being of large size, and the Britannia on a rectangular punch as bold in its way as that adopted for the leopard's head crowned in 1720. This last was still in use in 1773, but was discontinued a good many years ago. The date of its discontinuance is not recorded in the books of the Company, and is unknown. Examples of Modehn Exeter I'i.ate. Date. Makers Mark. Article. 1701 1702 1704 170:. Do. i7o(; i7oy Do. 1710 1712 Do. 1718 1714 171.-) Do. Do. 171G 1717 1718 172.5 Do. (£1 (£1 Do. Do. Dn. . Do. . Ri sb\ (rerhaps Thos. 1-'oote. d. 1708.) Flat-stenimecl .spoon. — llev. Canon Rainc. Yoik. (Probably Elston. of Exeter.) Large jiaten or ciljorium, with cover. — St. Martin's, Exeter. Straining spoon. — St. Petroclc's. Exeter. (Perhaps Pucliard Freenian.) Tanlvard. dateil 17aten. — Pedruth, Com. (Do.) Paten. — Tamerton Foliot, Devon. (Richards, as in 1712.) Two-handled cup and covei-, dated 1717. — St. David's, Exeter. (Proba])ly Saml. P.laehford.) Flagon, given 172(1. — f.elaut, ("aptist Chapel, Exeter. Also 172'.l, paten. — -Melkshani, Wilts. 122 Old English Plate. [chap. v. Date. Maker's Mark. Article. 1728 Do. 1720 1730 1731 1734 1740 1743 1747 1748 Do. (Do.) Paten, dated 1728. — Morwenstow, Corn. (Philip Elston, ent. 1723.) Flagons, dated 1728.— St. Edmund's, Exeter. Small communion cup for the sick. — St. Martin's, Exeter. Straining spoon. — Exeter Cathedral. (Probably Joseph Collier.) Plain chocolate pot — noted by author. (Sampson Bennett, ent. 1722.) Paten, dated 1736. — Constan- tine, Corn. Note. — This maker's mark appears alone on cup and paten, dated 1726. — Lelant, Corn. Flagon, dated 1741. — Talland, Corn. (Probably John Boutell.) Pair of collecting basins with handles, — St. Ives, Corn. (Probably Thos. Blake, 1724—59.) Alms-bowl, dated 1747.— Crediton, DeA'on. Small paten on foot. — St. Martin's, Exeter. CHESTER. The office established here in 1701 has been at work ever since, though sometimes on a small scale ; but the growth of Liverpool and Manchester has not added as much as might have been supposed to its work in recent times. The date-letters, as in the case of the other provincial offices, commence with the Roman capital a in 1701, and they have been changed regularly every 3'ear on July 9th, until 1839, since which time the change has been made the same day in August. Its business was at one time very small, dwindling from 824 oz. in 1766, to no more than 161 oz., or the weight of a single salver of moderately large size, in 1769 ; but a great increase seems then to have suddenly taken place, for, in 1770, 1771, and 1772 it stamped about 2200 oz. a year. The Company consisted of nine goldsmiths and watchmakers in 1773, though only two of them were goldsmiths by trade, Joseph Duke and Geo. Walker, and even Joseph Duke does not seem to have had a registered mark of his own. Seventeen plate- workers' names had been entered there from Manchester, Liverpool, Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Chester, and Warrington. Their names were William Hardwick of Manchester, Ralph Wakefield of Liverpool, T. Prichard of Shrewsbury, Joseph Walley of Liverpool, John Gimlet of Birmingham, Christopher Thinue of Liverpool, Geo. Walker of Chester, Geo. Smith of Warrington, William Pemberton of Chester, CHAI'. v.] Modern Chester. 123 Richard Richardson of Chester, Ralph Walker of Liverpool, James Dixon of Chester, John Wyke and Thos. Green of Liverpool, Bolton and Fothergill (no doubt of Soho), and Gimble and Vale of Birmingham. The fidelity and skill with which the operations of the office were conducted, secured the special commendation of the Parliamentary Committee in that year. At the date of the next inquiry, in 1848, it again appears to have been doing but little business ; 656 oz, had been the greatest total weight of silver stamped as liable to duty in any of the five preceding years, to which must be added an average of about 200 oz. of gold wares. It however received from Liverpool and from a maker at Coventry a large number of watch-cases for assay, which did not increase the duty payable through the office, though it added greatly to the business done in it. In 1885 it was stamping some 25,000 oz. annually of silver, and 10,000 oz. of gold of this description of wares. Its distinguishing mark was at first a shield bearing the city arms of three lions passant guardant dimidiated, per jxile with three garbs also dimidiated. This was the cout used, it will be remembered, before 1686. It was again changed in the latter part of the last century for a dagger erect between three garbs ; but it is known that the Goldsmiths' Company continued the use of the old arms some years after the city had adopted the new coat. It seems somewhat uncertain in what year the new coat first found favour at the Hall ; the present assay-master is of opinion that the change was made in the year 1784 or thereabouts, and this is corroborated by the occurrence of the letter " i," which appears to be the letter for that year, accompanied sometimes by the old and at other times by the new arms. The rest of the marks correspond with those of the other i^ro- vincial towns, the leopard's head having been used from 1720 — 1839, when it was discontinued. Partly owing to the smallness of the business done at Chester, and partly owing to the loss of one of the books which contain the records from 1808 to 1818, it is a matter of some doubt and difficulty to give a list of the date-letters used. Those from 1701 to 1726, and from 1818 to the present day, are recorded; but in the interval between 1726 and 1818 the only information the books afford is that from 1726 to 1808 they were regularly changed. irai)pily, however, the letters for certain years are known in other ways, such as the italic .1/ for 1788-9, the Roman capital u in the next alphabet for 1772-8, and a small Roman i found without the kin'r's head, and also with the 124 Old English Plate. [chap. v. king's head in intaglio. This last must therefore almost certainly be the letter for 1784 ; and it would seem to indicate that at Chester the precedi]ig alphabet was shortened by two letters, and a new cycle commenced in 177G Avith the same letter as that used in London. This uniformity of practice has not, however, been maintained. The evidence of the marks found on a number of undated specimens of plate corresponds with that afforded by the fixed points mentioned ; and our Table will be practically a safe guide to the Chester date- letters. It will of course be seen that the lengths of the alphabets have necessarily had to be cut to fit, but the position of any given letter will not be affected by more than a year, and the uncertainty occasioned is therefore of little consequence. The only well-known smith of the Queen Anne epoch is Eichard Richardson, whose mark constantly occurs 1710-40. It is Ri in the Britannia period, and appears as two Roman capital letters er linked back to back, on old sterling silver after 17'20. The Ri mark, with the word Sterl. as a second mark, occurs on the mace, dated 1718, of the borough of Carnarvon. Examples of Modern Chester I'late. Date. Maker's Makk and Name. c. 1701 Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. 170-t Do. i7oy 1713 ' Do. 1714 1715 1717 1718 1721 1722 1723 Bu Xatlil. ]]iillen . Ta Co Gi /Sco . . . . ^e Probably V. Teu- ningtou. see \i. 99. Ro Thos. Robinson, 1682—1710. r^7 Eichard Richard- Itichaul 8071. Ri, as above liicliard Article. Entries on the Chester copper plate, c. 1701. These are not here sriveii in facsimile. Large oval snufi'-box, dated 1704. — Corpora- tion of Chester. Communion cup. — Wortheubury, Wrexham. Silver oar. — Corporation of Chester. Communion cup and Hagon, dated 1710. — St. Peter's, Chester. Spoon, dateil 17ir). — Corporation of Chester. Paten. — St. John's Blue Coat School, Chester. Communion plate. — St. Mary's, Chester. Alms-dish, dated 1719. — St. John's, Chester. Communion cup, dated 1720. — St. Pride's. Chester. Tumbler-cup. — Shoemakers' Guild, Carlisle. Punch-ladle, dated 1722. — Corporation of Chester. Punch-ladle, dated 1724.— Duke of West- minster, Eaton House. CHAP, v.] Modem NcK'casth 12- Maker's Mark and Name. Article. i Paten. — 8t. Michaers. ('hcstcr. . . . . . . I Cup.— T. Hughes. Es(|. r^i li. liic-lianlson . ; Cup for sick commuiiicaiits, piveii 172.'^.— l^j5J i Kendal, Westmoreland. Others of 1732. 1734, and 173<;. all by Richard - son, are at Whitehaven and Workinj.'-ton, Cumberland, and Kirkby Lonsdale, West- moreland. ! Silver seal. — Corporation of Chester. B.R, as above in 1728 .i Communion cu}) and paten, dated 17;>."). — I Poulton-le-Fylde, I^anc. RR, as above in 172S , , Paten, dated 1737. — Chester Cathedral. R-R I Mark noted by author. Do I Paten, given 17C>7. — Tattenhall. Cheshire. j Sugar-ladle. — W. R. M. Wynne, Esi|.. Peniartli. I Date-letter U. — Report of Parliamentary Coni- ! mittee. GW (ieo. Walker . . , Plain skewer.— E. W. Colt-Williams. Esii. NORWICH. As to modern Norwich, notbiag- seems to be known except that on July 1, 1702, one Robert Harstonge was sworn in assayer of gokl and silver plate to the Company of Goldsmiths in that city. This is the only evidence at all that any step was taken to put in force the powers of the Act of Will. III. ; it is clear that as far as Norwich is concerned, the privileges conferred by it soon fell into disuse, and for a very long time past no plate has been assayed there. XE WCASTL K-UPON-T V N K. Although this town, lately become a city, was one of those anciently appointed to have a touch of its own, it was not included amongst the offices re-established in 1701. Its claims were, however, made good in 1702, upon a representation of its ancient rights and of the ruin impending over its goldsmiths and their families in consequence of its omission from the list. A Company was then established in the same manner as in the case of the other offices ; and its first assay-master, Francis Batty, senior, was elected June 24, 1702. This was the first meeting of the new Company, and llobcrt Shrive and Thomas Armstrong were elected wardens for the ensuing year. Those who attended the meeting were Francis Batty, Eli Jiilton, Hobert JShrive, Richard Hobbs, Thos. Leightly and Alexander Campbell, all of whom have been mentioned already except Campbell. Francis JiJatty was succeeded in his office in 1707 by Jonathan French, and French in 126 Old En^lisli Plate. [cuap. v. bis turn by Thos. " Heweson " in 1712. Mark Grey Nicholson was sworn assay-master in 1718, and William Pryor in 1722. The Newcastle mark is a shield with three towers or castles upon it, being the arms of the city, and is found at first with an ornamental, afterwards with a heart-shaped shield, and later still with a shield having a pointed base almost the shape of an egg. The other marks are the same as those of the other provincial offices, the leopard's head crowned being used from 1720. Of late it was the only provincial town retaining that mark, but the crown upon the leopard's head served to distinguish it from the London stamp for some time from 1822 onwards. Some quite modern Newcastle plate shows the leopard's head uncrowned. The lion passant is to sinister, that is to say, turns to the right, from 1721 to 1725. The annual date-letter seems to run regularly from 1702 onwards to the present time, except for a break between the years 1760 and 1769, as is evident from, but otherwise unexplained by, the books of the Company, which are fairly complete as regards the minutes ; but the first Assay Book commences only in 1747 and ends in 1755, whilst the next does not begin till 1761. The letter is changed on May 3. Roman and old English capitals were used until 1815, when a small letter (Eoman) was introduced. The letters in the Tables at the end of the volume are given as they appear in the books of the Company, but some of those of the earliest alphabet were certainly not exactly as there shown. The Roman capital letter s for 1784 is found with and also without the Sovereign's head, which last is in intaglio when it occurs on plate of 1784 or 1785, as it is on London plate of the same years. More than one instance of the incused form of duty mark coupled with the letter u of the year 1786 is known. The principal silversmiths of the time of Queen Anne were Francis Batty, senior, who has already been mentioned as the first appointed assay-master in 1702 ; Eli Bilton, Thomas Hewitson, and J. Ramsey, who have also been all mentioned before. Jonathan French, who became free in 1703, was apprenticed to Robert Shrive in 1695, and died in 1732, and one John Younghusband became free in 1706, and died in 1718. A younger Francis Batty takes up the freedom in Nov., 1708, and died in 1727- 8, and the mark of a younger John Ramsey is found 1721-28. Eli Bilton died in 1712.' The leading men of the reigns of George I. and George II. were James Kirkup, who, apprenticed to Bilton in 1705, became free in 1713 and worked to 1753 ; Isaac Cookson, whose name occurs from 1728 to 1754 ; William Dalton, 1724-67, John Langlands, 1754-78, and William CHAH. v.] Modern Newcastle. 127 Partis of Snuderlancl, tlie mark of the last-mentioned Ofi'urrin<^' 1733-59. Other makers' marks are of very rare occurrence. All the ahove makers use their initials as marks for old sterling plate, and the first letters of their surname on new sterling. Eobert Makepeace, admitted 1718, was using before 1739 his initials in old English characters ; and afterwards plain Roman capitals as R'M : he died in 1755 ; and James Crawford, 17G3-95, puts his initials IC under a two-handled covered cup. Isaac Cookson and John Langlands have their initials under a gem ring, the former using italics after 1739. Entries for payments for assays occur in 1717 and some following years as made by John Langwith and Joseph Buckle, both of York, W. Beilby is found from 1739 to 1761 sending work from Durham ; and also Samuel Thompson of the same city from 1750-85. One Wilkinson sends some from Sunderland 1747 to 1752, as well as Thomas Partis, 1720 to 1733 , and the William Partis mentioned above. Other outsiders send very trifling amounts. At Newcastle itself, too, the bulk of the trade was very much in a few hands. By far the largest businesses were those of Isaac Cookson, followed by his apprentice and journeyman, John Langlands. Cookson averages 7100 oz. from 1747 to 1754. In 1778 John Langlands, senior, took into partnership John Piobertson, and worked with him till 1793, when he was replaced by his son John Langlands, junior, who only remained with John Robertson for two years. They then separated, and from 1795 each carried on a distinct business and a considerable one. John Robertson worked thus till 1801, and J. Langlands, junior, till 1804. The latter was succeeded by Dorothy Lanjjjlands, 1804 to 1814. John Robertson's initials are found associated with those of David Darling in the single year 1795. Langlands and Robertson averaged 11,700 oz. from 1778 to 1784, when the plate duty was imposed; and G500 oz. from 1784 to 1793. Lesser men than these, such as James Kirkup, Robert Makepeace, John Kirkup son of James Kirkup, James Crawford, David Crawford, and later on Wm. Stalker and John Mitchison in partnership, as well as Pinkney and Scott also partners, were all in fair work, as will be seen by the subjoined list, which gives the necessary details as to their dates. The rest were but very small workers indeed. In 1773 Newcastle shared with Chester the praise bestowed on the operations of the goldsmiths' companies in these two places, but the Company consisted of three persons only, viz., John Langlands, John Kirkup, and another. There were, however, nine makers' marks registered, their owners residing at Newcastle itself, Durham and Sunderland ; and it then stamped about 12,000 oz. of 128 Old English Plate. [chap. V, silver per annum, but no gold. These persons were John Langlands, John Kh-kup, Samuel James, James Crawford, David Crawford, John Jobson, and James Hetherington, all of Newcastle ; together with Samuel Thompson of the city of Durham, and John Fearney of Sunderland. The office was doing much the same amount of business in 1848, and also in 1856, when such matters were again made the subject of parliamentary inquiry ; but it was finally closed in 1885. The last assay made of silver had been on April 22, and of gold on May 2, 1884. No gold plate was assayed here before March, 1785. Examples of Modern Newcastle Plate. Date. Maker's Mark and Namr. 1702 Do. Do. 1703 Do. Do. 170G 1711 Do. Do. Do. Do. 1712 Do. 1712 Do. 1713 c. 1717 Ba yo Do. Do. Do. Do. Eli Bilton . Richard HobLs . . Uobert Slu-ive Eli Biltoii. a>; in 1 702 . John Itamsey, free 1608. Francis Batty, senior . Eli Bilton, as in 17U2 . John Youiighusbaiul . do. . do. . . . Jon. French. Francis Batty, junior, do. . . . do. . J. Younghusband, as in 1711. John Langwith, of York. James Kirkup (new sterling). Joseph Buckle. of York. Article. Flat-handled rat-tailed table-spoons. — I Eev, J, Arlosh, Woodside, Carlisle. Also com. cup. (lated 1702. — St. Mary, South Baily, Durh. city. t'hurch-plate, dated 170l. — Stanhope, Durham. Com. cup. — Kirkbampton, Cumb. Com. cup and cover, — Askham, Wcstmor. I'aten, dated 1707. — Kirkandrc\vs-on-Esk, Cumb. Also com. cup, dated 1707. — Castle Eden, Durham. Flagon, dated 1711. — Askham, Westmor. Tumbler-cup, given 1711. — Taylor's Guild, Carlisle. Com. cup. — Ainstable, Cumb. Com. cup. dated 1712. — Esh, Durham. Paten, dated 1712. — Ormeside, Westmor. Com. cup. — St. . Michael's, Bongate, Applebj', Westmor. Small tumbler, used as com. cup. — Blawith, Lane. Flagon and paten, dated 1712. — Sherburn Hospital, Durham. Com. cup, dated 1708. — Xewton Kyme, Yorks. Occurs c. 1717. CHAl'. v.] Modern Newcastle 129 Datk. Maker's Mark and Name. Article. 1718 1720 Do. 1721 Do. 1722 1724 Do. Do. 172.-. 1727 1728 1730 Do. 1731 1732 1733 Do. 1738 Do. 1739 1740 Do. Do. Do. 1743 174G Do. 1748 O.E.P. IWWI John C'aniaby (new sterling). Wni. Whirfiel.l . TTJ) ^ Wni. Dal ton Do. Do. M TP Do. Francis Batty, junior (old sterling). do. . ■John C'arnabv, adm. 1718 (old sterling). do. . . . Jonathan French Francis Batty, junior, as in 1721. (ieo. Buhnau . . . Tlios. I'artis, of Sun- derland. Isaac Cookson. 1728 —173!). James Kirkup . . Robt, Makepeace do. . V\p William Partis. Sunderland, (ieo. Bulnian . of Isaac Cookson, as in 1730. Probably W. Beilby and Co., Durham. 3J^ Do. do. Do. William Partis, of Sunderland. Stephen Buckle, of York. James Kirkup, as in 1730. William Dalton . Isaac Cookson, from 1739. do. . . . Wm. Partis, as in 1740. Isaac Coukson. as in 1743. Old English capitals, from 1739. 1724—1739. Tankard, dated 1722.— Hexham Abbey. Also paten, dated 1722. — Wooler, Northumb. Communion plate, dated 1722. — St. John's, Newcastle. Com. cup. — St. Mary's, Gateshead. Paten. — St. Nicholas', Newcastle. Com. cup. — Dufton, Westmor. Com. cup. — Bowness, Westmor. 172.5—1739. Flagons, dated 1727. — Eyton-on-Tyne, Durham. Paten, dated 1728.— Ch. Ch. Tyncmouth. Paten. — Barningham, Yorks. Tankard, dated 1730. — Corpn. of Carlisle. Flagon, given 1731. — Piothbury, Northumb. Paten, dated 1734.— St. Mary's, Morpeth, Northumb. 1733—1739. 1739—1743. Com. cup.— Allendale Town, Northumb, Hand candlestick. — Ravensworth Castle. Also 1728, cup dated 1730.— St. An- drew's, Newcastle. Occurs in and after 1739. Flagon, dated 1740.— Boldun, Durham. Flagon. — St. Martin-cum-Gregory, York. Flagon. — Kirkandrcws-on-Ksk, Cumb. Com. cup, dated 1741. — Burgh-by-Sands, Cumb. Com. cup, dated 1743.— Birt ley, Northumb. Also flagons, dated 1743. — Hartburn. Also 1740, com. cup. — Halton, Lane. Com. flagon, datctl 174(j.— Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York. Paten, dated 1747.— All SS.,Cockcrmouth. Paten. — Bipon Minster. K 130 Old English Plate. [chap. v. Date. Maker's Mark and Name. 1748 ITaO 1754 Do. 1757 Do. 1758 1759 1763 1765 1768 1769 1770 1772 Do. Do. Do. 1774 Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. IK Probably Beilby, of Durham. do. John Langlands and .John Goodrick, d. 1757 ; 1754 — 1757. Robert Makepeace John Kirkup, 1753 — 1774. John Langlands, 1757 —1778. John Langlands, as in 1757. Article. Sam. James . Peter James David Crawford John Kirkup, as in 1757. John Langlands, as in 1759. Jas. Hetherington l-H H-E H&E Jas. Hether- ington. ws iM John Langlands, as in 1759. James Crawford, 1763 —1795. Jolm Langlands, as in 1759. do. James Crawford, as in 1772. Samuel Thompson, of Durham, 1750 — 85. Wm. Stalker and John Michison. Com. cup. — St. Mary-le-Bow, Durham city. Chocolate pot. dated 1 750. Paten, dated 1755. — Elsdon, North umb. d. 1755. Flagon, given 1763. — Long Benton, North- umb. Com. flagon, given 1761. — Billingham, Durli. Also cup and paten, dated 1762. — Blyth, Northumb. Also flagon, dated 1760. — South Shields. Also com. cup and flagon, given 1762. — Enderby, Leics. Com. cup, dated 1766. — Acaster Malbis, Yorks. Com. flagon. — Calverley. Yorks. Also com. cups, dated 1764. — Hexham, Northumb. Also alms-dish, given 1765. — Castle Eden, Durh. 1763—1765. 176.5—1767. 1768—1784. Com. plate given by Bp. of Durham. — St. Anne's, Newcastle. Flagon, dated 1771. — Rokeby, Yorks. 1772—1782. 1772 — 17S2. Marks used vs^hen he was for a short time partner with a man named Edwards. Flagon, St. Giles', Durham. Flagon, dated 1773.— Holy Trin., White- haven. Also 1773, com. cup, given 1773. — Belford, Northumb. Flagon, dated 1776. — St. Andi'ew's, New- castle. Paten, dated 1776. — Bothal, Northumb. Com. cup. — Laithkirk, Yorks. Spoons. 177.1_17S4. H 1795 Do. 1800 Maker's Mark and Name. (vi^ Lauglaiids and Robcrt- [i-rJ 8011,1778—1795.* Do. do. . I>R Do. Another mark for Ij a n g 1 a n d s a n d Robertson. Pinlaiey and Scott, 1779—1790. do. . . . ps^s RP IRSJ mi IR DD Another mark for Pinkney and Scott. Langlands and Robert- son, as 17S3. Christian Reid, from 1790. Robert Pinkney . . Robert Scott Thos. Watson . . . John Robertson and David Darlins:. ■Q. Y^l Another mark for I\^iJ| Robertson and Darling. (•w -n^ John Robertson, 179{> ll'KJ —1801. Article. Communion cuji. dated 1781. — Ovingham, Nor thumb. Alms-dish, dated 1784 (no king's head). — St. Andrew's, Newcastle. Flagon, dated 1785 (king's head incuse). — St. Mary's, Gateshead. Paten, dated 1788. — St. Andrew's, New- castle. Com. cup, dated 1789. — Holy Island. Flagon. — Greystoke, Cumb. 1790—1825. d. 1793. 1793—1815. Com. cup and cover, dated 1795. — Chester- le-Street, Durli. Alms-dishes, dated ISOO.— St. John's, Newcastle. SHEFFIELD AND BIRMINGHAM. Lastly, we have Sheffield and Birmingham, established by an Act of 1773 as the result of the parliamentary inquiry to which we have so frequently referred. This Actf enabled them to assay silver goods only, but Birmingham was further empowered to stamp gold in 1824, t by the Act under which that office is now regulated, and by which, so far as Birmingham is concerned, the earlier Act of 1773 was repealed. At Sheffield silver only is assayed to the present day. A district of thirty miles radius round the town was assigned to ]:}irmingham, and one of twenty miles to Sheffield, for the better support of the offices. Owing to their recent establishment their work has of course not yet had time to acquire any arclncological interest ; but their marks * Also entered at Goklsiuiths' Hall, London, iu March, 1780, "by letters of attorney." t 13 Geo. in. cap. 52 (local). X 5 Geo. IV. cap. 52 (local). e2 132 Old English Plate [chap. v. are — the maker's, which is to be the first letters of his Christian and surname, the lion passant, a distinct variable letter to be changed annually upon the election of new wardens for each company, and the mark of the Company. This mark is a crown in the case of Sheffield, whilst an anchor distinguishes articles assayed at Birming- ham. For silver of the higher standard, the Britannia stamp alone, unaccompanied by that of the lion's head erased, has been used by these offices. The Birmingham date-letters have been regular alphabets, but at Sheffield for the first half-century the letters were selected at random ; since 1824, however, both have used regular alphabets, though Sheffield has here and there omitted some letters. In both cases the letter is changed in July, at Sheffield on the first Monday in that month, on which day the annual meeting of the Com- pany is held. These offices have both carried on an extensive and well-conducted business, earning the commendation of those whose duty it was to report upon the working of the provincial assay offices, before a select Committee of the House of Commons which sat in 1850. The Diet is sent up from both Sheffield and Birmingham to the Mint for trial annually as their Act directs. This is one of the improve- ments and safeguards owed to the more modern legislation under which they were established. The other provincial offices are only liable to the obligation of sending their diet up to the Mint, " to be tried as the pix of the coin of this kingdom is tried," if required to do so by the Lord Chancellor, and it appeared in 1856 that it had never been sent for within living memory from any of them. Examples of ynEFFiELB Plate. Date. 1778 Do. 177.". 1777 1785 1792 1791 Maker's Mark and Name. Article. I IW&C" Probably John Winter | Table caudlesticks. — Col. A. Tremayne, I ' & Co.. cot. 1773.* Carcle^v. Do. G:A &C Do. — New College, Oxfonl. Geo. Ashfield & Co., : Do. — Rev. E. F. Wayne, ent. 1773.* HT T Sauce boats, drapery over medallions. — Capt. M. Longfield. IIP&C°I Do. lIGfrC'l In plain square . . Tudor and Leader, ent. 1773.* .John Parson & Co., Table candlesticks. — Sir Geo. Chet- ent. 1783.* wode, Bt. Do. Do. John Green & Co., ent. Do., given 1705. — Corpn. of Osvi'estry. 1702.* i EiujUsliGoldsiniths. K. C. Hope, F S.A. CHAP, v.] General Remarks. ^d>Z (iP]NERAL ]|E:\IARIv^ Two general remarks must here be made upon the subject-matter ©f this and the precedmg chapter : one is, that it must not be supposed that there is not plenty of genuine plate, bearing old English pro- vincial marks, to be found in modern collections ; and if the writer has based his remarks chiefly on ancient specimens of church-plate, and in other cases upon specimens of which it can safely be said that they have never changed hands at all, it is only that the absolute authenticity of the data relied on may be ensured beyond all possible question. The other remark is a caution that in the case of specimens of provincial make of which the date-letter is doubtful, no help can be obtained from the alphabets of the Groldsmiths' Company in London. The York and Norwich Tables, which will be found in Appendix !>., are enough to show that in respect of their date-letters the provincial goldsmiths used different alphabets from those adopted by their metropolitan brethren. They occasionally, in the seventeenth century, sent up their wares to be touched in London, and in that case they seem to have registered the same mark at Goldsmiths' Hall as that by which they were known to the local assay-wardens. Two such instances, both of goldsmiths in the north of England, and one of a Scottish goldsmith, have come under the writer's notice. The following tabular summary of the marks dealt with in this chapter, is constructed on the same plan as the Tables already given at the end of Chapters IL and IV. 134 Old English Plate. [chap. t. a 2 te-tc^; <= g o »}| S^ 3 M 1 '^ii^ 1'^ -G 7 Is- 5^4 1 " c cc «« / £ g ■: S ^ •< u o o o 1 B33/ p^ ^ B^*^ '5 rl O 3 o g ..2 4-.r^ c 2 -4^ ■J s « s c; :^ .2 s Q s ^ u -* v. Y FROS 1, 178 1890. o d 1| O 02 P P ^ o d ^ -^ .-*5 p p P _lj ^ .2 i .d 03 .s i C ^ o '3 'f. d c ;:g d S oi "h' cs t C rt -*^ ci ^ ."t; c: rt a ."t; •C fi o .t^ c S •C CI '-' R W .2 « _c K .2 « h^ h-1 Hi !5 E-i ■73 O -1— CC O O rt 2 S ^ S lp^ § i 5 1 s '►3 g s 3 8 « S 8 " •^ yA i-:i EH 5^ cc o d • .(Ml — n y:r . IM > -♦< o ^^ s s'S ^ So s'S a CO ft 'S ^ CC 5lo- O: P -^ O K M H isi H W O « H o o CHAP, v.] Tabic of Provincial Marks. 135 rt •y — a '^ s I^Ss 5 > t- y: c3 c: ^ "cr /fua^ - T- 5 rt > c )£ c^ fE3r^&\ '-'; ^* 2 ^ y W 5 S il s 5 k's"^ -> *^ (^c^l?^ C5 -i- I'll {13 / c-" -*-■ t- c: _s ^ i '> « 'r CO ^5 ■^ ci ~ ^ ^"^ d ~p rt d S ri4 -3 tn K 6C 03 -<- •< 0: br. 3 5f C j; S3 c T hS " _2 .-— - ci = >-i C ^ rt > ~Z -r. FKOM , 1784 890. 'p 5 1 '*^ _g'B j3 _C Duty Dec. 1 TO 1 c p P ci ^ If. ;s H 3 If d c r rt 5 ci 1 5 P p 1- -M 3 v: "ii '~^ -i-j c « ci s ^ ^ - ■/■; ^ ^ ~ : cs .5 en ^ c S 5"-f ^ ct +j +j -ti ■ — ci ci ci ci ^^ CO ^ : 5 '-^ c: '~ S 3 5 V V V < —^ "c IS C-'l s^ S5 i . !_' -* i t "^ "IT— • H - "" ^ r— ' &D ^ v. -— ' a: c: j:3 , — • • — ' ^ ^ -t; 1^ ^ ^ ? X g ' ' 2 ^ !^ S g . b "Z -i^ ., -j! ^ "If C - -^ rt cj > ■ rij i: '_; rt tH > • - ^i^ E Cfj J C-1 00" «:£ ^ 1 ^ >^9 ^ s •• "^ '^'^ ., ^ > te Eh m3 '-< x^=J_- A '-^' 4: a? 02 H c3 ^ ci ^ 2 ,2 ^ cs?ii C ;^' — • 2; o^^' ■J. -T. r^"!)! •< t c o^-"" 3 r? ' 0" 1 X ■-. X r-H •- a ■- i: +- "^?i _> ^ r-- " C ci 02 fi ■« SS 22 mP '0 c to R.9 ^p ^^ '/} 02 fJ CHAPTER VI. SCOTLAND. SCOTCH LEGISLATIOX — THE EDINBURGH GOLDSMITHS— THEIR MARKS, DEACONS AND ASSAY-MASTERS — OLD PROVINCIAL MARKS — MODERN GLASGOW — TABLE OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW MARKS. In Scotland attention Avas paid at an early period to the fineness of wrought gold and silver, and steps were taken by the Legislature to prevent frauds in the working of those metals. For in the reign of King James II., a.d. 1457,* a statute was passed hy the parliament of Scotland, enacting that " anent the reformation of gold and silver wrocht be Goldsmithes, and to eschew the deceiving done to the kingis lieges, there sail be ordained in ilk burgh, quhair Goldsmithes workis ane understandard, and a cunning man of gude conscience quliilk sail be Deakone of the craft. And quhen the warke is brocht to the goldsmithe and it be gold, what gold that beis brocht till him he sail give it foorth again in warke na war nor xx grains, and silver xi grains fine.! And the said Goldsmith sail take his warke or he give it foorth and passe to the deakone of the craft and gar him examine that it be sa fine as before written. And the said deakone sail set his marke and taken thereto togidder with the said Goldsmithes. And gif faulte be founden therein afterwards, the deakone aforesaid and Goldsmithes gudes sail be in escheit to the King, and their lives at the kingis will and the said deakone sail have to his fee of ilk ounce wrocht an penny. And quhair there is no Goldsmithes bot ane in a towne, he sail shew that warke takened with his awin marke to the head officiates of the towne quhilkis sail have a marke in like manor ordained therefore and sail be set to the said warke. And quhat Goldsmith that givis foorth his warke utherwaies then is before written his gudes sail be confiscat to the King and his life at the Kingis will." We have thus early, therefore, a maker's mark established, and in addition to it, a deacon's mark in towns * Fourteenth rarliament, VI. of March, 1457. Q5. Of the Deacon of Goldsmithes ; and of the marking of their warke. t That is : 20 grains or parts of fine gokl in 24 ; 11 of pure silver in 12. CHAP. VI.] Edinburgh. ^57 Avliere goldsmiths are cstablisbcxi or a town mark in places whore hat a single goldsmith resides. In 1483 the thirteenth parliament' of the next reign, that of James III., further ordains as follows : " that for the eschewing of the great damnage and skaithes that our Sovereign Lordis lieges susteiu be the goldsmithes in the minishing the fines of the silver warke that fra thine furth there be in ilk burgh of the realm quhair goldsmithes ar, ane deakon and ane searcheour of the craft. And that ilk goldsmithes warke be marked with his awin marke, the deakone's marke and the marke of the Towne of the finesse of twelve-penny fine. And quhair there is ony sik warke within the said finesse, the warke to be broken the w^orkman to upmake the avail of the finesse aforesaid, and the said workman to be punished therefore at the King's will." It further provides that no goldsmith be a master, nor hold open booth unless he be admitted by the officers of the craft and the whole body of it. This same year we come to the grant by the Town Council of Edinburgh, of certain privileges to the goldsmiths and members of some other trades, all being included under the name of '"Hammer- men," in answer to a petition in which they con:iplained of infractions upon the " auld gudo rule " of their craft. Next follows, in 1489, another statute, f to the same effect as the earlier ones, providing "that ilk goldsmith have ane special marke, signe and taiken to be put in his said warke quihilk he makis. And they samin warkes to be of fines of the new warkes of silver of Bruges. And that there be ane deakon of the craft of goldsmithes quihilk sail examine the said warke and fines thereof and see that it be als gude as the said wark of ]>yiu/es. And thereafter the samin deakon to put his marke smd signe on the said warke, and to answer thereupon his lift; and gudes. And as touching the warke of gold, that it be maid als fine as it is first molten in the presence of the awner, like as the touch and assaie given to him quhen it is first molten." In 1555, an Actt to regulate " the finesse of goldsmith's warke and the marke thereof" proceeds: — "Forasmuch as there is great fraud and hurt done unto the lieges of the realm by goldsmiths that make silver and gold of no certain finesse but at their pleasure by which there is some silver warke set furth of such baseness of allov * XXIV. Feb., 148:5. 1)6. Of (iol.l- .smiths. "i" James IV. Second railiaiuciit, XV. Fell., 11>^!». l:!. of (ioldsniithes. J .Mary, Sixth rarliainent, XX. June, 138 Old English Plate. [chap. vi. viz., of six and seven penn}- fine against the public weal of the realm, it is ordained that na goldsmith make in warke nor set foorth either of his awin or uther mennis silver under the just finance of elleven pennie fine under the paine of death and confiscation of all their gudes moveable. And that everie goldsmith marke the silver warke that he makis with his awin marke and with tlie townis marke. . . . And als that na goldsmith make in warke or set furth of his awin or uther mennis gold under the just finesse of twentie twa carat fine under the pains aforesaid." Then come letters-patent of King James VI., granted in 1586, and ratified by parliament in the following year, to the deacon and masters of the Goldsmiths' craft in Edinburgh, which gave farther effect to these statutes by empowering that body to search for gold and silver work, and to try whether it were of the fineness required by law and to seize all that should appear deficient ; this gave them a monopoly of their trade and the entire regulation of it, separating them finally from all association with the "hammermen" or common smiths. The working rules of the craft received in 1591 the ratification of the Town Council ; but they contain no further mention of marks to be used. We may remark that George Heriot, a name so well known in the mystery, was " deykin " of the goldsmiths in Edinburgh that same year. This most distinguished of all the Scotch goldsmiths was born in 1563, and was eldest son of another George Heriot, who belonged to the Company of Goldsmiths in Edinburgh. The younger Heriot has already been mentioned ; but it may be interesting to note in this chapter that his father, who died in 1610, was also a man of eminence, having been a commissioner in the convention of estates and parliament of Scotland, and a convener of the trades of Edinburgh at five diftereut elections of the council.* Lastly, the Ch arter of Incor- poration of the Goldsmiths of Edinburgh, granted by James VII., in 1687, confirms their previous privileges and extends their powers over the whole kingdom of Scotland. It seems clear that at this time but little plate, and henceforward none at all, Avas assayed, except in Edinburgh, until the establish- ment of the office at Glasgow in the present century. In earlier times several towns used marks in compliance with the early Acts of Parliament, but few instances of plate bearing them are now to be found : such as there are will be noted presently. The earliest marks, therefore, were the maker's and deacon's punches only, to which the mark of the town is added in 1-483 ; ''■ Hone's Every Buy Book, ii., 747. CHAP. VI.] EdinbiirgJi. 139 though we must not forget, as a piece of antiquarian information, the mention of a town mark as early as the Act of 1457. The introduction of a variable date-letter seems nearly coincident with the granting of the charter of James VII., the first mention of it being in Sept., 1681, when a small black letter a was adopted as the letter for the ensuing year. It has been changed regularly ever since on the first hall-day in October. In the Goldsmiths" books, there is a wonderfully consecutive record of the date-letters used from that time forward, but no note of the shape of the shields surrounding them, except for impressions from the actual punches used in the earliest cycle, which are struck upon the pages containing the minutes. A new and carefully corrected Table was prepared expressly for this volume, by the late Mr. James H. Sanderson, well known as one of the best authorities on the subject of Scotch plate, and time has only proved its accuracy. The extensive MS. collections made by this painstaking antiquary with a view to a complete history of Scottish plate and its marks, which unfortunately proved too great a work for a lifetime, passed at his death into the possession of the present writer. Such a history has since been accomplished for Scottish Communion-plate and its marks by Rev. T. Burns,* and !Mr. A. J. S. Brook, in a work which was mentioned as forthcoming in the preface to the fourth edition of Old Etu/UsJi Plate. The authors of this monumental volume have really exhausted their subject, but have hardly done as much justice to the labours of their predecessor as they would if they had been aware of the extent of ground covered by Mr. Sanderson, and of the mass of information as to Scottish plate and plate marks collected by him, much of it very laboriously, in the course of journeys made on foot in every part of Scotland. Almost all the marks noticed by Mr. Brook had been found, and the difficulties connected with many of them discussed, in almost the same detail by Mr. Sanderson ; whilst much of Mr. Sanderson's work that the present writer had hesitated to use, until he had the ojDportunity of verifying it, has been so entirely corroborated by Mr. Brook's researches, as to place the accuracy of either inquirer l^eyond question. We have now enumerated four of the marks to be found on plate assayed in Edinburgh, — the maker's, the deacon's, the castle, and the (late-letter. Two others have to be mentioned, one an alteration, and * ■ Old iicottlsh Communion Plate, liy Kev. T. ]5urns, Edinburgh, 1892, fioiu which many dates and names arc added to entries given in the earlier editions of tliis chapter, aiul as far as possible in square brackets in order to show tiieir origin. 140 Old English Plate. [chap. vi. the other an addition. In 1759, the deacon's mark was abolished, the standard mark of a thistle being substituted for it ; and in 1784, as in England, the Sovereign's head was ordained as a duty mark. Returning to the course of legislation there is nothing to notice, and the old laAvs seem to have remained in force, until the date of the general enactment* which now, to quote from its title, fixes the standard qualities of gold and silver plate in Scotland, and provides for the marking and assaying thereof. Its provisions much resemble those of the Acts establishing the more modern of the English provincial assay offices, except as regards the standard and the city mark. It prohibits the sale not only of plate manufactured in Scot- land, but of any plate without the marks of one of the Scotch assay offices, so that no plate made in London or elsewhere out of Scotland can be sold in Scotland, unless it be re-assayed and stamped at the Edinburgh or Glasgow offices. Of the Glasgow offices, established in 1819, presently. The Act recapitulates the marks to be used, and they are as follows : — For (juld of 22 carats, the five stamps of which mention has been made^ — the maker's initials, the town, the standard, the duty, and date marks. For gold of 18 carats, the same, with the additional stamp of the figures 18. For silrcr of the old standard, the same stamps as for gold of 22 carats. For silver of the new standard, the same stamps with the additional mark of Britannia. It may be remarked that the higher standard silver has been but little used in Scotland. To sum up in chronological form, the Edinburgh marks are : — 1. Maker's mark, from 1457. 2. Standard mark, being deacon's initials from 1457 to 1681 ; and assay-master's from 1681 to 1759, when the thistle was substituted for it. 8. The town mark of a castle, from 1483. 4. The date-letter, from 1681-2. 5. The duty mark of the Sovereign's head, from 1784, as in England. * 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 69. CHAP. VI.] Edinburgh. 141 As so much of our means of dating old Scotch pLatc depends upon the Deacon's mark, the first thing to do is to give a list of the Deacons of the craft from early times down to the year 1681, when the Deacon's initials ceased to be used as the standard mark ; and after doing so, it will be as well to give a tabular view of some typical examples of Edinburgh marks from 1617 to 1778, in order that the character of Scotch hall-marking may be seen at a glance, with short notices of the makers, deacons, and assay-masters of that period. In certain very exceptional cases the Deacon's mark appears instead of the usual Assay-Master's mark, later than 1681. When any mark except that of the proper Assay-Master appears, it is always that of the goldsmith who was Deacon at the time, who seems therefore to have been pre- pared to act as Assay-Master in any emergency. Cases occur in 1717 when P. Turnbull was Deacon and stamps plate as Assay-Master, and also in 1740 to 1744 when Dougal Ged and Edward Lothian were Deacons successively and in their years acted as Assay-Masters. Li.sT OF Edinburgh Deacox.-^.* 152.-). Adam Lies [Lels]. 1572. Adam Crak;. 1.-.2G. Thomas Kynd. 1573. Do. 1521). MiCHAELL Gilbert. 1574. David Dexmstox. i.-:;m. .James Collie [Cokkte]. 1575. George Heriot. ir/di. Allaxe Mossmax. 1577. William Colik [CokieJ l.-)S2. JoHX Lyle [Kyle]. 1578. Do. ' ir>-M. George Heriot. 1571). J] D WARD HaIRT. lo3.->. Thomas Rtxd. 1580. Do. 1544. JoHx Lyle [Kyle]. 1581. David Dexnelstoux. 1547. Archibald Maysoxn. 1582. Edward Hairt. 1548. JoHx Gilbert. 1583. [Thomas Axxaxd. 1 550. JoHx Lyle [Kyle]. 1584. George 44eriot. 1551. Michaell R\ts-d. 1585. John MosMAXJ.f 1 552. Thomas Ewing. 1586. loX M08MAX. 1 55:1 Do. 1587. Adame Ckaige. 1554. Do. 158S. Do. 1 55(;. Thomas Eynd. 158;). George Hrkiot. S,,. 155S. :\IiCHAELL Gilbert. 15'.i(). Do. 15G1. Thomas Ewixr. I5;ti. William Colik [Cukie] 1562. George Rind. 15!)2. Do. 1563. James Collie [Cok]. 15'.»3. Do. 1564. Do. 15'.)4. Do. 156.5- 6-7. George Hi!;riot. 1.5!)5, Clauderoxe Ueyeard. 1568. James Mosma.v. 15'J6, [David Heriot]. * The small discrepancies between this list and the list as it appears in Old Scottish Communion Plate are given in square brackets. t These three names ai>pear in the city records as goldsmiths, members of tlie tow n council : .so tliey were proltably tlie Deacons, but there arc no minutes of the Goldsmiths for these years. — W. J. C. 142 Old English Plate. [chap. VI. i:.07. Daxiell Craufuird, J«- 1642. ,JAS. Dexxistoux. ]o!)8. George Hertot, J"- 1643. Do. l.oO'.l. David Hekiot. 1644. Adam Lamb. 1600. Do. 164.5. Do. 1601. George Foullis. 1646. .John Scott. 1602. Do. 1647. Do. 1603. George Heriot. 1648. George Cleghorx. 1601. EoBEET Colie. 1649. Do. 1605. George Foullis. 16.50. Jas. Fairbairx. 1606. Do. 16.51. Do. 1607. George Heriot. 1652. Do. 1608. EOBERT DEXXISTOUN, 1653. AXDREW BURXETT 1609. Do. [Burrell]. 1610. George Foullis. 1654. Do. 1611. David Palmer. 1655. George Cleghorx, 1612. Do. 1656. Do. 1613. James Denxtstoux, 1657. .Jas, Fairbairx. 1614. Do. 1658. Do. 161.5. George Cravpfurd. 1659. AXDREW BURXETT 1616. Do. [Burrell]. 1617. JOHX LiXDSAY. 1660. Do. 1618. Do. 1661. Eatrick Borthwick. 1619. JAS. Dexxistoun. 1662. Do. 1620. Do. 1663. Edward Cleghorx. 1621. George Crawfurd. 1664. Do. 1622. Do. l(;i;5. Jas. Symoxtoxe. 1623. Gilbert Kirkwoode. i6(i(;. Do. 1624. Do. 1667. Alex. Scott. 162.5. Alex. Eeid. 1668. Do. 1626. Do. 1669. Alex. Eeid. 1627. Adam Lamb. 1670. Do. 1628. Do. 1671. Edward Cleghorx. . 1629. Alex. Eeid. 1672. Do. 1630. Do. 1673. Thos. Cleghorx. 1631. Jas. Dexxistoux'. 1674. Edward Cleghorx [Alex 1632. Do. Eeid] 16.33. George Crawfurd. 1675. W. Law. 1634. Do. 1676. Do. 163.0. Adam Lamb. 1677. Alex. Eeid. 1636. Do. 1678. Do. 16.37. JoHX Scott. 1679. Edward Cleghorx. 1638. Do. 1680. Do. 1639. Adam Lamb. 1681. Thos. Yourston. 1640. Thos. Cleghorx. 1682. Do. 1641. Do. There seems to be some small doubt as to who was Deacon in certain years ; but the above list, which the author owes greatly to the care of Dr. Norman Macpherson, is nearly correct, compared as it is through- out with that of Mr. Brook in Old Scottish Communion Plate. The Deacons Avere appointed in the month of September in each year. All the Deacon's marks that have been noted by the author CHAP. VI.] Edinburgh. 143 Avill be found engraved in one or other of tlie two following lists of marks. To illustrate the use of the Deacon's mark in dating old Scotch plate, it is the proper place to turn here to our tabular view of marks on old plate. The sets of marks are numbered to correspond with the biographical notes which belong to and follow them. The maker's mark is as a rule found on the left of the Edinburgh mark, and the deacon's or assay-master's on the right of it. l._1617. E(linbura:h City mace. 2. — 1G18. Fyvie com. cup. 3._16.33. Triuity College bread- plate. 4._1642. Tolbooth Church com. cups, Edinburgh. 5. — 1646. Newbattlc com. cup. 6. — 1657. Duubar com. cups. 7. — KwZ. Pittcnweem com. cup. 8. — 1686. Duii])lanc com. cui '.). — Kill:.'. Culross com. cups, dated IGIK). ] I ). — 1717. Lcgerwood com. cups, dated 1717. 11.— 172S. William Aytoun. (GC lAR; m IS IL It IT/ Sy mM J'T) [uuy\ PT) TT^ (Ft) N ^R(Efi)E J 144 Old EiiL^lish Flak. [chap. VI. 12. — 17iir>. James Kerr. i:>. — 174(!. Edwfird Lothian. ]4._1760. Eobt. Goraon. 1.'. — 1778. Patrick Robertson. (tjmj; Lil Hi® PR m 1. GronieEohertsoH was master of the Cuinzielious (coining-lioiise), and made the Mace belonging to the city of Edinburgh in the year 1617. Between that date and 1629 we have his punch six times, as the maker of church-plate. [He was admitted 1616. ] The deacon GC in monogram was George Crawford. We find his punch on church-plate nine times between 1617 and 1638. He was Deacon in 1615-6 and 1621-2 as well as later in 1633-4. His mark occurs again at No. 3 in this list. iHe was admitted 1606.] 2. Gilbert Klrhvoodc was deacon of the Goldsmiths' Craft in the years 1623-4. He made the Fyvie parish communion-plate (Aberdeen- shire) in the year 1618, and that of the parishes of Marnock and Beith in 1623-4 ; we have his punch many times between those dates ; at Marnock and Beith as both maker and deacon. [He was admitted 1609.! The deacon's mark I"L occurs a number of times, circa 1618 ; his name was Johune Lyndsay, deacon 1617-18. [He was admitted 1605.: 3. Maker's mark is found on several examples in 1633, including the plate in the Tron Church, Edinburgh, at Forgue Church, and at Marnock, all dated pieces of 1633. [His name Thos. Kirkwoode, adm. 1632.] The deacon's mark is the same as in the first example ; being the mark as deacon of George Crawford. It occurs on many pieces of 1633. 4. From the Tolbouth parish communion-plate (Edinburgh). The maker PB crowned, for Peter Borthwick. [Admitted 1642.] We have his punch four times between the years 1642 and 1662, in this last year at Fogo both as maker's and deacon's mark, being struck twice on the same piece. In 1615 he appears as maker at Haddington with Adam Lamb for deacon. ciiAr. VI.] Ediiibuvf^li. 145 The deacon's punch is that of James Fairbairn,* admitted master in 1()41. It occurs on so many pieces of church-plate dated 1(342 and 1643, that it is ahnost certain he was acting as deacon for James Dennistoun in those years. He was then the youngest master. This same form of his mark occurs at Dahnellingtun in 1650, when he was deacon for the first time himself. It is different in a later period of office. 5. George Cleghorn was deacon of the craft in the year 1648-9, and again 1655-6 ; we have his punch as G'C three times on church- plate, from 1646 to 1650. He made a cup for Newbattle Church in 1646, and some Old Grey Friars Church plate in 1649 bears his mark as deacon. [He was admitted in 1641.] The deacon's monogram we have five times between 1629 and 1646, name Adam Lamb ; it occurs on the Dunfermline plate in 1629, on the Haddington Church plate in 1645, and in connection with the mark of George Robertson on an alms-dish now at St. Patrick's Church, Brighton, but formerly the property of the church of Duffus, co. Elgin. This is probably of the year 1629. 6. Vunhar parish Communion plate, maker's punch [John Wardlaw, adm. 1642J occurs from 1644 to 1657. It is found with London marks at Canongate Church, Edinburgh. Deacon's punch, James Fairbairn, as above. No. 4. It occurs in 1659 at Dalgety, and it is heart-shaped in this second period of office. 7. Alexander Heed [admitted 1660] was deacon of the craft in 1677-H and other years, and made some of the Pittenweem parish church-plate, dated 1677. His mark is found 1670 to 1677 — -in 1670 as both maker and deacon, and again as deacon in 1674. The deacon's mark is for W. Law ; we have his punch, usually us a maker, five times between the years 1667 and 1681. It occurs in 1673 at Mid Calder, and in 1667 at Glencross. [He was admitted 1662.] 8. i'Vo;n 7J«»/>/(nt(j parish church Communion-plate. Maker's name James Penman. He appears as a maker five times between the years 16K5 and 1695, and as assay-master sixteen times from 1695 to 1707. The date-letter is a defective one for 1686. The deacon's, or rather in this case and henceforwards, the assay- master's, mark is -J6 in a shaped border ; we have his punch twenty times between the years 1681 and 1(596. [His name was John iiorthwick] assay-master 1681-96. From 1681 a date-letter appears. * Mr. IJrouk iittiibutcs this Deacon's But the mark occurs on ;i cui) at Duliiiclling- iiiark to one Jolin Frazcr, adm. 1()24, who ton dated 1650, when Fairbairn was certainly acted, he thinks, at some iieriod as a Deacon. .John Frazer was maker of a cuii Deacon though never mentioned as such. of ItJjS, formerly at aMouilietli. O.E.r. L 146 Old English Plate. [chap. vi. 9. Rohcii Ingles [Inglis, adm. 1686] was deacon of the craft iu 1691, and again 1701 ; we .have his punch seven times, as a maker, between the years 1692 and 1719. It is on Communion-plate at Cromdale, in Morayshire, given in 1708. Assay-master as in No. 8. 10. Patrick TurnhiiU [adm. 1689] as found on the Legerwood parish church communion-plate. He must have acted as assay- master for a time iu 1717, in an interregnum, owing perhaps to an illness or absence of the proper assay-master, Edward Penman ; but it seems rather an inexplicable circumstance, as no other indication of such an interruption occurs, except once later between 1741 and 1744. 11. WiUicun Aijton [adm. 1718] who was deacon of the craft in the years 1730-1. We have his punch four times between the years 1729 and 1733. The assay-master EP [Edward Penman] held that office from 1708 to 1729. During that period we have his punch six times as a maker, and twenty-four times as assay-master. 12. James Kerr [adm. 1723] was deacon of the craft three times, and for two years at each time, in the years 1734-5, 1746-7, and in 1750-51. He was also a Member of Parliament ; we have his punch six times between the years 1721 and 1745. The mark AU [Archibald Ure] appears as that of the assay-master from 1729 to 1740. During that period Ave have his punch twelve times as such. From 1741 to 1744 it is uncertain w^io was assay- master, but Dougal Ged seems to have acted as such in 1741, and Edward Lothian in 1742 and 1743.* 13. Edward Lothian [adm. 1731] was deacon of the craft in the years 1742-3, and from the Hammermen's Arms (a hammer with Imperial Crown) which the device over his initials is intended to represent, he had been a member of that corporation ; we have his punch both as maker and deacon, in all five times, from 1744 to 1759, and then with the standard mark (the thistle) introduced in 1759, instead of the deacon's or assay-master's mark, as in the next example. The assay-master, Hugh Gordon [adm. 1727] was deacon of the craft in 1732-3, and seems to have been in office as assay-master 1744 to 1759. During that period we have his punch sixteen times. * It seems to the author that in that | on better authority, says that from 1740-44, interval tlie Deacon for the year, Dougal Ged | pending a dispute, plate was stamped by the and E. Lothian successively, acted as assay- [ oldest and youngest masters. See list of master, but Mr. A. J. S. Brook, no doubt | examples on p. 150, 1741 to 1743. CHAP. VI. J Ediiibuvain in 1764-5 ; being two years in office each time ; we find his punch fourteen times as maker between the years 1766 and 1700. Examples of EdixbuiUtH I'latu. prior to 1G81. With Maker's and Deacon's Marks. 1561 ir)86 ? 15!) (",-9 .' c. ICIO l()17-8 lGl!)-2() 1(523-1 1633 i(;:58 1642-3 Do. Do. .' 1645 mm a GK' A:. Maker, Alex. Auchinleck. Deacon, Thos. Ewing. Mazer, dated 1567.— St. Mary's Coll., St. Andrew's.* Maker and Deacon, |)rol:)ab]y John Mosman. Com. cup, undated. — Rosneath. [Maker. Huy-h Lyndsay. adm. 1587. Deacon, David Heriot, a i'°- GS Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. 1)0. J>o. Sec No. lo. p. 1 I [John liawe, adm. 1(51)2.] Com. cup, gift of Hay. — : Falkland. I I [James Sympsoiie, adm. 1(587.] Church-plate, dated i 1(598. — lienholin. I I (Kobert Ingles.) Church-plate, dated 1(594. — Preston- j kirk. I (Thos. Cleghorn, adm. 1(589.) Com. cups. — Preston- | pans.* [Thos. Ker, adm. 1694.] Trinity College Church plate, dated 1(598. Also 1704 Com. cups, given 170.5.— St. Michael's, Dumfries. Assay-master, James Penman, ] 69(5— 1708. [Geo. Scott, adm. 1(597.] Communion cup, dated 1702. — New North Kirk, Edinburgh. [.J. Penman.] Com. plate, dated 1702. — Dunning. Perthshire. (Thos. Cleghorn, as in l()9."i.) Dalmeny Church plate, presented by Lord Kosebery. 1702. Also 1703 Com. cujjs, dated 1 703. — Mertoun Kirk, St. Boswell's. Com. cup, given 1702. — Pittenweem. Com. cup, given 1704. — New North Kirk, Pldiuburgh. (Maker as in 1701.) New North Kirk Communion cup, dated 1704. [Alex. Kincaid, adm. 1(592.] Carmichael Church plate, dated 1 70.'). [James Taitt, adm. 1704.] Kattray Church plate. Also 1731 Com. cups. — Crichton. (Robert Ingles, as in 1(594.) Communion cup, Crom- dale, Morayshire, given bv Jean Houston, Lady Grant, 1708\ (Maker as in 1(390.) Connnunion cups, dated 1708. — Lady Tester's Ch., Edinburgh. Assay-master, Edward Penman, 1708-29. [Mungo Yourstone, adm. 1702.] Baptismal lavei", dated 1708. — New North Kirk, pAlinburgh. Eddleston Communiou cups, dated 1709. Also 1711 Com. cups, dated 1714. — .Maryton. [Ilobt. Ker. adm. 1 Com. cups. — Irongray. [Alex. Forbes, adm. IC'.iL'.J Candlesticks. — Cluny. (Robert Ingles, as in 1(594.) Abbotsliall (near Kirk- aldy) Church |>late, dated 1717. (Patrick Turnbull.) Legerwood Com. cups, dated 1717. (Robert Ingles, as in 1(594.) Errol Church plate, dated 1718. [John Seatouiie Corstorphiiie. 11. 1(588.] Com. cups, dated 1719.' T. Cleghorii's bill fur tlicse, .latcd and iccciptud July, 1G9."., is still preserved. I50 Old Eno-lish Plate. [chap. VI. 1718 1710 1720 1721 1722 Uo. 172G 1727 1728 1729 1732 1733 1735 1736 Do. 1741 Do. 1742 1743 Do. Do. 1747 1749 1751 Do. 1752 1753 RI AS ^ Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. (PS) "■ (AE) -■ IB ^ Do. Do. I-K Do. 1 >o. Do. Do. IHPI WA GED LO EL Do. Do. 1 Do. EL EL Do. Do. [CL] IG] ri?z?^ Do. ICLARKI m Do. Do. Do. (Robert Ingles, as iu 1694.) Galashiels Church plate, dated 1719. [Wm. Ged, a(hii. 1700.] Punch bowl of the Eoyal Company of Archers, tlated 1 720. [Alex. Simpson, adm. 1710.] Pencaitland Church plate, dated 1721. [Harry Beatone, adm. 1704.] Kelso Church plate, presented by Christiana Kerr, " daur. of the Master of Chatto and widow of Frogden, 1722." [Colin Campbell, adm. 1714.] Spoons. — Alexander Drysdale, Esq. Also 1723 Com. cups, dated 1723. — Dalziel. [Chas. Dickson, adm. 1719.] Com. cup. dated 1722. — Ayr. [Qy. Harry Beatone.] Forteviot (Perth) Church plate, given 1727. [Patrick Gream, adm. 172.")). Table-spoons. — Manpiis of Breadalbane. [Alexr. Edmonstoune, adm. 1721.] Com. cups, dated 1729.— Anstruther Easter. (James Jverr.) St. Xinian's Church plate. Also 1733 Com. cups, given 1734. — Aiichinleck. Assay-master Archibald Ure, 1729-40. [.John Main, adm. 1729.] Kincardine Church plate, given 1733. Also 1733 Com. cup, dated 1734. — Pan- bride. (Wm. Ayton.) Com. cup. — Kilrinney. (James Kerr, as in 1729.) Bowl on feet. — Castle Grant. (Do.) Set of salvers. Do. [Hugh Penman, adm. 1734.] Com. cups, dated 1737. — Kinross. (Maker as in 1733, Dougal Ged, Deacon 1740-1, acting as Assay-master.) Com. cup, dated 1 742. — Newburgh. [Maker, Laurence Oliphant, adm. 1737.] Deacon as last. Com. cup, dated 1742. — Alloa. [Maker, Robt. Gordon, adm. 1741, as on p. 144.] Edw. Lothian, Deac(jn 1742-3, acting as Assay-master, Beakers, dated 1744, — Auldearn. [Maker, Edw. Lothian, and again as Deacon for Assay- master as above.] Com. cujjs, dated 1744. — Kendjach. Do. Do. Com. cups, dated 1744. — Kirk- cudbright. Do, Do. Silver club, dated 1744. — Edin- burgh Golf Club. (Juthrie Church ])late, dated 1748. Assay-master, Hugh Gordon, 1744-59. [Ker and Dempster.] Old Church, Edinburgh, Com- munion cups, dated 1750. [John Clark, adm. 1751.] Forks. Noted by author. [Ebenezer Oliphant. adm. 1737.] Kettle and stand. Noted by author. (Dougal Ged, adm. 1734.) Spoons. [James Gillsland, adm. 174S.] Pepper-box. — Sir George Home, Bart. Also 1762 Com. cups, dated 1763.— Gordon. CIIAl'. VI.] Edinbuvgli. i^i 17.->4 1755 1700 17f;2 1763 1765 1766 177(1 1771 1776 1777 1783 1784 1785 178S 1789 17!)(» Do. 17II1 1795 1799 mm fAlj] Do. K&D Do. \m)\ PR [nil PR Do. Do. FH Do. Do, [Lothian and Robertson.] Lochgoilhead Church plate, given by Sir James Livingstone, of Glenterran. T.art 1754. [Ker and Dempster.] Double-handled [lorringer. — Castle Grant. [Alexr. Aitcheson. adm. 1746.] Com. cup. dated 1761. — I>anL:t(in. [William Drummond. \ ^t-fjl'tl'^^erCs I'arish Chapel of Ease adm 1760 1 " -r^'li'iburgh, Communinn plate, dated ■-' ) 1 763. (Do.) Do.. ba]itismal laver. dareil 1 7(;3. (Maker as in 1755.) Auchiideek Church plate, fmm Lady Auchinleck, ''given by Lord Auehinleck, 1766." (Patrick Robertson. \ Cake-basket. — Messrs. Mackay and adm. 1751.) ) Chisholm. (Do.) Spoon. — Capt. Gordon, of Cluny. [James Welsh, adm. 1746.] Plain bowl.— Castle Grant. [William Davie, adru. 1740.] Oxnam Church plate, dated 1776. (Patiick Robertson, as in 1766.] Maueldine Church plate, dated 1777. (William Davie, as in 1776.) Cramond Church iilate. [James Hewitt. a0. King's College mace. (Walter Melville, Deacon, 1(;(;2.) Aberdeen, KKKI. Com. cup dated lOGt! ; Kllon, Aberdeenshire. (George Walker, adni. 1<18.">.) Aberdeen, 1()«0. Three medals. — Grammar School, Aberdeen. [Wm. Scott, adm. KWJC.] Aberdeen, l(38r>. Com. cup. KUdh, Aberdeenshire. (George Walker.) 154 Old English Plate. [chap. ti. Early in the eighteenth century some makers at Aberdeen used a shield with three small castles, not unlike the better known New- castle mark, instead of the letters ABD. Examples of this are the following : — 171."). [John Walker, adm. 1713.] Com. cups, (Tw) C?C dated 171.-..— Marykirk. M^ ^^ 1731. [Alex. Forbes, adm. 1728.] Com, cup, fnl (vlP^ffiF) dated I731.-St. Fergus. ItiJ Vl/ ViV K^ The mark of AF is also laiown with the three castles' mark and date-letter A on com. cups dated 1728 at Logie-Pert ; and with date- letter B on com. cups dated 1731 at Maryculter. Later in the century the town mark in script letters is found, as for example, at Dyce, in 1770 //l32)) [\V/] the mark of James Wild- goose, adm. 1763 ; and at Birnie, in 1778, with G^jCJ the mark of James Law, adm. 1777. Montrose. A mark formerly given in these pages as belonging either to Aberdeen or Montrose, seems now to be fairly identified by Mr. Brook as that of William Lindsay of Montrose from 1671 to 1708. It is found as follows, and the hammer shows that he belonged to the Hammermen's Society. Montrose, 1682. Fordowii Church jihitc, Kincar- dineshire. Montrose. 1(583. Com. cup. Aberlcmno. The Invcrrtess town mark was, like that of Aberdeen, a contraction INS, but has no mark over these initials. It is found on a commu- nion cup given in 1708 by a Lady Grant to Inverallan (Gran town) Church, Morayshire. It has a maker's mark [MiJ on each side of it, and the remains of a Roman letter C in a plain shield. This, it may be noted, is also the Edinburgh letter for 1707-8, so perhaps at that time Inverness used the same letters as the capital. This suggestion is rather confirmed by the marks on a com. cup at Forres, mentioned by Rev. T. Burns, showing a letter T in a plain shield on a repair dated 1724. This would be the Edinburgh letter for 1723-4. A more modern maker's mark met with is that of Charles Jamison, who was in business there about the year 1810. Besides his initials there is an animal (very small) something like a dromedary, vdiich happens riiAi'. vr.] Scoffisli Provincial Marks. :)D to be the dexter snpportcv of the Inverness arms. The animal is found usually turned to the left, hut sometimes to the right. liivenic-s. l.'^lo. — (Charles .Taiiiisdii.) (EJjTOS Inverness. Sunp la.-).">. Pair of Ijcaker cups. gi\en 1730. — Drainic by Elgin. iFg ^ gg Com. cup. dated l(i:)3. — Eintray. Aberdeensliire. 5r^ *** 5F^ MODERN GLASGOW. Lastly, we come to the establishment of a new assay office in Glasgow, by an Act of 1819 (59 Geo. III. c. 28), which formed a Company in that city whose powers should extend for forty miles round, and appoints the marks to be used by it. These marks have been used ever since, notwithstanding any references to Glasgow in the more general Act 6 k 7 Will. IV. The distinguishing mark was to be the arms of the city of Glasgow, — a tree, fish, and bell ; and its date-letters, complete alphabets of twenty-six letters each, have been regularly changed. They are given in Appendix B. A new alphabet of Italic capitals commenced in 1897. The standard mark is the lion rampant : these three, together with the maker's mark and Sovereign's head, make up the set of marks used there. ClUAP. VI.] EdinbuTf^Ji and Glasgoic Marks. 157 For silver of the higher staudard, the "Britannia" mark is, how- ever, added, and j^'old of eighteen carats is marked with the figures 18. The special remark must he made, that as the marks for gold of twenty- two carats have been, until quite latel}^, the same as those used for sterling silver, an article made of sterling silver stamped as such and afterwards gilt, often cannot, by the marks alone, be distinguished from gold. The figures 22 seem to be now used on gold of this quality. The parliamentary inquiry of 1773 did not extend to Scotland; but in 1848, both Edinburgh and Glasgow were in fair work, the former doing somewhat more than the latter. Edinburgh in 1847 had stamped nearly 29,000 ounces, and paid to the government a sum of i;2152. A tabular summary of the marks used in Edinburgh and Glasgow concludes the present chapter ; whilst the Tables of date-letters used will be found amongst other such Tables in Appendix B. at the end of the volume. Those readers who require still further information on the question of Scottish hall-marks cannot do better than refer to the large work of Eev. T. Burns on Old Scottish Commiiiiion, Phitc, Edinburgh, 18'J2. Tabi.e of Marks used in Edixbukc^h and (Ii,as(;ow. Offick. Edin- burgh. Glas- (JOW from 181!i. Quality. Standard. Silvci', O.S Ditto, N.S. liritaiiiiia. Date. Annual letter from 1C.81. Do. from 181!). Duty. Sove- reign's head from 1 78-1 to 1800. Do. from 181!) to 1890. Makek. Initials, some- times in mono- gram, from 14.-. 7. Do. from 18iy. Town Mark Castle from 1483. Tree, fish, and boll. For gold of 18 carats since (I & 7 Will. IV., and (juite recently of 22 carats, add those figures respectively to the marks for silver, O.S. For gold of the three lower standards, the (|uality is marked Inr I.-). 1l'. ur ',) caiats. with those figures, in addition to the marlcs for silvei', O.S. CHAPTER VII. IRELAND. THE goldsmiths' COMPANY OF DUBLIN — CORK — NEW GENEVA — TABLE OF DUBLIN MARKS. The Goldsmiths' Compauy of Dublin, incorporated by a charter from Charles I., dated 1638 (22 Dec, 13 Car. I.), has the entire regulation of the goldsmiths' trade in Ireland. Their Charter is given at full length by Mr. Kyland in the little book before alluded to,* from which some of the following details relating to it have been taken. The Company was to have the correction of all abuses within the kingdom of Ireland, and to exercise the same powers as the Gold- smiths' Company of London had in England. The incorporated members were William Cooke, John Woodcocke, William Hampton, James Vanderbegg, William Gallant, John Banister, Nathaniel Houghton, James Acheson, Clement Evans, George Gallant, Sylvanus Glegg, William St. Cleere, Gilbert Tongues, Edward Shadesy, Peter Vanemhown, Matthew Thomas, William Crawley, Thomas Duftield, John Cooke and John Burke, all styled of the city of Dublin, gold- smiths ; and the above-named William Cooke, John Woodcocke, William Hampton, and John Banister were appointed the first wardens. Their successors and future wardens were to take office on All Saints' Day. No gold or silver of less fineness than the standard in England was to be wrought, and the " King's Majesty's stamp called the Harp crowned now appointed by his said Majesty " was not to be put on any silver below his Majesty's standard. These privileges have been exercised to the present time, subject to the various subsequent Acts of Parliament which are presently to be noticed ; and the books of the Company have been kept with regularity even through troublous times. The early entries occasionally give the annual date-letters, as in 1644 and some succeeding years, but this is not often the case. In that year too, it is recorded that Thos. Parnoll, Daniell Bellingham, Gilbert Tongues, Robert Fossit, Nathaniell Houghton and Peter Vandyndowm had plate assayed. Two of these, therein called Gilbert Tongues and Peter Vandenhoven, Assay of Gold and Silver Wares, London, 1852. CHAP. VII.] Ireland. 159 ^vitll Sir John Veale, Knt., had been named in the previous year 1643 as goldsmiths, in a Proclamation relating to melting plate for the King. Notices of civic importance are not wanting, such as the riding of the franchises of the city of Dublin, in which the Company of Gold- smiths took a prominent part in 1649, and other years. In that year, we have a detailed account of the attendance of the Company with horse and armour, and after the names of those who bore their part in the cavalcade, including Gilbert Tongues as captain, and also a Captain Wafcerhouse, comes a note which serves to indicate that the goldsmiths were of no mean importance socially speaking, for it adds, " certain above-named were not of our corporation, but of their own goodness forsook more ancient corporations and rode as loving brothers in our company, viz., Captain "Waterhouse ; some were invited by Mr. Sheriff Vandyndhowm to his tent, the rest with us at Mr. Sumynour, having no tent in the field." The minute of this event ends with the words " Sic transit gloria hodiei." The list of the goldsmiths contributing to the expenses of the day contains the following names : — Nathauioll Stoufrhton. Mr Wanlen. Danjdl Burfoot, Warden. Daiiyell Bellinghaiii, AVarden. Gilbert Tongues. Thomas Sumyner. Edward Shadsev. Edward Bentley. Ambrose Fentwell. Joseph Stokes. Christopher Wright, and Thomas Taylor. Another such festivity is recorded in 1656 ; but later on the times seem changed, for we come upon a motion in 1776 resolving that the Company was incapable of riding the franchises that year. It was not unmindful of its duty of prosecuting the fraudulent, for in 1777 it is entered that one Michael Keating, whose mark was MK, was convicted of counterfeiting marks, and sentenced to a fine of i'50 and six months' imprisonment " at the last commission of Oyer and Terminer." As some of their initials occur on pieces of plate, a list of Dublin wardens for a certain number of years may be added, as follows, but the spelling of some of the names seems a little doubtful : — Kwl. Th().s. Kutton. 1(;72. .loH.v Dickson. k;;:;. IticH.VHD Lord. 1(171. I'AT'L l.OWI.AXI). k;?:.. IM. 1(;7(J. AlJKL VOISIN. 1677. James Cottixgham i(;7s. James Kelly. i(;7'.». .John Cope. 16S0. (iEiiHARD Grace. 1081. Samuel Marsde.v. 1G82. Abel Ram. 1()8S. Edward Harris. 1«84. Capt. James Cottingham i(;8.->. Do. 1(!8(;. . . . Adam. IfiST. John Siiellv. John riiii.LiPs i6o Old English Plate [chap. Yir. 1 (3S8. John Cuthbert. 1706. Benj. Racine, Richd. 1G8I). John Dickson. Grosvenor ItiiX). William Drayton. 1707. . . . Slicer. KlUl. Adam Sowt. 1708. Thos. Browne. 161)2. Joseph Shicraft. 1709. . . . Dowling. 1693. Thomas Bolton. 1710. . . . Racoons. 16'.)4. John Phillips. 1711. Thos. Billing. 16!t.-i. Capt. Benj. Burton. 1712. Edw. Workman. 161)6. Do. . . . Tough. 161)7. Vincent Kidder. John H. Daniel. Clifton. 1713. W. Archdall, E. Cope, 161)8. John Humphreys. John Burton. 161)1). David King. 1714. John Hamilton. Wm. 1 700. W. Bingham. T'.arry 1701. Joseph Walker. 1715. Erasmus C^ope. 1702. ROBT. RiGMAEDEN. 1716. John Ceampton. 170:i . . . Harris. 1717. Martin Billing. 170-t. James Holding. 1718. Wm. Barry. 171)5. RoBT. Smith. A Company of Goldsmiths existed also at Cork from 1656 and regularly elected its master and wardens each year for a long time onwards. Other trades were included in the guild. The Cork gold- smiths marked their plate with a galleon and a castle with a flagstafi' on separate stamps, but they did not use a date-letter. Plate thus marked is found towards the end of the seventeenth century in and near the city of Cork. One Robert Goble was a very prominent member of the Company at that period. He was master in 1694 and 1695, and his mark RG appears on a mace dated 1696 in the South Kensington Museum (No. '69.31), and on communion cups, one dated 1692 at Inishannon, and the other 1694 at Midleton,,both in co. Cork. The mark WB of one Walter Burnett, warden in 1694 and master in 1700, occurs on more than one example. Later the word STERLING seems to have been used with a maker's mark. It occurs thus on a flagon at Carrigaline, near Cork, and at other places in the South of Ireland. It may be useful to add a list, for which readers are mainly indebted to Mr. Cecil C. Woods, of Cork, of the chief working goldsmiths of Cork from the incorporation of the guild in 1656. 1656. John Sharpe. 1667. Nicholas Gamble. 1673. James Ridge. 1674. Richard Smart. 1678. Samuel Pantaine. 1680. John Hawkins. 1690. George Robinson. 1691. John James. 1692. Kaleb Webb. Do. Charles Morgan. 1693. Chas. Beuegle. 1694. Robert Goble. Do. Walter Burnett. 1702. Caleb Rathrum. Do. George Brumly'. 170C>. John Hardinge. 1710. AViLLiAM Clarke. 1711. John Mawman. 1712. James Foulks. 1716. Wm. Martin. 1711). John Biss. Do. Robert Goble, Ji- CHAP. VII.] Ireland. i6i 1721. Wm. Newexham. 172.3. Reubex Millerd. George Hodder, living 174."). Michael McDermott, living 17.")' Wm. Reynolds, living 1758. Stephex Walsh, living 1701. John Hillery, living 17(12. Carden Terry, living 17()6. Richard Walsh. living 1768. .John Nicholson, living 1770. Oarden Terry, jr., adm. 17S."j. .John Williams, living 179;"). (These last two were partners, 1795-1810.) Joseph Gibson, 1795. John Tolekin, 1795. Wm. Teulon, 1795. The dates down to 1723 are the years in which the goldsmith first served as either master or warden of the ofuikl. ^ [Sterling I iSTERLINGllWMl [NP] ISTERLINGl [WALSHI ( STERLIN&i Examples of Cork Plate. Chalice, dated 1(U)8. — Lismore Cathedral. Communion-plate given 1(J70 and 1671. — Carrig- aline, Cork. (.John .James, Master. 1692.) Plain tumbler cu[)s. — Earl of Ilchester. Chalice, dated 169-1. — Inosliannon, Cork. Also paten, dated 1694. — Ballymodau, Bandon. (William Clarke, Master in 1714.) Flagon. — Carrigalinc, Cork. (William Martin, Master, 1 720 and 1 727.) Maces repaired 1738 by Martin. — Corporation of Cork. (Michael McDermott, living 1757.) Plain double-handled loving cup. — Capt. M. Long- lield. (Stephen AValsh, living 1761.) Another smaller. —Do. It is possihle that a little plate was made at Youghal, Limerick, and other places ; but examples bearing what seem to be local Irish marks are very rare, and most of the church-plate at Limerick is either of London or Dublin make. Youghal received power by charter in 1608 to subdivide its corporation into guilds and to appoint a clerk of assay ; and in 1631 Cork was granted " the same privileges as those enjoyed by Youghal," without specific mention of what they consisted. There is no evidence of either place having exercised its privileges as far as establishing an assay office is concerned. Nothing in the way of legislation need be noted till 1729 (3 Geo. II. c. 3, Ireland), Avhcn the Irish Parliament enacted that all articles of gold and silver should be assayed at Dublin by the assay-master appointed by the Company of Goldsmiths, fixed the standard of gold at 22 carats, and silver at 11 oz. 2 dwts., and ordered that the articles O.E.P. M i62 Old English Plate. [chap. vn. '.b should be marked with the marks then used, which, we may add, would be the harp crowned, a date-letter, and the maker's initials. The English enactments as to silver of the higher standard were not imitated in Ireland, and no plate of that standard has ever been made there. To these marks, however, another was added in the following year 1730, by order of the Commissioners of Excise, who introduced the figure of Hibernia, to denote the payment of the duty first charged upon plate in that year. The subsequent Act of 1807, requiring the king's head to be stamped on plate for the same purpose, took no notice of the Hibernia mark, and the two marks have since that year been used together till 1890. In 1783 a second statute (23 & 24 Geo. III. (Irish) c. 23), repealed that of 1729, as far as gold was concerned, and fixed three standards for gold, viz. of 22, 20 and 18 carats. All articles of gold were to be marked with the maker's mark, consisting of the first letters of his Christian and surname, and the various qualities were to be distin- guished as follows : — 22-carat gold was to be marked at the assay ofiice in Dublin with the harp crowned, and at the assay office at New Geneva then established with the harp crowned having a bar across its strings ; 20-carat gold at Dublin with a plume of three feathers, and at New Geneva with a plume of two feathers ; and 18-carat gold at Dublin with a unicorn's head, and at New Geneva with a unicorn's head with a collar round its neck. It further ordered that the punches were to be so constructed that the impression should be indented, instead of being in relief, so as to prevent its being defaced. It will be remembered that in England the duty mark of the King's head intro- duced at about this same time, is at first found "indented" in the fashion here described. Certain specified gold wares, and all that should weigh less than 6 dwts., were exempted from the operation of the Act. New Geneva is a village near Waterford where in 1783 a colony of foreign Protestants was established after some persecution on the Continent. Many Swiss were among them, principall}' Genevese, whence the name. They exercised various trades, especially working in silver and jewellery, and hence the establishment of an assay office and particular marks. After a few years and the expenditure of £30,000, the settlement was abandoned ; the Genevese became dis- contented at not having obtained as much as they wanted, and quitted the country, and the place has dwindled to a small obscure village without any trade. It is therefore probable that very few if any articles were assayed or marked there. It remains to be said that date-letters have been used in Ireland from CHAP, vir.] Ireland. 163 the time of the Charter of 1638, and as elsewhere have formed more or less regular alphabets, the course of which is, however, not always quite certain. Plate of about the middle of the last century is some- times found bearing the other proper marks, but no date-letter at all. The lists at the end of the volume have been most carefully compiled from the books of the company, and from a number of specimens of plate, several of the latter kindly noted by Mr. W. D. Waterhouse, who has paid much attention to the subject. As might be expected, some few difficulties have been met with. The old English C for 1680-1 for example, and the % for 1693-4, leave us an interval of thirteen years, but only six letters to distribute over it. If these six letters succeeded each other in regular order, from 1680 to 1686, historical events might be left to account for the next few years. The charters of all Irish Corporations were annulled for a time in 1687, and little trade in silver or gold work could have been carried on in Ireland, between the landing of King James at Kinsale in 1689, and the Treaty of Limerick which Avas concluded in October, 1691. It must be confessed that it is less easy to account for a second gap between the years 1695 and 1709, and if the Dublin records are to be trusted, work seems to have been regularly carried on through the most troublous times. It is understood that the matter has attracted the attention of the Royal Irish Academy, and there is therefore reason to hope that some day an authoritative explanation of it will be fur- nished. The tables given may be depended on as nearly, if not quite, accurate ; and all recent research, by fixing that the Pt of the alphabet which begins in l()78-9 must be certainly put at 1705-6, and the S which is the first letter which occurs in a shield with an escalloped top, at 1707-8, has gone to show that each letter probably stood for two consecutive years from 1695 to 1715. It may also have been so from 1680 to 1693, but hardly any hall-marked examples of plate are known for that stormy period. Mr. Ryland states that the small Roman letter alphabet commenc- inf' in 1821-2 was changed at the letter c (for 1825), to one of Roman capitals, by order of the Commissioners of Stamps, to denote the transfer of the duties then made to them from the Commissioners of Excise by 6 Geo. IV. c. 118, and to mark the reduction of the allow- ance of 2t^ dwts. per lb., which had up to this time been made from the standard, to the allowance of 1 1 dwt. in accordance with the better practice of the London assay oflice. A careful investigation into the matter by Mr. Waterhouse, gives the letters for that cycle as they are found in the appended lists. They are all of them Roman capital m2 164 Old English Plate. [chap. vh. letters, but a small Eoman letter e in a shaped escutclreon is found in addition to the usual large letter in 1825. From the alphabetical tables a good deal of additional information may be obtained, if one or two leading facts be borne in mind. The harp crowned will be found of larger size, and on a punch adapted to the outline of the mark, until 1785 ; after which, and until 1792, it was smaller, and placed in a plain oval escutcheon, like the Hibernia which is to be looked for from the year 1730. The letters of the alphabet which commences in 1746, are to be distinguished from those of the next by their being somewhat bolder, and their shields larger and more angular at the bottom than those of the later alphabet, which last have the harp in an oval from the letter P of 1785-6 as remarked above, a second distinction. Both these hints are due to the observa- tion of Mr. Waterhouse. From about 1792 to 1808, both the harp crowned and Hibernia were in square stamps with the corners slightly cut off, and from 1808 to the end of that alphabet they are in shaped shields like the date-letter. The letter L of 1807-8 is found both with and without the sovereign's head. During the present century the shapes of the other stamps seem to have pretty much corresponded with the shape of the shield used for the date-letter of the year ; when that is plain or merely has the corners cut off, the same sort of shields are used for the harp, Hibernia, and King's head ; but when shaped the escutcheons of these others correspond with it. In 1848, Dublin was stamping from 20,000 to 40,000 ounces of silver per annum, besides a small quantity of gold, the annual totals varying very much, but being about as much as the Edinburgh office, though a great deal less than Birmingham, Exeter, or Sheffield. At the time of a Parliamentary enquiry held in 1856, it was doing a some- what smaller business, nearly all the country work having fallen off, especially that coming from Cork. The business originating in Dublin itself appeared to be somewhat on the increase. CHAP. VII.] Examples of Dublin Plate. 165 EXA^rPLES OF DUBLIN' PLATE. 1()38 1640 Do. 1641 1659 1663 Do. 1676 167'.t Do. 1680 Do. Do. 1684 Do. Do. Do. 1608 Do. Do. Do. Do. 1694 169.-. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Conimuuioii flagon. — Trinity College, Dublin. Communion cup, dated 16:59. — Fethard, Wexford. Paten, dated 1640.— Do. (Probably Wm. Cooke.) Connnunion cu]) and paten, dated 1639-40.— St. .John Kvangelist, Dublin. (Do.) — Communion cup. given 16."57. — Derry Cathedral. Communion cup, given 16.'*9. — St. John's-iii-the-Vale, Cros- thwaite, Cumb. Communion cup, dated 166.^. — Corporation of Drogheda. Communion cup and flagon, both dated 1667. — St, Peter's, Drogheda. Note. — A Communion plate, dated 1669, r,e dono Bellingham, at Trinity College, Dublin, is by this maker. (Probably Samuel Marsden, warden 16S1.) Comnuinion cup and paten, given 1()76. — St. Michan, Dublin. Cups, dated 1674.— Sir .J. K. .James, r.art. Also flagon, dated 1(577.- St. Werburgh, Dublin. (The other initial indistinct, probably SM as in 1676.) — Casket of St. George's Guild, dated 1678. (Probably Andrew (iregoiy, sworn 1673.) Tankards (see woodcut, Cliai). X.). — Merchant Taylors' Co., Ijondon. (Do.) Small Communion cup, originally the property of a Dean of Cork. — late Kcv. H. H. Westraore. (Probably .John Phillips, warden 1687.) Tankard-flagon.— St. John's, Limei'ick. (Probably John Humphreys, warden 1698.) Communion cup, called the new challcss in 1686. — St. John's, Dublin. (Do.) Connnunion cup, given 1685. — St. Werburgh, Dublin. Alms-dish, dated 1 683.— Do. " Doggett" paten, given 1693. — Do. (Thos. liolton. Alderman uf Dublin and Assay-Master this year.) Cup, given 16'.)(;. — ^Mansion House, Dublin. (Do.) Cup. c.r (lono Duncombc. — Trinity College, Dublin. (Probably Joseph Walker, warden UoT) Paten, dated 1693. — Ch. Ch. Cathedral, Dublin. Also paten, given 1693.— St. Michan, Dublin. (Do.) Communion cup. dated ICOC.— St. Nicholas', Dublin. (Probably Adam Sowt. warden 1691.) Piece of plate, dated .Ian. 169*.- Abbey 1-eix. AKo ahns-dish, given 1694. — Ch. Ch. Cathedral, Dublin. (Probably David King, waidcu iCll'.t.) Flagon, tlated 1698.— St. Michan"s, Dublin. (Thos. Bolton, as in 1693.) Cup given 1(;96.— Mansion House, Dublin. Flagon, daled 17011. — 'i'linity College, Dublin. 1 66 Old EiiHis/i Plate [chap. VII. 1697 Do. 1699 \ 1700/ Do. Do. 1701 ) 1702 I 1705 I 1706 )■ Do. Do. Do. ]707\ 1708/ Do. Do. Do. 1709 I 1710 j Do. Do. Do. Do. 1711 } 1712 j Do. 1713 ) 1714 J 1715 Do. Do. 1716 Do. Do. Do. 1718 Do. DK Do. AS //f DK Do. DK w Do. DK Do. Do. AS Large monteitli with arms and inscription. — Noted by Messrs. West and Co. (Probably David King, warden KJ'.i'.t.) Gadrooned salver from tlie same collection. — Do. (Do.) Mace, dated 1701, formerlv belonging to the borough of Lifford.— Earl of Erne. Paten, dated 1703.— .St. Mary's, Dublin. (Joseph Walker, as in 1693.) i'lagou and paten, dated 1720. — Ch. Cli. Cathedral, Dublin. (A. Sowt, as in 1693.) Tankard. — Noted by Author. (Jo.seph Walker, as in 1693.) Communion cup and paten, dated 1706.— St. Nicholas', Dublin. (David King, as in 1694.) I'ateii, undated. — Ch. Ch. Cathe- dral, Dublin. (Do.) Small salver on foot. — Noted by Messrs. West and Co. Paten, dated 17(i."i.— St. ]Mary's. Dublin. (Thos. Bolton, as in 1693.) Paten, dated 1707.— Staplestown, Carlow. (Joseph Walker, as in 1693.) Cup. dated 1709, e,v dono Palliser. — Trinity College, Dublin. (David King, as in 1694.) Mace.— Corporation of Enniskillen. Communion cup, dated Feb. 1703-4. — Cloyne Cathedral. (Joseph Walker, as in 1693.) Alms-dish.— St. Mary's, Dublin. (Do.) Communion cup and paten, dated 1706. — St. Nicholas'. Dublin. (Thomas Bolton, as in 1693.) Flagon: legacy, dated 1712. — Cloyne Cathech'al. (Communion cuj). dated 1709.) St. Margaret's, Dromiskin. (David King, as in 1694.) Flagon, dated 1711. — St. Audoen's. Dublin. (Do.) Communion cup, given 1713. — Killeshandra, Cavan. Paten, dated 1712. — St. Mary's, Dublin. (Thos. Bolton, as in 1693.) Fine fluted monteith.— Capt. M. Longfield. Communion plate, dated 1715. — Cashel Cathedral. (Joseph Walker, as in 1693.) Paten, dated 1716.— St. Luke's, Dublin. Paten. — DagiingAvortli, Glouc. (Thos. Bolton, as in 1693.) Candlesticks with square bases, the corners cut off, winged busts on the stems. — Earl of Ilchester. Also two-handled cup. — Col. Tremayne, Carclew. (Edward Workman, warden 1712.) — Flagon dated 1717. — St. John Evangelist, Dublin. Flagon, dated 1716. — Templeport, Cavan. Flagon, dated 1716. — Killeshandra, Cavan. (Thos. Bolton, as in 1693.) Mace. — Corporation of Dublin. (A. Sowt, as in 1693.) Plain salver on foot, — Noted by West and Co. CHAP. VII. j Examples of Dublin Plate. 167 1718 I 7l'0 Do. Do. 17i'4 1725 Do. 172G Do. 1728 1729 1730 1731 1732 Do. 1733 173i Do. 173.-) 1736 Do. Do. Do. 1731) 1 710 1 713 1711 1715 1717 1753 IH DK TW (^ T W "iw" IH /AB\ WW FW IH TW Alms-dish, dated 1720. — Noted by Lambert and Co. Fhitcd salver — late Col. Jleadows Taylor, C.S.I. Salver on feet, bearing Gore arms. — Ivord Harlech. Plain two-handled cnp. — Capt. M. Longtield. Coffee-pot. — Rev. V. Sutton. Two-handled cu[) and ciiver — late ■). K. Daniel-Tyssen, Esq. Alms-dish, dated 1721.— St. Michan's, Dublin. Communion cup. — St. Nicholas', Dublin. Plain salver on foot. — Noted by Messrs. West and Co. Mace, dated 1728. — Goldsmiths' Co., London. Plain bowl. — Blair 0. Cochrane, Esq. (F-H, as in 1725.) Plain bowl. — Noted by Messrs. West and Co. (Crowned, as in 1716.) Small salver. — Marquis of Breadalbane. (As in 1726.) Elagon, dated 1731. — St. Nicholas', Dublin. Mark noted by Author. (As in 1726.) Two-handled cuj). — Ion T. Hamilton, Esq. Flagon, dated 1733. — St. Patrick's, Waterford. Jug, won by '• Smileing P.ald," at Waterford Races. — Lord Harlech. Racing cup, dated 1734. — Earl of Enniskillen. (As in 1725.) Large shaped salver and pair of small two- handled cups. — Sold at Christie & Manson's in 1875 Also cake-basket in imitation of wicker-work. — Capt. M. Longtield. Mark noted by Author. Mark noted by Author. (As in 1728.) Gold snuff-box, presented with the freedom of Naas, 1737.— Earl of Shannon. Connnuniou cup. dated 1741. — Kildare Cathedral. Mark noted by Author. (As in 1725.) Tablespoons. — Lord Amherst of Hackney. (As in 172(5.) Do. — Noted by Messrs. Waterhouse. Mark noted by Author. Flagon. — St. Nichnlas', Dublin. Table-spoons, IhuKJverian pattern. — Col. Tremayne, Carclew. 1 68 Old English Plate. [chap. VII. c. 1755 <^ Salvers and tankard. — Lord O'Neill. 1755 (D-P) (David Pet re.) Fluted soiip-ladle. — Col. Tremayne. Carclew. 1756 (IP) Spoons. — Koteil by Messrs. Waterhouse. Do. (J-Sl Table-spoons, feather-edged. — Late J. J. Lonsdale, Esq. 1759 @ Mark noted by Author. 1765 1767 1769 Do. 1770 i /^ ] I\Iark noted b}' Author. Dessert-spoons. — Noted bj- Messrs. Waterhouse. Large circular salver. — Late Col. Meadows Taylor, C.S.I. John Karr. — Noted by Author. Two-handled cup. — J. Y. Burges, Esq. m M J'K CT| 1776* |I-K iSnuff-box, presented with an address, 1778. — Earl of Shannon 1778 MK In plain oblong (Michael Keating). Plain table-si)Oons witli pointed handles. — Capt. M. Lougtield. Do. JB In oval. Salad spoon and fork, featlier-edged.' — Do. 1782 IK As in 1776. Table-spoons with i)ointed handles, feather- edged. — Do. 1785 1789 1794 MW Sugar-basin, on three feet. — From the Staniforth Collection. Mark noted by Author. Mark noted by Author. TJ D L&I 1796 [^ Mark noted by Author. 1805 I'S Cake-basket, repousse and chfised. — Late llev. C. Daniel. 1807 1811 m Large gravy-spoon. — Messrs. Waterhouse. (Le-Bas.) Teapot (also stamped with dealer's name WEST). — Late llev. C. Daniel. |I-L-B| 1815 Do. (Do.) shaped salver, on feet. — Do. * The date letters F, H and M of this alphabet, and no doubt others, liave a small dot or pellet beneath them within the shield. CHAP. VII.] Tabic of Dublin Marks. 'I'Ar.LE OF Dui'.Lix Marks since l«i3S. i6g Quality. Standard. Date. Duty. 1730—1890. Maker. Silver. O.S. Harp cri>\viieil. 17th ISth 17,s.". cent. cent, till ITS.'). Gold. 22 c. Ditto, till 1784.* irnii to 180S. Annual letter. Ditto. Hibernia from 1780. and ! Initials. King's Head in addition from ISO 7. 17:!0 to 17',i-'. 17'.i-2 to 1808. Ditto. Ditto. N.B.— The provisions as to gold of ]."). 12, and 'J carats, of 17 ifc IS Vict. c. Of!, extend to Ireland, and tliese qualities are denoted by the same decimal numbers as in England, by way of standard marks. " Since 1781, for standard marks on gold | Geneva marks, see the notice of tlie Act of of 22, 20, and IS carats, and for the New | that year (23 & 24 Geo. III. c. 23), p. 162. CHAPTER VIII. FRAUDS AND OFFENCES. OLD OFFEXC-ES — THE REPORT TO PARLIAMENT OF 1773 — THE ACTS OF 1 73'J AXD 1844 — CASES PROCEEDED AGAIXST X'NDER THEIR PROVISIONS — AN AMATEUR'S EXPERIENCE. The lessons that may be derived by the plate-buyer from a little practical experience, as well as from a record of some of the offences that have from time to time been attempted in contravention of the legislation of which we have now considered the course, are so important, that a short chapter may be fairly devoted entirely to them. Frauds are no new thing, and a description of the deceits of the goldsmiths in Queen Elizabeth's days might almost Avord for word have been written in those of her present gracious Majesty. They are amusingly set out in Stubbes' Anatomy of Abuses,^' thus : — " Tlieodoriis. Be there Goldsmithes there any store also, as in some other countries there be ? " Amjyhilogus. There are inow, and more than a good meanie. They are (for the most part) very rich and wealthye, or else they turne the fairest side outwards, as many doe in DnahjneA They have their shops and stalles fraught and bedecked with chaines, rings, gold, silver, and what not woonderfull richly. They will make you any monster or antike whatsoever of golde, silver, or what you will. They have store of all kinde of plate whatsoever. But what ? Is there no deceit in all these goodlye shewes ? Yes, too many. If you will buy a chaine of golde, a ring, or any kinde of plate, besides that you shall paye almost halfe more than it is woortli (for they will persuade you the workmanship of it comes to so much, the fashion to so much, and I cannot tell what) ; you shall also perhaps have that golde which is naught, or else at least mixt with other drossie rubbage, and refuse mettall, which in comparison is good for nothing. And sometimes, or for the most part, you shal have tinne, lead, and the like, mixt with * Phillip Stubbes' J Hft^omy of Abuses ui I and Vintnern.— New _ Shakespeare Society, L'nf/Iand,'Pi\itU. 1. Tricks of Goldsmiths | Series VI., No. 12. " f England. CHAP. VIII.] Frauds and Offences. 171 silver. And againe, in some things some will not sticke to sell you silver gilt for gold, and well if no worse too now and then, l^ut this happeneth very seldome, hy reason of good orders, and constitutions made for the punishment of them that offend in this kind of deceit, and therefore they seldome dare offend therein, though now and then they chance to stumble in the darke." There is little here that would differ from an account of practices that are, unhappily, too prevalent at the present time. The earliest provisions against fraud concern themselves with the use of metal worse than standard, the setting of false stones in gold, and of real stones in base metal, the price at which goldsmiths' work shall be sold, and the prevention of working in secret ; later on penal- ties were instituted, not only for selling silver of inferior quality, but for selling even fine silver before it was marked with the proper touches and the maker's own mark, whilst in 1597 we come as a third stage to proceedings instituted against those who counterfeited marks, which resulted, as we have seen, in the offenders being put in the pillory and losing an ear. Some of these offences owe their very existence to a state of things, socially speaking, which has long. passed away. The very notion of legislating against working in a back street, or at night, or fixing the price at which articles should be sold, is enough to raise a smile at the simplicity of mediasval economy. Neither need we notice here the statutes directed against exporting silver and melting down the coin of the realm to make plate. Coming to modern days, a short review of the reported cases will answer the useful purpose of suggesting to the reader the sort of frauds against which he should be on his guard, even though changes in the law, and the abolition of the intricacies of special pleading, have deprived them to a certain extent of their legal interest. Several such cases were aj^pended to the report presented to the House of Commons in 1773, this appendix being in point of fact an account of the prosecutions carried on by the Goldsmiths' Company against persons for frauds and abuses in matters relating to gold and silver plate during the seven years then last past. They were four in number, and omitting technicalities they were as follows : — (1.) In 17G7, for soldering bits of standard silver to tea-tongs and shoe-buckles, which were worse than standard, and sending them to the ( 'oiiipiiny's assay office in order IVuudulentl}^ U) obtain their marks to the same. (2.) In 1708, for making salt-cellars worse than the standard, and selling them for standard. 17- Old Englisli Plate. [chap. vm. (3.) In 1770, for making and also for selling gold watch-chains worse than standard. (4.) In the same year for selling two silver watch-cases without being marked. To this report of 1773 was appended a remark that the heavy penalty (no less than death as a felon) imposed by 31 Geo. II. c. 32, for counterfeiting hall-marks, had greatly put a stop to frauds in wrought plate. It is more than doubtful whether as much could be said at the present day, though the goldsmiths' trade is now regulated by an Act which does all that can be effected by careful provisions in the direction of rendering abuses difficult or impossible ; but such is the temptation to the forger of these days, in consequence of the demand far " antique " plate, that a single walk through the streets of London will be enough to show that present legislation is powerless against his cunning arts. The Quarterly Reviewer has not overstated the case in saying that a buyer may return home, after traversing our great thoroughfares for a day, with " a cab-load of real old English plate," if he be not too fastidious, and has money in his purse.* By the time the reader has got to the end of this chapter, if he ever does, and if he did not know it before, he will have found where all this stuff comes from, and how little genuine antique plate is to be had at a moment's notice, or indeed at all, however much one may be willing to pay for it. First, let us recount the main provisions of the Acts which now regulate the craft ; then note a case or two that have been dealt with under them ; and conclude the chapter with some personal experiences of the modes in which they are evaded. AVe may ignore, as this is not a legal treatise, the various minor provisions of the last and present centuries, altering penalties from time to time, and also certain details found only in the Sheffield and Birmingham Acts. Everything of general interest is practically summed up in the most recent Act,f which, with the Act of the reign of Geo. 1L,1 are those to which we now turn; the latter still providing for the maintenance of the standards, whilst the Act of the present reign deals with abuses in the marking of wares. As to the standards, then, the Act of 1739 provided that all gold wares should not be less in fineness than 2*2 carats of fine gold, and all silver wares not less than 11 oz. 2 dwts. of fine silver in every * QvarterJjj Review, April, 1876. f 7 & 8 Vict. c. 22 (1844), t 12 Geo. II. c. 26 (1739). CHAP. VIII.] Frauds and Offences. 173 pouud weight Tro_y, aiul iiillicted h\ s. 1 u penalty of £10 for every offeuce. It is, however, not quite certain but that these oftences are still indictable as misdemeanours under older legislation ; for the ancient Acts of 28 Edw. I., 2 Henry VI., 18 Eliz., and 12 Will. III. are recited but not repealed by the Act we are now considering : and since the passing of it, prisoners have been sentenced to fine and im- prisonment on indictment under 28 Edw. I. for making silver plate worse than standard. Instances of this occurred in 1758, 1759, and 1774, the last case being tried by Lord Mansfield.* The Act of 1739 also inflicts a penalty of i^lO, or in default im- prisonment, for selling, exchanging, or exposing to sale any gold or silver ware before it is duly marked ; it directs the entry of makers' marks at the Goldsmiths' Hall ; and it details under penalties the particulars which must accompany every parcel of wares sent to the assay office for stamping. These last are repeated in the duty Act of 1784. Turning now to the other branch of the subject, we find that every- thing relating to the prevention of frauds and abuses in the marking of gold and silver wares in England is summed up in the Act of 1844, t which enumerates the following off'ences, all punishable as felonies : — Sect. 2. Forging or counterfeiting any Die for marking Gold or Silver Wares or know- ingly uttering the same ; Marking Wares with forged Dies, or uttering them ; Forging any Mark of any Die, or uttering the same ; Transposing or removing Marks, or uttering them ; Having in possession knowingly au\^ such Die, or Ware marked with the same ; Cutting or severing Marks with Intent to affix them upon other Wares ; Affixing any Mark cut or severed from any other AVares ; Fraudulently using genuine Dies. Later sections deal with other oflfences, as follows : — Sec. 3. Selling or having possession of any Wares with forged or transposed Marks without lawful excuse (even unknowing that the Marks were so forgetl or transposed) ; penalty £10 eacli offence. Sec. 4. Dealers to be exempt from the above penalties on giving up the names of the actual manufacturer of such wares of gold or silver or base metal, or of the person from whom they received them, but not from the consec|uence of uttering them with guilty knowledge. Sec. 5. Adding to, or altering by addition or otherwise, the character of wares already marked and so as to increase the weight by more than one-third of the original weight, without having them re-assayed as new ; or in certain cases, with the assent of the Company, the added part only assayed ; or selling such ware without the same being marked; penalty £10 for each offence and forfeiture of the ware. K. r. Jackson. Cowper, 297. t 7 & 8 ^'Ct. c. 22. 174 Old English Plate. [chap, vm. Sec. 6. Exceptions to the preceding section corresponding to those of section 4. »Sec. 7. If any officer of any of the Halls shall mark any base metal with any die, etc., such Company to be liable to a penalty of £20, the officer to be dismissed and the ware seized. Sec. 8. Dealers to register every place where they work or cari-y on business or deposit wares, under a penalty of £5. Sec. 9. Dealers not to fraudulently erase, obliterate, or deface any mark under a penalty of £5. Sec. 11. Upon information given upon oath against persons suspected of having in possession illegal wares, etc., Justices may grant search-warrants, but not for wares not required to be marked. Sec. 13. Actions to be commeniced within tln-ee months after the fact committed. This being the state of the law, at the risk of repeating what has been said by other writers, some notice must be taken of the most instructive case that had occurred under it down to the year 1876, condensing our account from that given by Mr. Eyland.* Two silversmiths were tried before Lord Deuman at Taunton Spring Assizes, 1849, for having in their possession, without lawful excuse, a silver spoon and soup-ladle having thereon marks of dies used by the Goldsmiths' Company, which had been transferred from silver skewers. The spoon and ladle were of modern make, but bore the mark of the year 1774. An officer from the Goldsmiths' Company proved that, on clearing off the gilding and using a blow-pipe he found that the spoon and ladle were not made in one piece, which would be the ordinary mode of manufacture, but that the parts bearing the marks were "inserted" or "brought on." A working silversmith proved that by direction of the prisoners he had made and sent to them two silver bowls for spoons ; that they afterwards were returned to him with handles attached to bo gilt, and when he burnished them he perceived the old hall-marks ; he proved also that the bowls and stems, or handles, were generally made together. The defence set up was that this did not amount to a transposition, but was only an addition, a minor offence under the Act and entailing a lesser penalty ; and it was suggested that the spoon and ladle were made by using old silver skewers with the old hall-mark for the stems, and adding to them bowls and figures at the top called " apostles " in order to give them the appearance of old plate, and that tliis was an addition, which, though a fraud in contravention of the Act, would not be a felony. This ingenious trausposal of the process commended itself to the jury, and they acquitted the prisoners, though evidently against the summing-up of the learned judge, who thought that the description of transposition in one section, and of addition in another, came to much the same thing, and avowed that he was at a loss to see * Assay of Gold and Silver Wares, London, 1852. CHAP. VIII.] Frauds and Offences. 175 an}' difterence between talcing' ont just merely the mark and puttin"- it into a new article, which would clearly bo a transposition, and doing the same thing with some more dexterity and more disguise in a considerable length. A more recent case is not less suggestive. D. L. Ct., a dealer, carrying on business in London, was convicted at the Central Criminal Court in August, 1876, of feloniously altering and transferring a certain mark of a die used by the Goldsmiths' Company under the following circumstances. A customer found displayed in the prisoner's shop, and purchased for ,£10, a coffee-pot, hall-marked and bearing the letter m of the year 1747, there being appended to it a label with the words " 120 years old." He also purchased of the prisoner a small silver ewer, bearing the goldsmiths' letter for 1744. It being found that the articles were of recent manufacture, tlio Goldsmiths' Company issued a writ against the prisoner to recover penalties under s. 8 of the Act we are considering, in regard to which, under another section, a dealer could, however, be protected if within twenty-one days he gave up the name of the person from whom he bought the article. At first stating that he had bought the article in the way of trade and did not know from whom, he afterwards gave the name of a working electro-plater, who was thereupon arrested and, on the prisoner's evidence being committed for trial, pleaded guilty. Judgment was postponed, and his evidence taken against the principal oflender, from which it appeared that he had transferred to the coftee^ pot and ewer certain old marks from pieces of silver brought to him by the prisoner for that purpose, the prisoner agreeing to purchase those articles if the witness would put the old marks on. The offenders were thereupon sentenced, the dealer to six months and the electro-plater to two months' inprisonmeut, in both cases with hard labour. A number of penalties were sued for in the course of the year 1878, by the Goldsmiths' Company ; and in one case no less a sum than ^6240 was paid on account of the sale of 24 forks bearing forged hall-marks of a good period. It would be very desirable to give fullest publicity to all such convictions ; without this they have but little effect. A few words may conveniently be said here about the importation of plate bearing forged English marks. Legislation upon this abuse seems to commence with a Customs Act of 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. 47),. which enacts that foreign plate shall not be sold unless duly assayed and marked, but does not oblige the importer to send such plate to. be marked at the time <>J' ifa iinportation., nor indeed at any time. Another Customs Act of the same year (5 c*(: G Vict. c. 56), provides. 176 Old English Plate. [cuw. vm. that ornamental plate made prior to the year 1800 may be sold without being marked. A third such Act, passed in 1867 (30 & 31 Yict. c. 82), directs that any imported plate sent to an assay office to be marked, shall be marked with all the usual marks, and with the letter F in an oval escutcheon in addition. This Act has been repealed ; but the provision in question was re-enacted (39 & 40 Yict. c. 35) in the same words. Last of all, we find in the Lo)ido)i Gazette of Dec. 9, 1887, an Order in Council under the Merchandise Marks Acts of the same year, prescribing special marks for foreign watch-cases admitted to assay, after a declaration as to place of manufacture. For gold, the word " Foreign " on a cross. For silver, the same on a regular octagon. These to be used together with the year-letter, and other usual marks. It will easily be seen that none of these enactments ofter any real hindrance to the importation of plate bearing forged English marks, and some stringent legislation is sorely needed to put a stop to fraudulent practices and to protect the honest dealer and the public alike. There is nothing, however, so telling as personal experience : let us see what can be picked up in this way by the amateur of old plate as he walks along the London streets. He will soon see that in consequence of the first series of imita- tions having been usually of seventeenth century plate, and the better credit that silver work of the reigns of Queen Anne and the earlier Georges therefore maintained, the latter period became in time the more profitable one to attack, and that the market is now flooded with the plain and fluted plate of those reigns, which is made to all appearance, both at home and abroad for importation hither, by the waggon-load. Next he will find that the modern forger scorns to be at the trouble of transposing or adding, call it which you will, genuine old hall- marks to modern plate. He boldly fashions antique plate, marks and all ; and here we may say that so far from giving him information to turn to base advantage, as one writer has feared would be the case, the published lists of date-letters and other marks have, by their very inaccuracies, proved pit-falls for those who have used them for purposes of fraud. How shall we distinguish the real from the spurious ? Well, one chance is, that our enquirer finds in nine cases out of ten that the forger has not learned his lesson thoroughly. A living amateur has 3een, for instance, at a public exhibition in London, a large jug cn.vi'. viii.j Frauds and Offences. 177 conspicuously labelled as by the famous George Heriot, but bearing- marks which could only belong to the end of the seventeenth century, if they were genuine at all ; and they were not if the said amateur knew anything about the matter. He has also seen, as conspicuously labelled in a shop- window, a pair of Queen Anne pattern candlesticks, bearing what purported to be a Avell-known maker's mark, and beside it the date-letter of a year that had elapsed long before the adoption and registration by that maker of the particular mark in question. What would the unsophisticated collector say to finding that two sj)ecimens of Queen Anne plate in his cabinet, with their gadrooned edges, court-hand date-letters and all, of some five or ten years apart, and by quite difterent makers, proved on a careful examination of the ornamentation, to have come from one and the same modern atdkr, a small defect in one of the tools used having left its fatal sign on both articles alike '? What, again, if he should see an Elizabethan treasure, say of 1576, put into a sale by its disgusted owner, who had arrived at a know- ledge of its real age all too late, and knocked down by the auctioneer for a small sum as what is called in the trade a "duffer," amid the pleasantries of an appreciative audience of dealers who will possibly welcome it again before long under much the same circum- stances ? Another surprise may await him if he should be fortunate enough to secure for his collection some relic of thrilling historical interest, such as a cup proved by the inscription upon it to have been the gift of Mary Queen of Scots to Darnley ; for it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that he may meet ere long with a second cup, of pre- cisely similar pattern, and proved as conclusively to have been the one given in exchange by Darnley to that unfortunate lady. As he will hardly expect to pick up a third treasure of this descrip- tion, he may perhaps turn his attention to real old " family plate," of which he may think that there is likely to be more in the market. It would be very odd if he did not soon come across plenty to be sold, "in strict confidence," and "under peculiar circumstances," with a condition that the ancient coats of arms with which it is decorated are to be carefully erased. Much of this precious stuff has been bought by those who have afterwards found that, like some other people who preceded them — ^ero sajnuitt Plirijgcs, — they have come by their wisdom too late. A most flagrant case came to light long after the publication of the first edition of this volume in 1878, and it is full of warning, illustrating almost every point that has been mentioned in the last O.E.P. N lyS Old Ejiglisli Plate. chap. vin. few pages. Were it not an actual fact, it would be hard to believe that dealer dared sell, or buyer could be found to buy, a set of many hundreds of spoons, forks, and other table plate marked as of the first ten or fifteen years of the eighteenth century. More astonishing still is it that, though he marked his wares as of Britannia standard, the manufacturer should not have taken the trouble to make up his metal to that quality, for the chance of avoiding detection by the assay ; and most astonishing of all that he should have included in his set, dessert-knives, fish-slices, and other articles unheard of in bygone days. The handles of the forks appear to have been cast, marks and all, in a mould made from a spoon-handle, and then fastened on to prongs, for which cast metal would not have been sufficiently hard and unbending. Great numbers of these had the letter for 1703-4, with the Britannia standard marks, and for maker's mark the letters ^& with a crown above, and a pellet below them, all within a circle. Others had the letter for 1712-3, with c^c/ for maker's mark on a stamp with indented edge; others, again, had uisjoj as it appears in Appendix A at the year 1782, together with the London hall- marks for 1683-4. And many other blunders of the same sort came to light as soon as the objects were submitted to careful examination. On the institution of proceedings the dealer who sold all this rubbish gave up, under the provisions of section 4 of the Act of 1844, the name of a person from whom he said he had received it in the ordinary way of business ; and in the end judgment was signed by the Goldsmiths' Company against this person for the full amount of £10 for each of the articles, of which there were 647, bearing forged marks. It seems very much open to question whether the Act works at all well, or for the interests of the public. Penalties are nominally recovered, it is true, by the Goldsmiths' Company ; but the forger goes to work again as before at his profitable trade, escaping in most cases, by judicious and timely surrender, the exposure which would be the only effectual hindrance to his operations. If full adver- tisement in the newspapers of all penalties recovered by the Company were part of the punishment inflicted upon such offenders, it would probably be much more dreaded and more effectual. Quite recently there have occurred one or two cases in which the culprits seem to have more adequately received their deserts. In March, 1898, a silversmith was convicted at the Central Criminal Court of having forged several hall-marks of the Goldsmiths' Com- pany, and of having had in his possession articles bearing forged CHAP. VIII.] Modern Frauds. lyg hall-marks. He was sentenced by the Eecorder of London, who dwelt upon the gravity of the oftence, to twelve months' imprison- ment with hard labour. Still more recently, an oftender has paid fines amounting to more than £3,000, besides forfeiting the plate bearing the forged marks, making a very heavy loss to him in addition to the amount of the penalties incurred. It is sometimes possible to guess correctly the very shop from which articles purporting to be of the Queen Anne period have come, from the marks used upon them. A much-abused mark has been that of William Gamble ; being the letters GA under a crown with a pellet on each side, all in a circle. There is no need to condemn all plate found bearing these various marks ; but much that is spurious having been put into circulation so marked, it will be well to be cautious about such and the like specimens. The date-letters for 1683, 1739 and 1746 have been seen by the author so well executed as almost to defy detection, did they stand alone. Should the collector fail in finding ready to his hand anything of sufticient historical or family interest to tempt him, let him further beware of giving orders for articles not to be found of the date he covets, — a coffee-pot, of the reign of Queen Elizabeth for example, — or he will run the risk of finding his newly acquired possession, when at last some fortunate agent has picked up one for him, to be formed of the sloping body of an ordinary chalice of a well-known type in those days turned bottom upwards to get the slope the right way and fitted with a foot, lid, handle and spout of suitable fashion, the position of the hall-marks upside down in a row round the lower part of the pot revealing to the initiated alone the ingenious adaptation. Here we may remark that the observant amateur will soon find a good guide in the situation of the hall-marks ; those marks were always placed by rule, and will be found in unusual positions on pieces of plate that have been altered from their original shape. An early tankard ought to be marked on the side near the handle, and straight across the flat lid in a parallel line with the purchase or perhaps upon the flange of the lid, but a more modern one will be stamped on the bottom and inside the lid ; a standing cup of Queen Anne or earlier bears the marks round the margin, one of thirty years later on the bottom of the bowl up inside the hollow stem, and so on in other cases. Time was when ornamentation of one date coupled with hall-marks of another would have passed muster, and for the detection of such anomalies as these the illustrations given in later chapters will be of N 2 i8o Old English Plate. [chap. vm. some use ; but blunders of this kind are not so frequent now, and the bu^-er is left to the careful examination first of the metal itself, then of the execution rather than the foshion of the ornamentation, and lastly of the hall-marks. The silver in spurious specimens will be rolled perhaps, instead of hammered, and betray to the practised eye and hand what has been called " a fatal air of newness ; " the same fatal air may condemn the fashion and decoration, especially the gildino- if any be present ; and the hall-marks are still so little understood that forgeries almost court detection by trained eyes, but trained they must be. Failing this, the buyer can scarcely do better than resort for what he wants to one or other of the great houses of goldsmiths whose names are household words, and leave himself in their hands, or to some one whom he knows to be a respectable and well-skilled tradesman. Good plate and genuine after all can be got, and it is into such hands that what is really valuable generally passes. Patience and money the collector will require, and plenty of both ; for such houses as these do not make old plate to order, and they are as much as other people under the laws of supply and demand which regulate the price of it when it comes into the market. But if the buyer prefer foraging for himself, whether in highway, bye-way, or sale-room, to be forewarned is to some extent to be foi-e- armed ; and surely he is better off with the means of forming a good judgment placed at his disposal than if ignorant of facts the greater part of which are already well known to the fraudulent, and daily used by them against their victims. We cannot end the chapter better than with the words — caveat emptor. CHAPTER IX. EOOLESIASTICAL PLATE. EriSCOPAL COXSTITTTIONS RELATINU TO CHURCH PLATE — CHURCH GOODS, HOW AFFECTED BY THE EVENTS OF THE REIGNS OF EDWARD VI. AND QUEEN ELIZABETH — CHALICES EXCHANGED FOR COMMUNION CUPS — PRE-REFORMA- TION CHALICES AND PATENS — ELIZABETHAN COMMUNION CUPS — MODERN CHALICES, COMMUNION CUPS AND PATENS — FLAGONS — ALMS-DISHES — CANDLESTICKS. The preceding chapters have dealt with the marks by which the age and authenticity of ancient plate maybe verified, and it is time to turn to what remains of the possessions of our ancestors, and to see what additional information may be gathered from its fashion and other circumstances. It will be convenient to divide the subject into two portions, devoting the present chapter to ecclesiastical plate, and reserving decorative and domestic plate for separate consideration. The misfortunes that befell the goods of the Church in England during the sixteenth century, and the simplicity of later ritual, have shortened the history of our church-plate a good deal. The examples of pre-Reformation art now left in England are comparatively few ; those of any importance are very few indeed ; for the rest, cathedral and church alike possess certain simple articles of communion and altar plate of dates ranging from the reign of Edward YI. to the present day, and varying in their design from time to time, as we shall see, but hardly ever rising to any high level of art excellence. It is difficult to realise the splendour of the display that would have met the eye of him who entered one of our great cathedrals or wealthy parish churches on any high festival day in the three or four centuries that preceded the Keformation. The church was the nursing-mother of the arts, which lent themselves in their turn to the adornment of her services ; the monks were the goldsmiths of the middle ages ; St. Dunstan himself was the patron of their craft in ]*higland ; what wonder, then, that the wealth of gold and silver in its shrines and treasuries was immense, so immense as to be almost incredible. It would be foreign to our present purpose to reprint long lists of 1 82 Old English Plate. [chap. ix. treasures of ■which not so much as an article remains ; but some few historical remarks are necessary to enable us to understand the earlier specimens of English church-plate that still exist. Let us take for a starting point the episcopal constitutions which ordained what ornaments and furniture were necessary for the ordinary service of the church. One of the best of these is that of Robert Winclielsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1293 — 1313, who directs, in 1305, that parishes should provide, and keep in proper repair, the following articles : — * " Legendam antiphonarium gradale psalterium troperium ordinals missale manuale calicem vestamentum principale cum casula dalmatica tunica et cum capa in choro cum omnibus suis appendiciis frontale ad magnum altare cum tribus tuellis tria superpellicia unum rochetum crucem processionalem crucem pro mortuis thuribulum lucernam tintinabulum ad deferendum coram corpore Christi in visitatione infirmorum pixidem pro corpore Christi honestura velum quadrage- simale vexilla pro rogationibus campanas cum chordis feretrum pro defunctis vas pro aqua benedicta osculatorium candelabrum pro cereo Paschali fontem cum serura imagines in ecclesia iraaginem princij)alem in cancello." In another edition of these same constitutions a chrismatory is added to the above requirements. "SVe have given the complete list, as it is a very full and interesting one, and more of it has some relation to the art of the goldsmith than might seem likely at first sight ; for besides the sacramental vessels the pyx, censor (thuribulum), chrismatory, and pax (osculatorium), the images also and the covers of the service books were often of silver and of great weight. The image of its patron saint, taken from the chapel of St. Stephen at Westminster in the time of Henry VIII., weighed no. less than thirteen score and thirteen ounces, and the inventory of St. Olave's, Southwark, in 1552, includes a "gospeller booke garnyshed with sylver and parcell gylte with Mary and John, weynge cxx. ounces," and a "pisteler booke with Peter and Palle garnyshed with sylver and parcell gylte weynge C. ounces." Such covers as these served as pax-bredes or osculatories. The requirements of Winchelsey are almost identical with those of Archbishop Simon in 13G8 ; and if certain other articles, such as phials for wine and water and also candlesticks, are mentioned by an earlier prelate, Gilbert de Bridport, Bishop of Sarum in 1256, the pyx, the vessel for holy-water, and the pax— all included by Archbishop * Lyndewode, Provinciali.s, Lib. iii. tit. De ecclesiis editicandis, fo. 137. CHAP. IX.] Prc-Rcforination Church Plate. 183 Wincliclsey — are omitted from the more ancient list. The constitutions of "William de Bleys in 1229 add but a single item of interest, an uncousecrated chalice, which might he of tin, for burial with the priest.* Further, it is clear that even in early days country churches were properly supplied with all these vessels, vestments, books, and other necessaries. The inventories taken by William de Swyneflete, Arch- deacon of Norwich in or about 13G8, the year of Archbishop Simon's Constitutions, may be quoted to show that the Norwich churches were all amply supplied at that time, and later visitations give the same testimony, t A very beautiful Thurible or Censer of the end of the reign of Edward III. was sold at Messrs. Christie, Manson & Woods' Auction Eooms in the Grenville Wells Collection, in the summer of 1890. It was found, together with a Ship or Incense Boat, in Whittlesea Mere ; and is figured in Shaw's Decorative Arts, and described in Arcliceo- logical Journal, Vol. VIII. The Incense Boat bore rams' heads on its two extremities, part of the arms of Ramsey Abbey, to which no doubt both pieces belonged. They were purchased by Lord Carysfoot at the sum of s£1155 for the Censer, and £900 for the Boat. The Incense Boat is of early Tudor work. In the days of Edward VI. there is good evidence of the great value of parish church plate years after the events of his father's reign had bestowed the still greater treasures of cathedrals and monasteries upon the king under the general name of " Church-stuff." St. Olave's, Southwark, in 1552 still possessed no less than 1062 ounces of silver in chalices, crosses, basins, mounted covers for the books, pyxes, a pax, a chrismatory, censers, cruets, and the like ; a church in Norwich returned a list of 857 ounces to the commissioners about the same time ; and it was the same everywhere, the amounts varying with the importance of the parishes. It is hardly fair, therefore, to charge King Henry VIII. and his iidvisers with the whole course of spoliation which the Church suffered in the years which followed 153G. On the contrary, it w'as reserved i'or succeeding reigns to carry on and complete the work of destruction which was then only commenced. The seizure of parish church plate was not decided upon until the last year of King Edward VI., and some was left untouched till the days of the Protestant reaction which marked the accession of Elizabeth and resulted in some places in a * For these two last-moiitioned Constitu- tion.s, see Wilkins's Concilia, Vol. I., m>. 714 and C2C. f Norfiil/c ((III/ Xoririrh Avchccohxjii, Vol. V. yt 184 Old English Plate. [chap. ix. repetition of the excesses in -which the puritanism of her brother's reign had vented itself. Whilst all this was going on it is not wonderful that parochial authorities, alarmed at the misfortunes befalling their more powerful neighbours, the monasteries, guilds, and fraternities, took advantage of the excuse afforded by the necessity of altering their churches, and adapting them to the new and more simple ritual, and of repairing the damage done by the destruction of painted glass, images, and all that could come under the denomination of "monuments of superstition," to dispose of a portion of their more valuable property by way of meet- ing these extraordinary expenses. This practice, commencing about 153G, soon became so general, that the commissioners sent through the land more than once in the reign of Edward YI. professed to take their inventories for the purpose of stopping it, and insuring the pre- servation of all that was left. In fact, their proceedings go far to show that up to that time, whilst much that was valuable had been alienated by churchwardens themselves for repairs and other like expenses, real or pretended, neither plunder nor embezzlement from other quarters had done much harm. This, however, compels us to note in passing the extraordinary number of losses by thieves that are mentioned in the returns of these churchwardens. If they are to be believed, almost every church in many counties was broken into and robbed at some time or other in the interval between 1547 and 1553. It may have been so, but when we remember that the commissioners of the year last mentioned were ordered to make strict comparison of the returns now made to them, Avith the best of the inventories compiled in answer to the earlier inquisitions of the reign, and that under these circumstances it became very doubtful how much of the proceeds of any sales of church furniture that had been effected, the parishes would be allowed to retain, even under the pretence of their having been spent upon repairs, it is hardly possible to get rid of a suspicion that such an allegation as a loss by robbery was found the simplest mode of accounting for missing articles. Many of the returns honestly represented that by "the consent and agreement of all the parish- ioners," the churchwardens had sold some of their plate, and spent the proceeds on improvements and necessary expenses. Large quantities of church stuff came in this way into private hands ; and this would seem to dispose, to some extent, of the charges so broadly made by Heylin, and repeated also in Fuller's Church History, of general plunder and spoliation. Both these authorities comment upon the parlours to be found hung with altar-cloths, tables and beds covered with copes, carousing cups made of chalices, and the like; CHAP. IX.] Church Goods under Edivard VI. 185 Fuller saying that "as if first laying hands upon them were sufficient title unto them ; seizing on them was generally the price they had paid for them;" and Heylin that, "It was a sorry house and not worth the naming, which had not somewhat of this furniture in it." But how, we may remark, could it he otherwise if churchwardens provided themselves as best they could with the funds they required for such purposes as the following, which may be taken as a fair sample,'' viz.: — "altering of oure churche, and fynisshing of the same according to our myndes and the parisshioners. Itm., for the new glassing of xvii. wyndows wherein were conteyned the lyves of certeu prophane histories and other olde wyndows in church. Itm., for and towards the paving of the kinge's liighe way in stoaus aboughte our Churche and in our Parisshe which was foule and needfull to be doon. Item, for a cheste and a box sette in our Churche according to the Kinge's Maties Injunctions." Such were the objects upon which some Norwich churchwardens had spent the money ; and after all, these and the like alterations and repairs were ordered by the Injunctions issued on the accession of Edward YI. in 1547 "to all his loving subjects, clergy and laity," though it was not perhaps intended that they should be paid for by the sale of valuables which might eventually be seized by the Crown when decent pretence arose. Much of these injunctions reappeared in the following year in the Visitation Articles of the province of Canterbury, which at the same time straitly enquired of the clergy "whether they have not monished their parishioners openly that they should not sell, give, nor otherwise alienate any of their Church goods. "+ But royal injunctions were more imperative than episcopal monitions, and the expenses were no doubt met in the most obvious way; indeed, these injunctions actually authorised the churchwardens to bestow part of their property upon the reparation of the churcli, " if great need requires, and whereas the parish is very poor, and not able otherwise to repair the same." So things went on until the last year of Edward VL, when the final step was taken of seizing all that was then left, or nearly all, for the Commissioners were directed even then to leave " one, two, or more chalices or cuppes according to the multitude of people." For this the Crown may have said in excuse that by this time all tbe repairs and alteiations rendered necessary by the lieformation had been efi"ected, and that what was still over after making all due pro- * Norfolk Archccoloffy, Vol. VI. ji. 361. f Ca,rdw(M's Documentari/ An ludK, Vol. I. 12. 1 86 Old English Plate. [chap, ix. visions for the future use of the Church according to the simplified ritual was superfluous if not superstitious, and in either case proper for conversion to His Majesty's use. It may be asked where then are these " one, two, or more chalices," even if all the rest have perished ? Will they not form an ample remnant by which to judge the ecclesiastical goldsmith of earlier times ? Alas ! it must be said that they too have perished with the rest, for whilst the instructions of the Commissioners directed their return, the King's injunctions ensured their destruction ; for by the latter, after more minute provisions, it was directed in one sweeping general clause that "all monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry and superstition " were to be taken away, utterly extinguished, and destroyed, " so that there remains no memory of the same in walls, glass windows, or elsewhere within churches or houses." The holy vessels that had been used at the Mass were from this point of view no less " monuments of superstition " than the representa- tions of saints in windows of painted glass, or sculptured in stone to occupy the canopied niches of the reredos, and all fell under the same ban. Let us illustrate its practical working by the case of the parish of Dartford in Kent, where the Commissioners are found expressly ordering, in 1553 (6 Edward YL), that the chalices and patens, and a pax to add to the quantity of silver retained by the inhabitants, should " be exchanged by the said church-wardens for ij cuppes to receyve the Communyon in to amount to the like weyght and value." Some parishes, in compliance with the feeling of the time and the injunc- tions, had already altered their chalices into communion cups. Quite as many of the parishes in the county of Surrey in the year last- mentioned certify to the possession of communion cups as of chalices ; some return in their list of plate one of each, marking the distinction, and some mention the exchange of one for the other. The church- wardens of St. Andrew's, Norwich, mention such a transaction, also in 6 Edward VI. :— "There do nowe remayne in the seide Churche at this day one Communyon Cuppe weing xl. unces parcell gilt at v' the mice S"" x li. whiche was made of twoo peir of challeis w* the patens parcell gilte." _ ^ ^ St. Saviour's, Southwark, sometime between the inventory taken in 1548 and that of 1552, had parted with four chalices weighing fifty-four ounces to one Calton at the sign of the Purse in Cheap, of which the said Calton made two communion cups weighing but cHAv. IX.] CJialiccs Abolished. 187 fifty-two ounces. The parish was constrainod to charge the difFerence, being 17s. 8^/., against itself, on the occasion of the hiter of the above inventories being taken.* The parochial authorities of Wimbledon, co. Surrey, record among the receipts for 1552 the following : — " Receivede for thre chalisses waying xxx" and v ounces at v** the ownce whereof went to the communyon cuppe xxj ounces and a quartern which commeth to v'' vi' iij''. And so remayneth xiij ownces and thre quartours which commythe to iii" viii'' ix'' whereof l^aide to Robert Wygge goldsmythe of London for the making and gilding of the communyon cupp after xx'' an ounce which commyth to xxxv" v''."* A few such communion cups provided under Edward VI. may still be seen. Two are the property of St. Margaret's, Westminster, to this day; but most of them were only made to be almost directly destroyed again, as unfit for the purposes of the restored ritual of the reign of Queen Mary, True it is that the respite consequent upon her accession following so quickly upon the heels of the Commissioners, for the King died that same year, saved for a time some of the few ancient chalices left by them in accordance with their instructions in the hands of their owners : for such of these as had not been immediately destroyed, like those at Dartford, were brought again into use, and of course carefully preserved until the end of Queen Mary's short reign. In some cases, too, the Commissioners had not had time to carry out their work at all. Chelmsford, for example, is found dealing with plate in 1558, which would not then have been in exist- ence at all if the Commissioners of Edward YL had ever got there. But at last these relics, which had weathered all previous storms, fell victims to the stringent orders of Queen Elizabeth and her prelates at the head of the outburst of Protestant zeal which ensued on her accession. Once again were the injunctions of King Edward VI. re-enforced and repeated almost word for word in those issued by Elizabeth. The proscribed church goods were again followed even into private hands, for the Visitation Articles of 1558 enquire, as did those of 2 Edw. VI., "whether you know any that keep in their houses any undefaced images, tables, pictures, paintings, or other monuments of feigned and false miracles, pilgrinuiges, idolatry and superstition, and do adore them, and es2)ecially such as have been set up in churches, chapels, and oratories." Inclination and injunction seemed now to work in harmony, and * Siimi/ C/niich Aulif, by J. K. Danicl-Tyssen. Old Eiipiish Plate. [chap. ix. '.b each parish vieil with its neighbour in the haste with which it proceeded to melt up what remained of its plate, especially all that had been profaned by use at the Mass, and to get rid of its other church furniture. The books w^ere sold to pedlars " to lap spices in ; " the sacring bell was "hung about a calf's neck " or " at a horse's ear," and the holy water vat was turned into a swine's trough.* But still it seemed to the bishops of the reformed church necessary to maintain the stringency of former orders, and even as late as 1569 we find amongst articles to be enquired of within the diocese of Canterbury at the ordinary Visitation of Matthew Parker, the following : — f " Whether they do minister in any prophane cuppes, bowles, dishes, or chalices heretofore used at masse or els in a decent Communion cuppe provided and kept for the same purpose only." Lastly, we may quote the Visitation Articles of Archbishop Grindal, in 1576, enquiring '' Whether you have in your Parish Churches and Chapels, a fair and comely Communion Cup of Silver, and a Cover of Silver for the same, which may serve also for the ministration of the Communion Bread." The churchwardens' accounts of every year from 1558 teem with notes of changes made in obedience to these orders ; a few examples may be taken from town and country. Amongst the parochial payments of St. Andrew-Hubbard in London for 1558 is the following: — " Paide for the Eschaunge of two chalices wdth the covers weygh- ing xxxii oz. halfe for a communion cup waying xxx oz. and halfe thexchaungc with the odde oz. at xiiij' viij''." At Chelmsford these items occur in 1560 : — " Received of Mr. Mustchampe goldsmyth at the syne of the ring with the rube in Lumbarde St. for a gylt challys with a paten gylt waying xxiii oz. and a quarter at v^ iiij'^ the ounce, som is vi'" iiij'. "Paid to Mr. Muschamp in Lombard St. at the sygne of the ring with the rube for a coupe of gilt weighing 19 oz. 3 qr., 6'' 8'^ the oz., som is £6. 11. 7." Bungay St. Mary in 1568 pays "For a Co'mmunyon cuppe made of one payer of chalice liavyng a cover, for workmanship and some silv', xxi"." The Leverton churchwardens in 1570 pay " Thomas Turpyn the goldsmith for facyonenge of the Communyon Cuppe weynge xii. oz., x'. " It™ he putt to the same cupp a q*" and a half of an ounce of his ow-n silver ij\" * Peacock's Church Furniture. f Gardwell's Uucumentari/ Annuls, I. 321. cHAiMx.] PiircJiasc of Coininuiiion Cups. 189 At Eltham they exchange a chalice and paten weighing 13^ oz. for a cup and cover only 10 oz, in weight. At Lyminge in Kent there is a curious little cup of the year 1561-2, bought with a bequest to the church of vli. by one Daniel Spycer in 1558 for the purchase of a chalice. Four years later, at the Archbishop's visitation in 1562, it is recorded as decreed "that a CoDununion Ciippc shall be bought with the money." The cover of this cup is of different make, and engraved with the date 1578 ; this WHS added no doubt in compliance with the enquiry in that behalf made by the Visitation Articles of Archbishop Grindal in 1576. The cup itself had always been supposed to be of the date engraved on the cover, but the present rector's discovery of the visitation of 1562 has proved the hall-mark to be a safe guide. It may be added that the cup is by the same maker as the oldest Protestant Communion cup known, being one of those at St. Lawrence, .Jewry. In some parts of the country, perhaps owing to the energy of the diocesan, these changes were effected more promptly than in others. In the diocese of Norwich so many of the cups that remain are either of the year 1567 or 156S that it suggested an enquiry whether the Bishop of Norwich of that day, John Parkhurst, was not an excep- tionally zealous reformer. He had been one of the exiles at Zurich, and Strype says of him, " and so delighted was he with the discipline and doctrine of that Church, that he often wished that our Church were modelled exactly according to that."* The annalist goes on to say, "this bishop was supposed to be inclinable to the puritans, and to wink at them." To these notes may be added an extract from his injunctions of 1561, the year of his first visitation, in which he directs his clergy to " see the places filled up in walles or ellswhere where imagies stode, so as if thcr hadde been none there." Again, in later injunctions of 15(59, he asks, " Item, whether you have in your Church a decent pulpit and Communion table, furnished and placed as becometh, with a comely Communion cup with a cover." . . . In Worcestershire so many cups of the year 1571 occur, that the late Archdeacon Lea, when enquiring into the subject, was led to suppose that this was the case all over England, and to search for some reason for the coincidence, just as the present writer had done some years before for Norfolk. In the neighhouring county of Glou- cester, cups of 1576 or 1577 are much more common than those of AviififK, I. ii. pp. .'')08-9. I go Old English Plate. [chap, ix. any other years. In Dorsetshire, Mr. Nightingale found nearly all were of the years 1570 to 1574 inclusive ; whilst the experience of the Rev. A. Trollope in his Leicestershire researches puts the greater number of the dated Elizabethan pieces in that county as from 1567 to 1571. In the West of England, Devon, and Cornwall, most of these cups were obtained quite as late as in Gloucestershire, but every village far and near was properly provided by 1580; and not only were they so provided, but in many a church the very same " fair and comely Communion Cup " is in existence and in use at the present day. Some have urged that these exchanges were made merely because the chalices were too small for congregational use ; but it will be observed that in many of the above-mentioned instances the com- munion cup is no larger, and in more than one case is of even less weight, than the chalice it replaces. The tone of the episcopal visitation articles is, however, conclusive as to the real reason for it, and some of the earlier ones speak in plainer terms than the later versions we have already quoted.* For instance, Grindal, when Arch- bishop of York, had in 1571 required his clergy " to minister the Holy Communion in no chalice nor any profane cup or glasse, but in a Communion Cup of Silver, and with a cover of Silver appointed also for the ministration of the Communion bread." Since this chapter was originally printed, the late Rev. J. Fuller Russell, B.C.L., gave in the Arcltceological Journal (vol. xxxv. p. 48), the reply of George Gardiner, one of the Prebendaries of Canterbury, to Archbishop Parker's " articles to be enquired of," in Canterbury Cathedral in 1567. " This respondent saith that their divine service is duely songe in maner and forme, according to the Queen's Injunc- tions : saving that the Communion, as he saith, is ministered in a chalice, contrary, as he saith, to the Advertisements .... He wold have service songe more deliberately with Psalms at the beginning and ending of service, as is appointed by the Injunctions ; and their chalice turned into a decent communion cup." Mr. Russell observed that neither chalices nor cups are even mentioned in Archbishop Parker's Advertisements of 1566 ; but that in 1562 he had, according to Strype, intended to order " chalices to be altered to decent cups." His proposed articles of 1562, were " exhibited to be admitted by authority, but not so allowed," and there- fore never issued ; but as Mr. Russell proceeds, " Master Gardiner may have had some inkling of the Archbishop's inclination in favour Appendix to Second Report of the Ritual Commis.don, p. 411 CHAP. I.X.] PurcJiasc of Coininunion Cups. igi of the alteration of clialieos to decent cups and sagaciously opined that bis recommeuclation of it might advance liim in the good graces of his Metropolitan, who notwithstanding his failure to obtain the allowance of authority for such a change in 1562, did not scruple to enjoin it in 1575, if not before." It may be noted as a curious fact that a great number of the Elizabethan communion cups still preserved in the arch-diocese of Canterbury are of the very year 1562. We are now in a position to say what the antiquary may expect to find around him in church or cabinet. It may be summed up very shortly : he will find a few chalices of Norman or late Romanesque type, chiefly coffin chalices, and succeeding to them a few — a very few — Gothic and Tudor chalices and their patens, remains of pre-Reformation art. Of the latter hardly a dozen w^re known when these pages were first printed, not more than twenty years ago ; and to this small number the addition of about a score of examples at the outside has been the result of the more general interest taken in the subject of old church-plate and the very extensive, and in many counties and dioceses exhaustive, search that has since been made for what remains of it. He will find here and there a communion cap with its cover of the reign of Edward VI., made no doubt of the materials afforded by some more ancient chalice. Of these there are still few^er than of the chalices which preceded them ; and next in order he will find broad- cast over the whole country a multitude of examples of the communion cups provided in the first years of Queen Elizabeth under the circum- stances that have been narrated, each with its paten-cover ; and he will find flagons of shapes varying with their date, and other special considerations to be mentioned later. Coming to more modern times there is less and less to be said ; the needs of an increased population, and the pious liberality of donors, have added from time to time to the quantity of our church plate, but not to its interest or artistic value. Art in these matters appears to have steadily declined from the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the present century, when a salutary reaction has directed attention to the examples that Gothic art has loft for our study and guidance. Modern reproductions of these, in some cases admirable, in others still leave much to be desired ; a slavish adhe- rence to ancient models that cannot be surpassed would be better than the bastard results of coupling pure Gothic form with inapprojiriate ornamentation, or of adapting beautiful Gothic adornment to articles of tasteless modern shape. ig2 Old English Plate. [chap. ix. CHALICES. Ill the early days of the Churcli, clialices were no doubt formed of various materials, some of them simple and quite the reverse of costly. But in process of time objections were found to these ; wood was porous, and liable to absorb a portion of the sacred element placed within ; horn was an animal substance and so formed by blood ; glass, crystal and precious stones were all brittle and liable to fracture ; and at length the precious metals alone were allowed to be employed. It was decreed by the Council of Rheims in 847 that if not of gold, chalices should be wholly of silver ; tin being allowed only in cases where means to provide anything better were wanting. Other materials were forbidden altogether. Silver is prescribed by a constitution of Stephen Langton (1206),* the commentator in Lyndewode adding "rcZ aureum." Something may be gathered as to the fashion of the chalices of the thirteenth and next centuries from wills and mortuaries. Nicholas de Farnham in 1257 bequeaths to the monks of Durham "j calix cum lapidibus pretiosis in pede ; " and John, Earl of Warrenne, in 1347, another such to Durham Cathedral. It is described in his will as "unum calicem magni valoris de auro purissimo cum multis lapidibus pretiosis insertis." In the inventory of the goods of a bishop of Durham who died in 1381, his chalices are mentioned as follows: — "j calicem magnum argenteum et deauratum in cujus pede est ymago Domini crucifixi et super nodum ejusdem Scuta armorum ejusdem Episcopi cum iij leun- culis argenteis. If^ j cuppam infra deauratam et extra anemelatam pro Eukaristia." Stephen Lescrop, Archdeacon of Richmond, makes a bequest in 1418, of " unum chalescuppe cum longo pede de argento deauratum et coopertum cum j knop in sumitate." Proof could be adduced that chalices were cups of a somewhat fixed and well-known form, from the fact that drinking-vessels were some- times described as " chalyswyse," or "ad modum calicis factum." Sir R. de Roos mentions in his will, dated 1392, " unum ciphum qui vocatur chaliscopp ; " an almost identical entry is to be found in the will of John Stoke, a burgess of Bristol, proved in 1393 ;t whilst among a number of articles of table-plate bought by Edward III. in 1366 of Thomas Hessey his goldsmith, and presented to the Constable * Lyndewode, lib. iii. fol. 136. f The Bristol Great Orphan Book. CHAP. IX.] Chalices. 193 of Flanders and other personages as gifts from the King, was " un coup de chalice endorr' et esm'." But it is hardly necessary for the purposes of such a handbook as this to discuss at any length the form of ancient chalices which no longer exist. AVe may pass by the chalices with handles which were often found and perhaps necessary till the denial of the cup to the laity, and come to the known if rare examples of the twelfth century. Most of the earliest chalices known to exist, are those which have been discovered in the tombs of ecclesiastics of about this epoch, but one or two massing chalices of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries also remain. Mr. Octavius Morgan says as to the form of the Pre-Eeformation English chalice, " A chalice consists of three parts — the cup or bowl ; the stem, which in its middle swelled into a bulb called the knop ; and the foot. The bowl itself was usually quite plain, in order that it might be more easily kept pure and clean. The stem, knop and foot were fre(juently ornamented with enamels, or chased work repre- senting the emblemi? of the Passion or other sacred subjects ; and on the foot, which was usually made hexagonal,* to prevent the chalice rolling when laid upon its side to drain, there was always a cross which the priest kept towards himself at the time of celebration. In the thirteenth century the chalices seem to have been short and low, and the bowl wide and shallow, as exemplified by the celebrated chalice of St. Remy, once at Pvheims, but removed to the J^ibliotheque Xationale, which is considered to be of the time of St. Louis, as also by the chalices of silver and pewter which have been found in the tombs of the priests of that century. In the fourteenth century they were made taller, the bowls assumed a decidedly conical form, being narrow at the bottom, and having the sides sloping straight outwards. In the fifteenth century they were usually broader at the bottom, with the sides still forming part of a cone, like that at Nettlecombe, co. Somerset, till a form altogether hemispherical was assumed, of which a fine chalice at Leominster, figured in Arcde de forma vwlctte sc.r punctorum). O.K.]', 194 ^^^^ EnglisJi Plate. [cua)-. ix. guish old English chalices into classes, we shall find the most ancient group with " wide and shallow " bowl and circular foot, which we have called late Romanesque, or Norman, includes, as Mr. Morgan notes, the cotfin chahces, together with the Berwick St. James example to he mentioned again presently. The "decidedly conical" and narrower bowl of the fourteenth century is well exemplified by the latest known of such coffin chalices, that found in the tomb of Archbishop Melton of York, who died in 1340. This bowl we shall also find in the earlier examples of the succeeding group or class, which consists of the Gothic or hexagonal- footed chalices, the earliest known of which are at Hamstall Ridware in Staffordshire, and at Goathland, Yorkshire. This Gothic class includes amongst its later examples the well- known Nettlecombe chalice, used by Mr. 0. Morgan to illustrate the characteristic features of its period, one of which is the bowl " broader at the bottom, but with the side still forming part of a cone," a form which carries us on, as the Archbishop Melton chalice did earlier, to the first of the next or Tudor class, the chalices with six-lobed and flowing or wavy- sided feet but less conical bowls, which are found during a period almost exactly coinciding with the reign of Henry VIII. These form our third and equally well-marked group, and bring us gradually through such bowls as that at Jurby to the " hemispberical " bowl noticed by Mr. Morgan as a feature of the latest chalices of Pre-Reformation form. The first type is found till about 1350 ; the second from then for a full century and a half, say till 1510; and the third carries us onward to 1536, the date of the latest example. These main and typical forms cover so many and varied details of ornament, that in a recent admirable paper on the subject,* the authors have found it possible to divide Pre-Reformation chalices into eight or perhaps nine tyj)es, some of them referring to the form, and others to the ornamentation of the vessels ; and the corresponding jmtens into two forms and seven types, the latter relating to their decoration. A number of divisions, taking note of almost every distinguishing feature in turn, are very useful for classifying new finds ; and apart from considerations of chronology the arrangement could not be im- proved upon. But, for historical purposes, divisions are not very convenient, the dating of which is obviously subject to much uncer- tainty in consequence of the types sometimes being contemporaneous, sometimes overlapping one another in point of time, and sometimes * EnjUnh Medieval Chalices and Patens, I Fallow, M. A., Arclucolorjical Journal, vol. by W. H. St. John Hope, M.A., and T. M. ! xliii. •H VI'. I.\.] Clialiccs. 195 reappearing after an interval. It is in fact almost, and in the earlier epoflis quite, impossible to date a series of groups formed upon this principle. A very early clialice like that discovered in the tomb of Archbishop Hubert Walter at Canterbury, who died in 1205, would fall, owing to its decoration, into a class by no means the most ancient ; whilst the much later example from the tomb of Bishop Swinfield of Hereford, who died in 131 G, would be placed amongst those of the rudest and therefore the supposed earliest type. It is very far from certain that excellence in workmanship and decoration is any sure proof of late- ness of date, or rudeness in those respects good evidence of greater antiquity. It seems preferable, therefore, in the present chapter, to divide chalices, according to their form, into types or classes that are chro- nologically, as well as in point of fashion, more certainly distinct ; and without treating details of workmanship as if they indicated ditferences of period. These can l)e easily sub-divided if necessar}", forminorconsiderations, but a sin- gle sub-division for each group seems all that is required. Such an arrangement will be found on page 200 in a tabular form, the three main groups of which cor- respond in a general way with the late Romanesque or Norman, the Gothic and the Tudor styles in architecture, at all events nearly enough to be called by those names for the sake of distinction, and includes the patens, as well as the chalices under the same headings and indications. If the first group extends through more than one architectural epoch, the second covers almost exactly the Perpendicular period, and the third coincides, as we have said, with the reign of Henry VIII. Turning now to each of our three groups successively we find that the earliest (A) consists almost entirely of the chalices which have from time to time been discovered in the cofhnsof bishops and priests of the eleventh and following centuries. They are the oldest pieces of plate known to exist in England, and they have been found usually of silver, but sometimes of pewter, in o2 No. 1.- -PEWTER COFFIN CHALICE AND PATEN. ]:_> CENT. ig6 Old English Plate. [OHAP. IX. coffins at Canterbury, York, Lincoln, St. David's, Hereford, Salisbury, Exeter, and Chichester Cathedrals, and also at other places. Amongst the very oldest of silver are chalices from the coffins, which are supposed to be those of Bishops Seffride and Hilary, successively occupants of the See of Chichester in the twelfth century. These are of silver-gilt and have their patens. But there is a still earlier one of pewter at Chichester, probably buried with Bishop Godefridus, who died in 1088 ; and this also has its paten. Similar chalices of silver No. 2. — CHALICE IN THE BRITISH JIUSEIM. 13 CENT, have been found at York Minster of the later part of the twelfth or the first half of the thirteenth century. So many coffin chalices are of pewter that it may be permissible to give an illustration of a very early specimen made of that metal. It was found in the coffin of a priest at Cheam in Surrey (No. 1), and gives a good idea of such a vessel in the thirteenth century. No better illustration of the general character of the early silver chalices can be found than a massing chalice (No. 2) formerly at Ber- wick St. James, Wiltshire, but now in the British Museum. It has all the points to be observed in those of earliest date, including the slight lip to the bowl which only occurs upon the most ancient of these vessels, quite disappearing before the end of the thirteenth century. t'HAr. IX.] Chalices. 197 The Avood-cut would do almost equally well for one of the coffin chalices found at York or Chichester. But the finest chalice of this earliest class is without doubt one which was dupr up in 18!)0 with its paten near Dolgelly, X. Wales. It is of unusual size and character, showing the early lip but coupled with an elaborate knop and orna- mentation on the stem and foot of decidedly Early English design. The paten has six lobes with ornamental spandrils, and in the central space the Saviour sitting, Avith the right hand raised as in blessing, No. 3. — COFFIN CHALICE UF AIM'. MKI.loN (l). 13-10) AT VDIilv MINJ^TKU. an inscription in plain capitals running round the device, features which, with the characteristics of the chalice itself, place both vessels iu the early or middle part of our first class or group ; but which it would be difficult to include under any one head in the more detailed system of classification, mentioned at an earlier page. The Dolgelly vessels are little, if at all less ancient tliau those lately found in Arcli- bishop Hubert's tomb at ('anterl)ury, A later example, found in the tomb of ]3ishop Longespee of Salisbury, who died 1'2*J7, is of good execution, the bowl wide and 1 98 Old English Plate. [chap. IX. shallow without a lip, the stem and foot, like all the rest, circular but decorated with a little chasing, and having an ornamental knop. It is slightly more Gothic in feeling and finish. Plainer vessels resembling the early ones at York and Chichester, are from the tombs of Bishop Sutton of Lincoln, who died in 1299, and of Bishop Swinfield of Hereford, who died in 1316. Almost the latest of its class] is a chalice with similar foot and stem to the other examples, but with the deeper and more conical bowl proper to the fourteenth century, preserved at York, and found in the coffin of Archbishop jNIelton, who died in 1340 ; and this (No. 3), with its transitional features, brings us to the middle of the fourteenth century and to examples of a more definitely Gothic type. (A 2 in our table.) Of the second and third groups or types (B and C in the table) to which we now come, the chalice mentioned by Mr. 0. Morgan as at Nettlecombe, together with examples at Coombe Keynes in Dorsetshire, at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, at Jurby in the Isle of Man, at Trinity College, Oxford, and at Wylye, Wilts, have The first two represent the Gothic They are all of great beauty and No. 4. -CHALICE (1479) AT NETTLKCOMBE, SOMERSET. been selected as illustrations. and the rest the Tudor class. merit, and whilst five out of the six are hall-marked, and their dates therefore accurately known, the date of the sixth is not less well ascertained.* The Nettlecombe Chalice and its Paten were brought to light by Mr. Octavius Morgan some years ago, and are of the greatest interest, not only from their beauty and perfect condition, but from their antiquity, for they are older than any other hall-marked example of * Bishop Fox'.s chalice at Coriuis Christi College, Oxford, possesses the rare interest of being the only known chalice niaJe of Kol.l. CHAP. IX.] Cli ill ices. igg English goldsmith's work. The chalice is described by Mr. Morgan as follows : — * " The chalice stands very nearly six inches high. The bowl is in form ^between a cone and a hemisphere, that is, the bottom is broad and round, whilst the sides continue straight and conical, a form MI!/: KKV.NKS, l)(_lKSKT. which is rather indicative of its date. This bowl is supported on a hexagonal stem divided into two portions by the knoj*, which is :i beautiful piece of goldsmith's work formed by the projection from the angles of the stem of six short square arms, each terminating iu a lion's mask, or in proper heraldic language ' a leopard's head,' and having the intermediate spaces tilled up with elegant flowing Gothic * This description originally iipiieared in ylrch(iolof/i<(, vol. xiii. 405, ami was accoin- 1 allied ijy coloured litlio^'iaplisijf tlio clialico and jiateii of the actual size of the originals, iVom wliich the engravings preiiared fortius viiluiiie have iieeii carefullv reduced. 1 200 Old English Plate [chap IX. A TABULAR CLA8SIFICATI()X OF P A. NORMAN TYPE. CHALICES WITH CIIlCCLAR FEET . circa 1170—1350. Chichester I., slight lip. Canterbury, 1205. Abp. II. "Walter, slight lip. Berwick St. James, slight lip {illustration). Chichester II., slight lip. Lincoln, 1253. Bp. Grostete, slight lip. (1) 12 & 13 cent. Bowls wide and sJiallvn'. (2) Early 14 cent. Bawl conical. Iiincoln, 1279. Bp. Gravesend, slight lip. Salisburj^ 1297. Bp. Longespee. Lincoln, 1299. Bp. Sutton. Exeter, 1307. Bp. Bitten. ^Hereford, 1316. Bp. Swinfield. *York, 1340. Abp. Melton {ill nitration). B. GOTHIC TYPE. CHALICES WITH HEX AGONAL FEET . circa 1350 — 1510. (1) 1350 — 1510 . . . / Ilanistall Ridware. Goathland. Boivh conical at fird, • Nettlecombe, 1479 {^i II n strati on). Manningford A then less so. Feet ivithout toes. (2) 1490—1510 . Bowls as hefori Feet luitli toes. B. N. C. Oxford, 1498. ilinderwell. Clifford Chambers, 1494. A'ery Eev. Dr. Darby West Drayton, 1507 Claughton. *Leominster, c. 1510 (stem buttressed as in Pi| Hall chalice of following class and bowl spherical), and ten others ; including 0' Keynes {iJlustration). TTJpOR TYPE. CHALICES WITH SIX-LOBED AND FLOWING F circa 1510 — 153(). / C.C.C. Oxford, 1507 {illustration). Pillaton Hall (1) 1510—1530 . . . j Leyland, 1518. Jui-by, 1521 {illustration). Bowls often less conical. 1 Ebbesbourne. St. Sampson, Guernsey. Sturm Feet six-lohed. ( Marshall, 1536. Highworth, 1534. (2) 1525—1530 . . Bowls nearhj lie mi- j Wylye, 1525 {illustration). spherical. | Trin. Coll. Oxford, Ib'll {^illustration). Feet flowing outline. Tlie bowls of the York and Leominster clialiccs serve to mark transitions. CHAl'. IX.] Chalices. 20 r {EFOinrATIOX CHALICES AXD PATENS. TIlKll! I'ATENS Thp Device. ches-tor I. Iterburv, 120.3. ke [iUustrutioii). Chester II. colu, 12 -'),■>. rcester, 12()(J. Bp, (Anitelujie 1 {iUmtmtiiiii). icoln, 1270. sbiuy, ]2!»7. icoln, 12iM). bter, loOT. i'eford. l;31(;. 1 it, 1:H(). TlLKIIl J'A'J'KXS. 4-foil. I'laiii i^Iiite. 8-foil. 8-foil. ■1-foil. 4-foil. 4-foil aud square. 8-foil. riiiin plate. Plain plate. I'lain plate. 6-foil (as in earliest of next class at Ilani- stall PiJware). A^niis \ with iuscriiition Agnus - in uncial Agnus ) letters. Manus. Bp. blessing. Manus. IManus. Manus. Manus. Manus. Maiui; inscription. Mil iQstall Kidware. fi-foil. Manus (as in i)receding class). "With this exception, almost all the patens now have a rude " vernicle" for device. t six-foil deiiression (quite at last) occasionally gives way to plain circular ression, as at Ilinderwell, with "agnus" or "IHC" and some of the latest have nd r.nind rim, like those in following class. These are at Ilappisbrough, IJOl, Claughtnn. tlecombe [illudfiitlui,). (3-foil. Yernicic Til 1:1 1! J'JThWS The I'atens are as in preceding class, till '■//■.-/ I,y20.f From c. l.')2l), "vernicle" aborated witli rays, &c., the six-foil depression giving way more often tlian before le plain jdate, as at C. C. C. Oxford, l.JO", Great AValtham, 1j21, and St. lOdmund'.-, (bury, looo; and a li'gcnd lound rim is the rule. Coll. Oxfoi-d [iUiisinifinii). (J-foil. "N'ernide elaborated. Legend round rim. Ul the ball-marked patens down to c ].'.20, of which ahoiit .seventeen arc known, are six-foil rith vernicle ; except C.C.C. Oxford, ]."»07, wiiich is a plain plate; ami IIai)i>i.sl>iough, l.''i04, rliich has legend in addition. 202 Old Elio-lisll Plate. [chap. ix. tracery of pierced open ^vork. The lower part of the stem rests on a curved hexagonal foot, being united to it by Gothic mouldings, and the foot terminates in an upright basement moulding, which is enriched with a small vertically reeded band. One of the six compartments of the foot was ornamented, as is usual in ancient chalices, by a repre- sentation of the Crucifixion. The metal of this compartment has been cut out, and a silver plate engraved with the Crucifixion has been rudely riveted in. This silver plate is, I think, the original work, and it was formerly enamelled — for it would probabl}' have been found easier and more convenient to prepare the enamel on a small separate plate and then fix it in its place, than to have subjected the whole chalice to the heat of the enameller's furnace, which must have been the case had tbe enamel been done on the foot itself. The silver plate is deeply engraved, or rather the metal is tooled out to receive transparent enamel in the style of the work of the fourteenth or the beginning of the fifteenth century, and small traces of the enamel with whicli it has been filled may still be discovered. It will be seen at once that the design was mude for the place from the peculiar attitude of the figure, the arms being drawn up over the head to adapt it to the form of the compartment." This last feature is a typical one, appearing in most of the chalices of this type and period, sometimes with the addition of figures standing beside the Cross, and other modifications of the like kind according to the fancy or the skill of the artist. The date of this chalice is 1479, though from the want of examples it was difficult in former days to positively assign the date-letter which it plainly bears to that year. This letter was supposed to stand for the year 1459, but the date-letters are now well understood and the many points of resemblance between this and chalices more recently discovered, the dates of which are well ascertained, are conclusive as to its age, though to judge from the enamelling alone, it might have been of a somewhat earlier date than 1479. The only special feature to notice about the next illustration (Class B2 in the table), the Coombe Keynes chalice, is that it has a small projecting ornament or toe at each angle of the foot. Mr. Hope and Mr. Fallow called these "knops" on the authority of an early mention of them, and record a notice in 1525, in which they are described as " half mones, otherwise called Knappes." But as " knoj) " was the word exclusively applied to the projection on the stem of the chalice by Mr. Octavius Morgan, it would not be appro- priate to follow a newer and less established use here. The usual design of these projecting toes is that of an ornamental letter M, and CHAP. IX.] dial ices. 203 this is often so decidedly the case that it may be intended to indicate the name of the Virgin. Chalices with this ornamental addition are the latest of the Gothic gronp. Two of them are hall-marked as of 1494 and 149G respectively, dates which happily coincide with the period at which these chalices had been placed already by their fashion in the absence of any known dated or hall-marked example. Of the fifteen specimens at present known, several have lost some or all of their toes. They were somewhat easily broken oflf ; and when a chalice had lost one or more of them, the easiest way of re- storing the symmetry of its appearance was no donbt to lop off the rest. Mr. Hope sug- gests that their liabi- lity to catch in the altar linen or the vest- ments of the priest caused the change in the form of foot which we soon have to notice. It is with some hesitation that they have been classed as a sub-division of the Gothic group to which they belong ; for it is not at all impossible that some of the earlier chalices, now without toes, may originally have been so ornamented. It will be seen from the engravhigs of Bishop Fox's chalice (No. 6) and the chalices at Trinity College (No. 8), and Wylye (No. 9), that they form a regular series, the cable-like edges to the stem and the engraving on the foot of the chalice of 1507 giving an intermediate point between the very beautiful simplicity of the earlier Nettlecombe' and Coombe Keynes chalices and the later })air. ^hich of Mr. Octavius ^Morgan's description of the Nettlecianbe chalice is equally applicable to the other examples. But these bring us to] the third type (Class C in the table), which we have called the Tudor; and as tlie chalice of DM'.) was treated as No. 6. -iiisnop fox's gold chalice (1.")07) at coui'us CIim-TI COLLECK, OXFORD. 204 Old English Plate [chap. IX. a transitional example between the two earlier groups, so Bishop Fox's, with the chalice at Leominster, the former dating back and the latter looking forwards, may illustrate the passage from the better Gothic of the second to the debased of the third and latest class. In the Corpus College chalice we still have the conical bowl of the middle type coupled with the lobed foot which now replaces the more No. 7. — CHALICE (lO-l) AT JUllBY, ISLE :.1.V.r,K, oXKuUh. Gothic feeling is lost, and with these features a nearly hemispherical bowl which abandons the extreme simplicity of the Gothic period, by showing an engraved inscription on a belt running round the centre of it, to match in the case of the Trinity chalice an inscription similarly engraved upon its paten. This inscription is not unusual. "A chalice with a patent gilt graven with Calivem Saliitaris we'm}; xxi. onz.," is mentioned amongst the gilt plate belonging to Henry Fitzroy, Duke of IJichmond, at his dcatli in almost the very year in Avhich the Wylye chalice was made. 206 Old English Plate. [chap. IX. The beautiful example at Wylje is one of those discovered by the late Mr. J. E. Nightingale, F.S.A., who described it as follows : — " It is of silver gilt and in excellent preservation ; 6f inches in height, i-'f" Xo. 9. CHALICE (1525) AT WVLYE, WILTS. stem and base hexagonal. Some of the ornamentation corresponds with the Trinity College chalice at Oxford. It has the same cable ornament at the angles of the stem, and the same Gothic open embattled work at the foot of it, but not the open tracery work betAveen Chali CCS. 207 the cables. The knop is simihir to that of the Nettlecombe chalice, except that it has human heads instead of lions' heads ; the moulding of the base, too, is like the Nettlecombe cup, and likewise the form of the bowl, which is not so globular as that of the Trinity College example. It has an inscription both on bowl and foot, and the usual crucifix on the base; the lettering on the cup is small Gothic, and that on the base in capitals of the earl}- ^^ sixteenth century type." The hall-mark is a Lombardic capital )j|£)and Avill give us the year 15'25 as the date of this interesting cup. It is as close to the Trinity College, Oxford, chalice in point of date, as it is in the style of its ornamentation. The six engravings given of the chalices of the Gothic and Tudor period, give for each of these groups one example in outline, followed by another in full perspective. It may be not iindesirable in conclusion to give a complete list of the known Pre- Reformation chalices, as nearly as may be in chronological order, omitting the coffin chalices. They are as follows : — Type A. 1. r>ritisli Museum (from Berwick St. James, Wilts) . early 13th cent. 2. Dolgelly, chalice found near (Do.) Type 1!. H. Hamstall Kidvvare. Staffs. 4. Goatliland, Yurkshiie . 5. Nettlecombe, Somerset 6. Braseiiose Coll., Oxford, a p; 7. Manningford Abbas, Wilts S. Hinder well, Yorks. . '.». Clifford Chandjers, Glouc. 10. Very Rev. Dr. Darby 11. Codford St. Mary, Wilts 12. Bcswick, Yorks. 1:1 Hornby R. C. Church. Lanc: I 1. Old Hutton, Westmorlanil !.'). I '.acton, Herefordshire . late Uth century. early ].')th century . 1 ITil i.nir . 14'.t8 14!)4 1496 Blastou St. Giles, Leicestersliire. Little Fariugdon, Oxfordshire . Coombe Ke3'ncs, Dorset . . Chalice, now in the Rodney family but formerly at Chavenage, Glouc. Comb Pyne, Devon . . . West Drayton, MidiUesex . Claughton, Lanes. . . . Leominster, Herefordshire c. Type C. I'illaton Hall, Staffs . Corpus Christi College, Oxford. St. Sampson, Guernsey Ebbesbourne, Wilts . . . Leyland, R. C. Cliurch. Lanes. . Jurby, Isle of Man Sturminstcr INIarshall. Dorset . Wylyc, Wilts .... Trinity College. Oxford Highworth, Wilts . ... 1510 l.-)(i 15 IS L521 i:>-Mi 1525 1527 15:il "Would that many more such remained, but the chalices mentioned in the foregoing list are all that have come to the author's knowledge,. after years of enquiry, and with the advantage of the researches of many friends and a constantly increasing band of fellow-labourers in this interesting archaeological field ; amongst whom must be specially mentioned the late Mr. J. E. Nightingale, F.8.A., who l)rought to light no less than eight chalices in Wilts and Dorset, and ]\Ir. T. M. 2o8 Old English Plate. [chap. IX. Fallow, F.8.A., who has been as successful in tlie Yorkshire and Lancashire district. The examples from No. 9 to No. '23 inclusive, form a beautiful group, having much good work and interesting features, including the projecting toes which have been described as peculiar to them. One of the first discovered of these was the chalice at Old Hutton, found by Miss Ellen K, Goodwin (novv Mrs. Ware) in the course of No. 10. — I'ATEN (O. 1200) AT WYKE, HANTS. examining the church-plate of the Deanery of Kendal for publication in the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society's Transactions. This was the only piece of Pre-Reformation plate remaining in the diocese of Carlisle. It is to the great interest excited by the successful volume upon the church-plate of the Carlisle Diocese, edited by Chancellor Ferguson, which was the first complete Diocesan or County account to see the light, that we owe the admirable works on the same subject which have succeeded it, and a number more which are in hand, some of them rapidly approaching completion. We now come to Patens, which are more numerous, and a good many of which are still in use. Above ninety are now known, by far the greater part of them of the very end of the fifteenth or the CHAP. IX. J Patens. 2og earh^ part of tlic sixteenth century. One of the most hcautiful and oldest at the same time is at Wyke in Hampshire (No. 10). "With an oetofoil depression, it exhibits both the characteristic features of the most ancient examples, viz. : — the Aj^iius for central device, and an inscription runnin,!;' round the rim of the plate in uncial lettering-. The inscription is CUNCTA CREO VIRTUTE REGO PIE TATE REFORMO. Very similar lettering is to ha seen on the })aten found at Canter- hury in the tomb of Archbishop Walter who died in 1205. A third very early ex- ample is at Chichester bearing, like the Can- terbury example, the inscription AGNVS DEI aVI TOLLIS PECCATAMVNDI MISERERE NO- BIS, both of them having the " Agnus " for central device. The spelling in all these examples is jnore or less abbre- viated or incorrect, and in the case of the Canterbury paten the letters NN are engraved, as we should say, upside down. The Canterbury paten has around the rim a second band with a curious inscription which does not occur elsewhere in England. In the thirteenth century, the " Manus Dei" became the usual device for the centre, and the depression seems more often than not of quatrefoil shape. An engraving (No. 11) is given of a very typical example of c. 12G6 found in the tomb of Bishop Cantelupc of Worcester. By the time we come to the Gothic period, we have a more settled form and fashion of Paten. Instead of the plain plate or the tenfoil or oetofoil or quatrefoil depression, we have now almost invariably a six- lobed depression corresponding to the hexagonal form of the foot of the chalice, and the "agnus" and "nianus" give way to the "veriiicle" or face of the Saviour rudely engraved in the middle of the depression. This is illustrated by the Nettlecombe paten, which Mr. 0. Morgan O.E.P. P Xo. 11. — COFFIN PATEN OF liP. OANTILUl'li l,D. \-C(>) AT WciKCESTEK CATUKDRAL. 2IO Old English Plate. [chap. IX. (lesciibed as follows : — " The paten is ■!§ inches in diameter, with a narrow moulded edge and a brim like an ordinary plate, within which is sunk a six-lobed depression. The centre points from which the workman formed the lobes are still visible, and the spandrels between the lobes are filled with a small radiating ornament as is usual in similar patens which are not unfref^uently met with. In the centre is a still further depression, in which has been inserted from the back a small silver plate having in trans- parent enamel sunk in the metal a repre- sentation of the ver- nicle or face of our Saviour surrounded by a cruciform nimbus. It fortunately remains perfect. This central depression with an in- serted plate of enamel is very unusual, the surface of patens being usually made as smooth as possible. The back of this small plate is gilt and engraved with the sacred monogram (see No. 12) in black letter of the fifteenth century." Such patens were commonly made to match the chalices with which they were used, and the two were called " a chalice with his paten " in the old inventories of church goods. The depression of the paten often fitted exactly into the top of its chalice if placed upon it. As we get later into the Gothic period the form of the paten becomes a little more uncertain, the six-lobed depression giving Avay to the single depression of a plain plate ; and in the late Gothic times too, we find the sacred monogram instead of the vernicle. , In the Tudor time the paten is elaborated to match the chalices of which we have already spoken, and as an inscription around the bowls of the chalice became usual, so did the same addition become a common feature around the rim of the paten, and they were engraved to match one another. Of this final development the fine paten (No. 13) at Trinity College, Oxford, supplies us with an illustration. No. 12. — PATEN (1470) AT NKTTLECO.MBE, SOMERSET. CHAP. IX. 1 Patens. 211 The lettering of the Tudor period will he noticed, and the elahora- tion of rays with which the vernicle is surrounded as with a halo, spreading over the whole surface within the six-lobed space left round the central portion of the paten. The paten at St. Edmund's, Salisbury, of the year 1583, much resembles the Trinity paten. No. 13. ■ — PATEN- (l.'2r) AT TUI.NITV COLLIOGE, O.XFORD. Of the whole number of known marked. They are as follows : patens, some twenty-two arc hall- Screinby. Lines. Heworth, Duih. . Late liev. Thos.Stanit'oit Durham Catlil. Liljiary (from Hamsterlc_y, Dmli Hartshorne, Deri), (ireat Waltliam, Kssc.x Keac'lianiwcll, Norf. Trill. Coll. O.xford . Gissing, Norf. St. Edmund, Salisbury (ilanmaes, Glamor. . It will be noticed that no less than tive of these hall-marked patens come from Norfolk, a county which can loist of possessing more than p2 Kettlecombe, Somerset . 1471) \'crnicle Stow Longa, Hunts. nil! do. Shirley, Derbyshire 1 1'.»:! do. Clifford Chambers, Glouc. 141tl do. Childrey, Berks 1 vm; .lu. Cossey, Norf. . . . 1 \'.u; dn. Happisbrough, Norf. i.-,(i| do. ( '. C. C, Oxford . l.-,(i7 do. West Drayton, Midx. . Ljd? do. ilockham Parva, Norf. LW.) . do. Orcheston St.Mary.Wilt s i:.i:{:! do. . \:,:\-> do. 212 Old English Plate. [CHAl'. IX. thirty out of the whole number of Pre-Reformafcion patens remaining at the present time. Besides the paten, a spoon sometimes appertained to the ancient massing chalice. A chalice is mentioned in a will of 1422, as " calicem sanctifi- catam cum patena et cocliari eidem calici pertinente." The use of this chalice spoon is told us b}^ an entry in the Yorlv Minster fabric rolls, 23 Dec. 1370, which adds to the men- tion of a silver gilt spoon that it was "ad proporcionandum vinum sive aquam pro calice magni altaris." This brings us to Protestant times and the new form of communion cup introduced in the reign of Elizabeth, or rather of Edward VI. Cups of the earlier reign are seldom to be found. Those known to the author were, un- til lately, only ten in number ; but to this shoi't list Mr. Ed- win Freshfield, junr., F.S.A., has added no less than five, all found in the City of London. The fifteen now known are as follows : — St. Lawrence, Jewry, 1548; St. Peter, Cornhill, 1549 ; St. James, Garlick- . No. 14.— COMMUNION CUP (1570) AT ciuENOE.sTKii. hitlic, 1549; St. Mildred, Bread Street, 1549; St. Michael, Wood Street, 1549 ; Bridekirk, Cumberland, 1550 ; St. Michael, Cornhill, 1550; St. Margaret, Westminster (2), 1551; Hunstanton, Norfolk, 1551 ; Totnes, Devon, 1551 ; Beddingtou, Surrey, 1551 ; Owlysbury, Hants, 1552 ; St. James, Garlickhithe, 1552 ; Great Houghton, Northants, 1552. Most of these so mucii resemble the engraving we have given (No. 14) of the communion cups of 1570 still preserved at Cirencester, that more need CHAl". IX.] Eli.zabctliaii Coiniuuiiioii Cups. 213 not be ^aid about them. Their pecuHarity is the phiiu bowl with at most a little clotted orna- ment and the conical stem with gadrooned flange close up under the bowl. The Cirencester pair no doubt owe their early fashion to the fact that though they are them- selves of Elizabethan date, they were made by a silversmith who had been much employed upon such work in the time of King Edward VI., and who continued, as it seems, to use his original shop pattern long afterwards. They are plain standing cups, with conical stem, as shown, and with- out knops. Their large size adapted them for the use of the whole congregation, now that in 1547 the administration of the Communion in both kinds was restored according to the practice of the early Church, and in this respect they are a great contrast to the chalices they replaced. There is fortunately no lack of examples of the Elizabethan communion cup. They are found everywhere, and of the same form, and bearing the same style of ornamentation, from one end of England to the other. (No. 15.) There are sixteen within a walk of Cirencester, and as many in on(; county as another. j\lr. Morgan has given the following account of them : — " The chalice still consisted of the same parts — l)owl, stem, and foot — though I have known two instances in small parishes Avhere the chalices consist of Nu. 15. — CO.M.MUiNIliN CUl' AN'I) PATKN-COVi:il (lo7tj) AT ClllUSTClILUCir, CO. MoN.MoUTII. the cup only, without stem or 214 Old English Plate. [ohap. ix. foot. The stem, although altered in form and character, still swells out in the middle into a small knob, or the rudiments of one, and is occasionally ornamented with small bands of a lozenge- shaped ornament, or some other such simple pattern, and the foot is invariably round instead of indented or angular. The form of the cup, however, is altogether changed, and instead of being a shallow wide bowl, it is elongated into the form of an inverted truncated cone slightly bell-shaped. The form of the paten is also much changed, the sunk part of the platter is often considerably deepened, the brim narrowed, and thereon is fixed a rim or edge by which it is made, when inverted, to fit on the cup as a cover, whilst a foot is added to it which serves also as a handle to the cover, as though it were intended to place the wine in the chalice and cover it with the paten-cover until the administration of the Sacrament, when the cover would be removed and used as a paten for holding the bread. On the bottom of the foot of the paten was a silver plate which almost always bears the date when it was made, and the name of the parish to which it belongs. The ornamentation on all these chalices and paten-covers, as they may be called, is invari- ably the same ; it consists simply of an engraved band round the body of the cup and on the top of the cover formed by two narrow fillets Avhich interlace or cross each other with a particular curva- ture in every instance the same, the space between them being occupied by a scroll of foliage, sometimes replaced by plain lines of short strokes like hyphens, as at Cirencester, and as shown also on the Christ Church paten (No. 15), and this ornament is marked by a total absence of letters, monograms, emblem, or figures of any kind.* It is curious how this exact uniformity of shape and ornament was so universally adopted, unless there had been some regulation or standard pattern to go by, but I have not been able to find any such, to guide the makers." To this it may be added, that some years ago, before much attention was paid to hall-marks, a silversmith assured the present writer that these cups were all made by order, and issued one to every parish by Government under an Act of Parliament; it is, however, hardly necessary to say now that no such Act can be found. They were made by provincial as well as London goldsmiths ; plenty were made at York, Exeter, and Norwich, and there are almost as many different makers' marks upon them as there are cups themselves. In York- shire and in Worcestershire they are of 1570 or 1571 ; in Norfolk five years earlier, and in Gloucestershire and the west of England about as much later. Sometimes the Land is close round the lip. A number of examples of this variation CHAP. IX.] Eliyjabc't/ian Coiuinuiiioii Cups. 215 No two agjiin are exactly alike in size or finish, there is evevythiug from the tiny cup of some village church weighing no more than five or six ounces, and destitute of all ornament, up to a tall vessel a foot high, holding nearly a quart of wine, and fully ornamented as in the engraving, some few having a second belt around the cup. It may he remarked tliat hotli the Norwich and Exeter goldsmiths had ])atterns of their own for the ])owls ; at Norwich they were made wider, shallower, and with straighter sides than in London and elsewhere in Eng- land, and they often bore the name of the parish engraved around them instead of the ornament described by Mr. Morgan. A good idea of the Norwich style is given by the cup formerly at Raveningham, CO. Norfolk, but since in the collection of Prof. Church (No. Kj). The inscription round the band is THE CVPPE PTENYNG TO KANYNG- PIAM. Another bears FOR THE TOWNE OF CASTVN, 1567, and a third on the paten- handlc THE TOVNE OF AYL8HAM, 15G8. Those made at Exeter are, without exception, very handsome ves- sels, quite as tall and deep as the London patterns given in our engravings, and the bowls vase- shaped, larger at the top than the bottom, the sides just at the rim turning straight up for about a quarter of an inch rather than forming a lip. Many of them arc richly gilt, or parcel gilt, and engraved more often than not with a quadruple belt interlaced in the usual manner, instead of the ordinary double one, and elaborately finished. Li ^Vorcestershire a number of the cups noted by Archdeacon Lea have Xo. 10. -CUM.MUNK.iN CUl' ^ITiUii,), M)K\\IC1I I'ATTEIIN. occur between 1564 ami loTO. Sometimes there arc two separate baiuls ; many are known from ITifiS to ]r)7'3. Sometimes a wider coniiioiunl liainl i- fotiiul at about tlie same period ; but liic dcsi^'u is of the same Lreneral cliaractcr in all these cases. 2l6 Old English Plate. [chap. IX. stems of the Edward VI. pattern or a modification of it. These have usually a maker's mark only, prohahly that of a local man ; but several of them are dated 1571. Except for such small differences and local peculiarities, they are all so alike in shape and style, that it is indeed somewhat wonderful, as Mr. Morgan remarks, that no authority or direction for their formation has ever been found. Eurnet and Strype, the Constitutions and Canons of the Church, the Acts and Proceedings in Convocation, the Documentary Annals of the Reformation, the Injunctions, Declarations and Orders, were all searched by Mr. Morgan without finding any specific direction that No. 17. — TWO cu.MJiuMox GUI'S (1(300, 16'2'2;. Avould account for the extraordinary uniformity of shape and pattern which could hardly have been the result of the taste or caprice of churchwardens or silversmiths. To this long list may be added the Statute Book, the Registers of the Privy Council, and every other likely record, which have all since been searched in vain. There is one suggestion left, that some regulation on the subject, though unrecorded, may have emanated from the Convocation held in London in 1562, at which many important matters concerning the doctrine, articles, rites and discipline of the Church of England were settled. The earliest cup of this fashion is of the year 1558. The same pattern found favour from this time to about the middle of the next century, but in examples of a later date than 1600 the ciiAi'. ix.] Coinuiunion Cups. 217 eugraved belt is usually wanting, and the bowls are perhaps rather straighter sided. There are good specimens of these at the Temple Church made in 1609 by one Terry, a goldsmith of note,* and a pair of rather plainer finish at Hacdcney Church of the year 1(337. All these are about nine inches high. Plain upright beakers are found doing duty as communion cups in various places. An example of 1608 is preserved at Stickney, Lines., and another of the following year at Armathwaite. A later example of London make in 1676, and dated 1678, is at Maiden Newton, Dorset. They are very common all through the seventeenth century as communion cups in Scotland. The Dutch Church community at Norwich had a set of four such cups of Elizabethan date, made by one of the local goldsmiths. Between 1600 and 1630 the cup is often found shaped something like the letter V, and supported by a baluster stem. An engraving (No. 17) is given of an example of this kind and date, together with a cup of 16'2'2 which also shows the baluster stem, and much resembles the chalice in which King Charles I. received his last communion on the morning of his execution. This sad historical relic was made in 16-20, and is preserved at Welbeck. The wine-glass shaped vessels, and tazza-form cups like that engraved later, No. 92, were the popular shape for communion cups in Scotland. It is not too much to say that most Scottish communion cups of the seventeenth century are of one or other of these two patterns, or else of beaker fashion. Of the tazza form of communion cup the author only knows two examples in England. These are at Peatling Magna, Leicestershire, of 1603 ; and at Shenton in the same county of 1611. The last two illustrations with the pair which follow next (No. 18) give us four of the most usual forms of communion cups in the seven- teenth century. They all have been reproduced for the sake of conve- nience from some of the very accurate outlines given by Mr. A. Trollope in his Jjcicestershire church plate, as follows : — (1.) Cuiii. cup, I'lHd. rickwell, Leicestershire . . . .\ scale. (2.) (.'om. cui), 11)22. Ashfoidby do d". (;}.) Com. cup, 1030. Melton Mowbray do. . . . do. (4.) Com. cup, lCi*^(>. Carltnii Curlicu do. . . . . ;', scale. The first gives an illustration of the V-shaped cup in vogue for a few years from 1600; and the second, of the wine-glass shaped cup which succeeds the last and is found till about 1650. Of the earlier type are cups ut Scaleby, Cumberland ; at Pickwell, Leicestershire ; Calendar cf Ihc Ikcvnh of the Inner Temple. F. A. Iii.lerwick, Q.C 2l8 Old English Plate [.MAP. IX. and Newbold Pacey, AVarwicksliire, all of them of the year IGOO ; at Olooston, Leicestershire, of 1601 ; and at Gilmorton in the same county of 1605. Of the latter, there are a host of examples from 1622 to 1642. The fourth represents the rude vessels of the later part of the century. But the third is for many reasons of unusual interest, and deserves more detailed notice. It is a form of cup constantly found from 1630 to 1640, and many of them are hy the same maker, Avho used an escallop for his mark. No less than Nu. is. — TWO (.U.MJILNION CUPS (lOoU, IG^bj. eighteen cups of this make are known to the author. Of these cups the peculiarity is the stem and foot. Instead of the hal-uster stem more usual at this period, or the evenly divided and knopped stem of the Elizabethan type which was not yet out of date, Ave have a collar or flange around the upper part of a trumpet-shaped stem which plainly recalls the form of foot which has been already described as tirst found in the reign of Edward VL, and then again later in the case of some cups of the early years of Elizabeth. It will be remembered that the re-appearance of this shape of foot at the later of these dates, when the general fashion of foot was some- what diflerent, was accounted for by the fact that it must have been a shop pattern of the smith, whose mark of a stag's head proved that the same liand had fashioned both groups of cups. And now again in CHAP. IX.] Coiniuunion Cups. 2ig the seventeenth century there is a coincidence which seems to account as happily for its second re-appearance. The author has always heen of opinion that the resemhlance of the new foot of c. 1(')80 and that of the communion cups of the time of Edward YI. was too marked to he accidental, and that the smith of the escallop shell must have heen acquainted with the work of him who so many years before had used the stag's-head mark. The very earliest in date known of the later group is this of 1630 at Melton Mowbray, and curiously enough an No. 19. — IMCWTER COMMlXIuN VKSSELS, CIRCA 1G40. older cup belonging to the same ]),uish is one of the very rare examples of the early Elizabethan group marked with the stag's head. That this last formed the model for the newer cup which was probably ordered to match it, is almost certain ; and it is an interesting con- jecture that the rest of this large and well-marked group of communion cups by the smith of the escallop shell, owe their fashion directly to the pattern oj-iginally supplied him by his customer at Melton Mowbray. It may be added that in 1()28, only two years before the old pattern thus came to his notice, he is found producing a cup for Witley in Surrey of the usual Elizabethan type. 220 Old EugUsJi Plate. [chap. IX. It will be seen from the pewter vessels (No. 19) formerly at a village clmrcli in Gloucestershire, that the pewter communion cups and llagons of this period are very much like those made of more precious metal. No. 20. — coJiMUiMuN CUP (1G76J at asiiby-dk-la-zouche. Of the Commonwealth period and some ten years on either side of it, are found a few communion cups, such as those at Eochester Cathedral, which seem to have been fashioned after Pre-Reformation models. They have the six-sided or else eight- sided foot with cherub- heads at the points, but the bowls are deeper and straighter than those of the Gothic period. The fme set at Rochester is of 165:3 ; and Coininunion Cups. 221 equally fine vessels by the same maker are at Staunton Harold, Leicestershire, of the followino- year. A fine example of this class is at Ashhy-de-la-Zouche, an engraving; (No. '20) of which is given from an original drawing furnished by the kindness of the vicar. It was given in 1(57G, and resembles, in general form, an undated and not so highly ornamented cup used in Lambeth Palace chapel. This last is by a maker, the whole of whose dated work is of c. 1(586. Somewhat similar ones dated No. 21. — COMMUNION CU1> Cc. I.")l0) AT SANDWICH, KENT. 1037 arc at St. ^Mary's, Lambeth. These dates fairly mark the period during which such cups are met with. From about the time of the Restoration a ruder fashion prevailed ; many cups are then found of great size, with straight sides having somewhat of a lip, and mounted on a plain circular stem and foot, wholly unrelieved by any ornament, save that the stem perhaps swells out at its centre into a simple boss or ring as plain as the rest of it. (See the cup of 1G8G, No. 18.) The paten-cover fitting on is still found as on those at Westminster Abbey, dated 1G60, and many other places. 222 Old English Plate. [chap. IX. Another imttern in vogue then and later had an even ruder stem and foot all in one, it being merely a truncated cone somewhat of the shape of the bowl of an Elizabethan communion cup turned upside down, and attached to the bottom of the cup. There are examples of them dated 1661 at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and they are not at all uncommon ; from this time the paten -cover is often wanting. Before we leave the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, note must not be omitted of other cups of quite ex- ceptional form which are occasionally found, some of great excellence ; these have, no doubt, been originally secu- lar drinking cups, but since devoted by the piety and liberality of their owners to more sacred purposes. They are found of all dates and shapes. The earliest known to the author is a beautiful Gothic cup with conical bowl at ]\Iarston, near Oxford. Its stem is as a truncated cone, and has beautiful pierced mouldings at its outer edge which rests upon three talbot dogs, them- selves upon small oblong stands or pedestals. Two most singular cups are those at Wymeswold, Leicestershire, and at Sandwich, Kent. They are ex- actly alike, simple, shallow, cir- cular, tazza-shaped, flat-bottomed, straight-sided bowls, on truncated cone feet ; and they each have an inscription running round the bowl in Tudor lettering : SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA, being on the Wymeswold cup, and the words THIS IS THE COMMYNION Ku. 22.— CUP (1535), with cover sur- mounted BY THE BOLEYN BADGE,* USED AS A CHALICE AT CIRENCESTER. * The Boleyn badge vras a crowned falcon bearing a sceptre in the de.xter claw and having a mount of lilies growing in front of its breast. The above engraving gives the lilies rather too much in jirofile to be intel- ligible without exjjlanation, and makes the sceptre, the upper portion of which is now broken ott' in the case of the cu]) at Ciren- cester, too like a dagger. I' HA I'. IX.] Cups used as C/ialiccs. 223 COYP on the cup at Sandwich which has a cover (No, 21). The inscription at Wynieswokl is the same as that which appears on a very simihir cup in the possession of Mr. H. Willett of the year 1 500 ; but the inscription on the Sandwich cup can hardly have been placed upon it before c. 1550. The Leicestershire example is hall-marked 1512, a circumstance which may be taken to date its fellow at Sandwich at all events approximately. Perhaps the most beautiful of all these secular cups is one at Cirencester, made in 1535, and in all probability for the unfortunate Queen Anne Boleyn, An engraving of this is given (No. 22). It is not known at what time it came into the possession of the churchwardens at Cirencester, but it is not improbable that it was one of the royal New Year's Day presents, made by Anne Poleyn's daughter, Queen Elizabeth, after the ftishion of those days, to her physician, Dr. Pdchard Master (to whom the lauds of the Abbey of Cirencester were granted in 15G5), and by him given to the parish with which his descendants have ever since been connected. Another very ancient cup at Gatcombe, Isle of Wight, bears the hall-mark of the year 1540. (No. 23.) A fine hanap at Watford in Hert- K fordshire, is of the year 15G1. Sir John ^Maclean notes a very good one, dated 157(), at St. Mabyn, Cornwall. It is some 13 inches high, and has a cover surmounted by a boy nude holding a shield, both bowl and cover engraved in arabesque stylo with birds and foliage. Kensington parish church has a tall standing cup of 15i)S), the bowl ornamented vvith escallo}) shells in bold repousse-work ; and at Ilucknall Torkard IS a very similar hanap, of about 1(510, in character much like the I'ldmonds' Cup of the Carpenters' Company, of which an engraving is given in the next chapter (No. Hi) ; but the steeple is in this case wanting, or moi-e probably has l)een brokcsn oft'. A magnificent cup of 1011 at Yarlington, Som., another of KJl 1 at Odcombe, Som., a third of 1017 at iJodiiiiii, with a fourth of 101!) at Ijinton, Iveiit, are as fine as — cri'i^irilU) rsi;iJ AS a ('halice AT GATCOiMBK, ISLE OF WKiHT. (Half scale.) 2 24 Old English Plate. [chap. ix. that at Carpenters' Hall ; others of the same fashion are at Welland, Wore, and at ]^)raunstone, whilst there are no fewer than four in the Diocese of Carlisle. Simple beaker cups are in use at Llanfyllin, N.Wales, Scremby, Lines., and at Armathwaite, in Cumberland. These are of the years 1598, 1G08, and 1609 respectively. Such cups were popular also for secular use at this period. (See No. 94.) Last of all comes an ordinary two-handled fluted porringer, like No. 98, Chap. X. Made in 1708, it has done duty as a chalice at a village church in Gloucestershire ever since. A similar vessel of 1709 is to be seen at the Independents' Chapel in Oswestry. It is interesting to find examples, and fine examples too, of each successive fashion of secular drinking-cup among the ancient posses- sions of our parish churches. It may, perhaps, be thought by some at the present day inappropriate to use such vessels for the sacred l^urposes to which their former owners have dedicated them, but surely they should be carefully treasured and preserved instead of exchanged, as they too often are, for articles of modern design that cannot be thought of without a shudder of horror. Less suitable they may seem to a few for their present use than such models of mediaeval art as the chalices at Nettlecombe or at Oxford, but they have an interest and value of their own that can never attach to the brand-new vessels decorated with sham jewels and nineteenth century filigree- work, that are too often obtained in exchange for them. To return to ordinary cups. At the commencement of the eighteenth century, cups weve made very upright, much like those of 1660 at Westminster Abbey, but narrower and straighter, and always perfectly plain. It is said that Queen Anne presented most of the American churches of that day with silver altar vessels ; some of these are preserved still, and it is much to be hoped that many more examples will be found sooner or later. There is even now in use, or was in 1861, the hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the church, at Christ Church, Cambridge, Mass., a, silver paten, cup and flagon bearing the date 1694, originally part of a service presented by King William and Queen Mary " for the use of their Majesties' Chappell in New England," that is, the King's Chapel, Boston. This set seems to have been given by the Church to Governor Hutchinson in exchange for a more valuable set in 1772, and by him divided equally between Christ Church, Cambridge, and St. Paul's Church, Newburyport.* The silver service sent to Grace Church, Jamaica, in Long Island, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,* in the year 1704, * Note kindly communicated by Rev II. W. Tucker, M.A., Secretary S.P.G. CHAP. IX.] Coininuiiion Cups in N. America. 225 is still in existence there, engraved " Ex dono Societatis pro promovendo Evangelisinpartibus transmarinis, 1704," and the record of the grant of money with which it was bought is to be traced in the Journal of the Society on Nov. 17 in that year. It was made by John Wisdome of London. Plate of the year 1708, given by Queen Anne, remains at St. George's Church, Hempstead, Long Island, and at St. Peter's Church, Westchester, X.Y., both cups being made by John Eastt. The service with roval arms and AR at Trinity Church, N.Y., No, 24. — COMMl'SION VKSSKLS (U^}lJ, AT II V ATTSV 1 1.I.K, MAUYl.AM', U.S.A. is of the following year and by Francis Garthorne, A set of communion plate given in 1711 by Queen Anne " to her Indian Chapel of Onondaw- gas," is now in use at St. Peter's Church, Albany, N.Y. Other plate of this same year, and like the last, bearing the royal arms and AR, is at l^rantford and also at Desoronto, both in Canada, The plate at Christ Church, Boston, Mass., was given by King George II. in 17;-33, and was made in that year by Joseph Alleu and INIordecai Fox, of St. Swithin's Lane. Again Trinity Church, Boston, was given plate by the same sovereign in 17 12. This was made in 1711 by the same silversmiths as the last. The latest royal gift yet traced in the United States is an alms- O.E.P. Q 226 Old English Plate. [CHAl'. IX. basin at Trinity Church, New York, by the well-known Thos. Heming, in 1766. It is engraved with the royal arms, and bears the initials GR. Of the same year is some of the plate at Ch. Ch. Bruton, Virginia, which is marked GlIlR. But little attention was now paid to art in ecclesiastical matters, and it can only be said that the church plate of the last and much of the present century was well suited to the churches of the period. No better general illustration of the taste of the reign of Queen Anne No. 25. — PATEN (1673) AT ST. CUTHBERT's, YORK. and later, in such matters, could possibly be found than the Cup and Flagon (No. 24) at Hyattsville, Maryland, made by the well-known London smith, M. E. Lofthouse. These were originally at Patuxent or Upper Marlboro, but eventually came to the church at which they are now preserved. Many an English town and village can show just such vessels. Fortunately, older churches in most cases treasured the better plate acquired at an earlier period, and well would it be if this were still so, and fewer Elizabethan communion cups were seen in the shop-windows of the modern silversmith. Many of them are made of the very same silver as the more ancient chalices which they replaced, vessels that had, perchance, belonged to their parishes from cHAi'. IX.] Eii^JitccntJi Century Couiinunion Plate 227 time immemorial. It is to be fearccl that they are constantly parted with for the mere price of the silver of which they are made, by those who are in i;k..\ flahox (157G) at cirencestek. CHAP. IX.] Flagons. 229 and in 1605 the authorities of Leverton ijs. \\(I. " for a puter com- munion pott." The word " pott" will remind us of the Canons of 1G08, b}' which (Canon 20) the wine was required to be brou^'ht to the communion table in " a clean and sweet standhig pot or stoup of pewter if not of purer metal."' Every now and then a later flagon is found to recall the earlier pattern. For instance, a pair of very large gilt vessels, chased all over with decoration as feather-work, and of the year 1660, at the Chapel Eoyal, St. James's Palace, are almost exactly of the " round-bellied " shape; but from this time the " round-bellied" flagons, as they are called in MS. inventory of the plate of St. George's Chapel, dis- appear from common use. and the usual tankard pattern comes in which has ever since been used and is so familiar. A rare example of an upright-sided plain tankard-flagon is at Teftbnt Ewyas, Wilts. This is of 1572. Early examples like this are of small size compared with the more common tall and large vessels which came in with the seventeenth century. The earliest of these tall tankard-flagons known to the writer is an example at C. C. C, Oxford, of 1598 ; the next is at New Coll., Oxford, and of 1602, to which succeed a pair quite plain, save for one or two small bands of moulding, at Brasenose College, Oxford. These are of 1608. Then come a pair at Salisbury Cathedral of 1610, given by John Barnston, Canon of Salisbury, and of Brasenose College, Oxford. Possibly as both pairs are by the same maker, both were presented by Barnston. Following these are two of the same year, 1618, a plain one belonging to Gray's Inn Chapel, and a beautiful specimen ornamented with belts and scrolls of strap- work, the property of the parish of Bodmin : a very similar one to the last at Kensington Church, London, was made in 1619. The illustrations later under the article on Tankards, of tall tankards at Norwich and Bristol, give a good idea of the church flagon-tankards of this period. Later than this, and to the present day, they are all of the general shape and character of the pewter example shown on page 219, which is of 1640 or thereabouts. Usually plain, and often of great size, and with a spreading base or foot, in the reign of Charles II. they are found covered with heavy Louis XIY. scrolls and flower ornamentation in repousse work all over the drum. Very occasionally exceptions occur, as in the case of those at Canterbury Cathedral, which are of a jug shape with swelling bowls on short stems or feet, and have spouts, their lids being surmounted l»y crosses. (No. 27.) They are ornamented with flat appVuiue silver ornamenta- tion of the kind sometimes called by aiiiatmirs "cut card work," for 230 Old English Plate. [chap. IX. want of a better name, and are of the year 1G64. The juo'-shaped flagon is occasionally fuund in the eighteenth century. A pair at Durham Cathedral, which are of the year ITGH, are ornamented with flower-sprays in repousse v.ork, and are not very unlike the coffee-pot of the same period in shape and general style, except that a short No. 27.— C OIMIXIOX FLAGOX (1664) AT CANTEKBURY t'ATHEMlAL. lip at the rim replaces the long spout inserted lower down in the howl, which would be proper to a coft'ee-pot. The ordinary flagon of the eighteenth century is shown by the woodcut (Xo. 24) on p. 225. The word "flagon" seems to have been always appropriated to a vessel intended to hold Avine, and has therefore been continued to these communion vessels, which would otherwise be more appro- CHAP. IX.] Flagons. 231 priately called " tanlcnvds," or "pots," as in the language of the Canons of 1G03. The very derivation of the word connects it with " llask," and with the travelling bottles, or costrels, suspended by a cord or chain, similar to what are now called " pilgfims' bottles." A large and handsome bottle of this description bearing the arms of Cleneral Charles Churchill, younger brother of the great Duke of Marlborough, and said to have been used by him as a campaigning wine-flask, was sold lately (1892) in London. It was by P. Platel and its date was between 1702 and 1714, probably nearer to the former than the later year. In England the wine was brought to the communion table in the sort of vessels described above; but it is a curious fact that at this very day, at All Souls' College, Oxford, the flagons used to contain the wine for consecration at the Sacrament, are two very ancient large silver-gilt flasks, or pilgrims' bottles, having chains to which the stoppers are attached. It is said that they were spared at the Pieformation, as having nothing popish about them. They are of foreign, and, from the goldsmiths' marks, almost certainly of French,, workmanship ; their precise date is unknown. Possibly they are the- very vessels described in the will of Pilchard Andrew, Dean of York (1477), as bequeathed to the College ; but from their general character, and particularly that of their stoppers, they are probably of the beginninu' of the sixteenth centurv. ALMS-DISIIKS 01; r.ASIXS. These in early days may have been of various forms, such as ships, but vrere more often basins. The wardrobe accounts of 1296 (24 Edward I.) mention "j navis argenti cum pede p' elemos'," and in the time of Edward III. occurs an entry, " una magna olla p' elemosinar'," but these were probably articles of table plate intended for the reception of broken meat to be given to the poor. Another such alms-dish of gold, called the " Tygre," and standing upon a golden bear ornamented with rubies and i)earls, is mentioned in Palgrave's State Inventories at the year 14;51 (9 Henry ^T.). This appears from otliev entries to have been a ship, like the dish of 1290, and was pledged over and over again for loans of money. 'Basins in great immber, whatever they may have been used for, are mentioned in the (.•hurcli inventories of IH.Vi and other years, but those which are now found in our catliedrals and churches are not ancient ones. A large plain gilt alms-dish, with Tudor rose on the central boss, of the year 155(), at St. Ceorge's Cluqtcl, AVindsor, is 232 Old English Plate. [chap. IX. the oldest known to the writer.* Next to that comes another gilt dish at Lambeth Palace Chapel, of 1635, and this is followed by a curious fluted dish decorated with punched work in spirals, dated 1639, and belonging to the parish of Bermondsey. Small shallow trays with punched ornamentation, of this period, are used as alms- basins at several village churches, amongst which are Chalton, Hants, and Bredgar, Kent, also Aldertou, Wilts. They are almost all included between the years 1630 and 1640. One or two similar basins are, however, of 1660-70. A plain dish, that might serve for either alms-dish or paten, part of the Gray's Inn Chapel plate, is of the year 1639. Later ones are always plain plates or dishes of silver or silver gilt, diftering from one another only in size, some few having a coat of arms engraved on the centre or rim. Hardly any of them are of earlier date than 1660, and few are as old as that. A magnificent altar dish of that year is at the Chapel Eoyal, St. James' Palace. The centre is filled with a representation of the Last Supper in very high relief, and on the wide rim are other subjects, the chased and repousse panels being surrounded by Louis XIV. decoration. There is a fine large dish of 1684 ornamented with repousse work at Westminster Abbey, and a pair of plainer ones, of about the same date, engraved with the well-known heraldic bearing of a cross between five martlets, the coat assigned to Edward the Confessor. CAXDLESTR'KS. Those used before the Eeformation were usually in pairs, and made of latten, or of copper gilt, often they were of silver. Such a pair are found amongst the plate of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, natural son of Henry VIIL, in 1527, described as follows : — " Pair of candelstikkes cliaced wrethen for an aulter, weing Ixxviij. oz. iii. qts. Another pair, Ixiij. oz. iij. qts." They have all entirely disappeared, those which were of intrinsic value in the time of Edward YL, and those made of commoner materials were destroyed as " monuments of superstition " in the early years of Elizabeth. Pricket candlesticks, or candlesticks with an upright spike upon Avhich to place a large candle, are found among the plate of our cathedrals, but are seldom older than 1660, and still seldomer of any artistic interest. Candlesticks such as these are at Piochester, Canter- * A secular disli of 1524, at St. Magnus, London Bridge, seems to have been altered a good deal at the time of its presentation in 1564 to the Church of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, now linked with St. Magnus. CHAP. IX.] Pricket Candlesticks. 233 bury, Gloucester, and other places. The Rochester examples are the earliest known to be still in use, being of 1653. Those preserved in Salisbury Cathedral are of 1662. A very fine pair of chased candle- sticks of great size on tripod stands and of good workmanship belong to Westminster Abbey, but these are somewhat later, being of the year 1684. Others at Exeter Cathedral are fluted columns on pedestals, and were made in 1681. Good candlesticks of more modern design, ornamented Avith fluted work, chased flowers, and the like, may be seen at Durham. These were made in 1767. The dates of all these specimens suggest the concluding remark that little or no communion plate of any kind is found in our cathedrals older than the Eestoration period. Probably cathedrals were more exposed to spoliation during the Civil War than parish churches, which could better deny the possession of any treasure worth taking ; at all events nothing of their earlier plate now remains. CHAPTER X. DECORATIVE AND DOMESTIC I'LATE. INTRODUCTIOX — EFFECT OF THE WAK.S OF THE ROSES — PEOSPEIUTY OF THE SIX- TEENTH CEXTURY — GREAT DESTRUCTIOX OF OLD PLATE AT VARIOUS TIMES — GOLD PLATE — OBSOLETE VESSELS — SPOONS — MAZERS — SALTS — STONEWARE JUGS — EWERS, BASINS. AND SALVERS — STANDING CUPS AND HANAPS^ TANKARDS — SMALLER CUPS OP VARIOUS KINDS — PLATES — FORKS — MON- TEITHS — CANDLESTICKS, SCONCES, ETC. — TOILET SERVICES— CASTERS AND CRUET-STANDS — TEA AND COFFEE SERVICES, KETTLES, ETC. — CAKE BASKETS AND EPERGNES — MACES AND OARS — RACING BELLS, ETC. Passing from ecclesiastical to secular plate, it needs no apology to commence a chapter which is intended to form part of a practical guide to the plate-collector, with the period to which the oldest extant specimens belong. It may be said at once that the Wars of the Eoses were to secular plate what the events of the next century were to the treasures of the Church. Domestic plate of an earlier date than the reign of Henry YII., is as scarce as pre-Reformatiou church -plate. The known examples may be almost reckoned on the fingers, and none of them are hall-marked except the Nettlecombe Chalice and Paten, and the Anathema Cup at Pembroke College, Cambridge. They comprise the few chalices and patens of which particulars have been given in the preceding chapter ; several mazers Avhich will be mentioned later ; about half-a-dozen drinking vessels of note ; and a salt or two. The cups are the Lynn Cup, the Horn at Queen's College, Oxford, the Foundress' Cup at Christ College, Cambridge, and a Cocoa-nut Cup at New College, Oxford. Almost the only salt is the Huntsman or Giant Salt at All Souls' College, Oxford. But in prosperous Tudor times the goldsmith had once more become a dependent of no mean consideration in the households of the great. The will of Katharine of Arragon mentions her goldsmith, to whom she gives a year's wages, and one Robert Amadal held a similar office in the domestic establishment of Cardinal Wolsey. Very early in the sixteenth century an English gentleman's house of the better sort would have been found well supplied with silver plate. Sir John Heron, Knt., Treasurer of the Chamber to King oiiAP. X.] Sixteenth Century Plate. 235 Heury YIII., bequeaths to his wife in 1525, " my daily usual plate bein<4' in my buttery, that is to say, three saltes silv' with a cover, xxii' of silver spones, two standing cuppes with ij covers gilt, three (iobletes with a cover and ij white holies of silver oon pounced and anotlier playn." The same testator had more covered cups, covered salts, ewers and basins, and other things besides to leave to his children ; but the terms of the bequest to his wife give a good idea of what was thought necessary for ordinary domestic use in such a house as his at that period. By the middle of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the wealth and luxury of the country had been on the increase for almost a century, and an extract from the Description of England, by William Harrison, Chaplain to Lord Cobliam, which is prefixed to Holingshed's Chronicles, will supply us Avith a convenient preface. Writing in 158G he quaintly comments as follows on the times in which he was living :■ — '^' " Certes in noble men's houses it is not rare to see abundance of Arras, rich hangings of tapestrie, silver vessell, and so much other plate as may furnish sundrie cupbords to the summe often-times of a thousand or two thousand pounds at the least, whereby the value of this and the rest of their stutie dooth grow to be almost inestimable. Likewise in the houses of knights, gentlemen, merchantmen, and some other wealthie citizens, it is not jreson to behold generallie their great provision of tapestrie, Turkic work, pewter, brasse, fine linen, and thereto costlie cupbords of plate worth five or six hundred or a thousand pounds to be deemed by estimation. But as herein all these sorts do far exceed their elders and predecessors, and in neatnesse and curiositie the merchant all other ; so in time past the costlie furniture stayed there, whereas now it is descended yet lower, even unto the inferior artificers, and manic farmers who by vertue of their old and not of their new leases have for the most part learned also to garnish their cupboards with plate, their joined beds with tapestrie and hang- ings, and their tables with carpets and fine naperie, whereby the wealthe of our countrie (God be praised therefore and give us grace to employ it well) dooth intinitelie appeare." Plenty of evidence here, of the wealth of plate possessed by men of every degree late in the sixteenth century, and a little farther on he gives in more detail the amount of it that might then be found amongst what may be called the lower middle classes. He speaks of ■' r.ook ir. cap. 12. 236 Old English Plate. [cHAr. x. the exchange of " treene platters into pewter, and wooden spoones into silver or tin " ; and after stating that in old times all sorts of " treene " stuff were so common that a man would hardly find four pieces of pewter, of which one w'as usually a salt, in a good farmer's house, whereas there was now a fair garnish* of pewter in his cup- board, he concludes with a list of such a farmer's plate, consisting of '* a silver salte, a howle for wine (if not a whole neast), and a dozen of spoons to finish up the sute." And as it was three hundred years ago, so it is now. Emerson says of the Englishman of to-day that " he is very fond of his plate, and though he have no gallery of portraits of his ancestors, he has of their punch-bowls and porringers. Incredible amounts of plate are found in good houses, and the poorest have some spoon or saucepan, gift of a godmother, saved out of better times."! Smaller curiosities too have ever had a charm, for the fairer sex especially. And if our sisters carry their treasures about with them hung round their Avaists, their grandmothers did not value theirs the less because they kept them at home in a Chippendale cabinet. " With what admiration of the ingenuity of the fair artist," says Sir Walter Scott, " have I sometimes pried into those miscellaneous groups of psendo-hijouterie." I " Blessings," adds the great novelist, " upon a fashion which has rescued from the claws of abigails and the melting-pot of the silver- smith those neglected cimelia for the benefit of antiquaries and the decoration of side-tables." It is the plate of the century or more beginning with the reign of Henry TIL, and ending with that of Queen Elizabeth, which furnishes the modern sideboard with its choicest specimens ; and rare as they are, the only wonder is that so many have been preserved, when we consider the events of subsequent times. It is needless to say that the requirements of King or Parliament in the following century swept much away ; but two less obvious causes have wrought the destruction of even more than can be laid to the charge of Cavalier and Roundhead put together. One of them has already been alluded to in detailing the measures adopted by William III. to remedy the scarcity of bullion so grievously felt at the end of the seventeenth century. The premium then offered for hall- marked silver brought to the Mint was only too tempting, and a vast * A g;iriii!5li = a full set of an established miiiiljer of })ieces, suub as a dozen of each ssort. A " L'arnish '" and " half a tramish " are both often spoken of. t ^mer^on'h English Traits. % >^t. Ilonua's Well, Chap. X. CHAP. X.] Gold Plate. 237 quantity of ancient plate was sacrificed to the cupidity or the necessity of its owners in 1(597. But scarcely less must have been melted down a century afterwards to furnish the mere metal retjuired for the immense dinner equipa^'es which the altered fashions of the day then rendered indispensahle. No new supply of silver was available, such as that which had once poured in from Spanish America ; whence then came the tons of silver which were fashioned into dinner services with their various appendages by the industry of London silversmiths, from Lamerie to Rundell and Jiridj^e '? It is clear that at that time another and perhaps the largest consignment of old-fashioned and disused plate must have gone to the melting-pot, to be returned to its owners in the shape of the plates, dishes, forks, and spoons with which our houses are even now to a great extent supplied. The grand service of plate which graced the royal table at the great banquet given by Sir Samuel Fludyer at the Mansion House on Lord Mayor's Day, 17()1, which the King and Queen honoured with their presence, was made new for the occasion by Mr. Gilpin, the goldsmith, with whom the City exchanged a quantity of old plate for the new ; and many royal and other services still in use were thus provided between that time and the end of the century. Table- services of plate were pro- vided at the public expense for certain great personages of state, on taking ot^ce, such as Ambassadors, Viceroys of Ireland, and the Speakers of the House of Commons. It may be gathered from account-books preserved by the Messrs. Garrards for the interval between 1712 and 1720 that a set of the first class was about 7,000 ounces, and of the second rank about 4,000 ounces. The largest sets never included more than two or three dozen forks, one set silver, and another gilt ; nor do we find mention of butter-boats, sauce-ladles, fish-knives, or butter-knives. A large cistern and fountain were usually provided, and these were probably used for washing the forks on the sideboard. These last articles often weighed 2,000 ounces or more ; but they seem to have gone out of fashion by about the year 1720. The grandest services were sometimes, but very rarely, of silver gilt, and such are popularly called "gold services," a mistake which suggests a remark as to the very small quantity of real gold plate that is now to be seen. Only five examples were exhi1)ited amongst the art treasures col- lected at South Kensington in the Loan Collection of 18()2 — a gold cup and cover of seventeenth century work, given by IJishop Hall to Exeter College, Oxford; a cup on baluster stem, given to the Cor- poration of York in 1G72 ; a covered cup of the following year, the property of j\Ir. J. W. M'alrond ; a chocolate cup and cover with one 238 Old English Plate. [chai-. x. Landle, found in the lake at Knowsley, belonging to the Earl of Derby ; and last in date, but not least, a pair of massive ice-pails from Blenheim, weighing together no less than 365 ounces, the gift of Queen Anne to the great Duke of Marlborough. There are two gold salvers in the collection of plate of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, and a small salver of pure gold was noted by Mr. Octavius Morgan amongst the plate of King William lY., which was said to have been made of the presentation rings of Serjeants-at- Law. This is no doubt still preserved. Besides these there is a double-handled gold cup at Berkeley Castle made by Paul Lamerie in 1717, a legacy from the then Countess of Berkeley to her celebrated daughter, Lady Betty Germain. It is of the usual plain Queen Anne pattern. A small racing cup of the same period and shape by Benjamin Pyne, a well-known goldsmith, is in existence, or was a very few years ago, engraved with a horse ridden by a jockey, and underneath the words " Saltby Stakes." It bore the hall-mark of the year 1710-1. The late Sir F. A. Milbank had a very similar one of 1705-6 by Harracke. It Aveighed 23 ounces, and realised in 1898 the sum of £'450 at the sale of the Milbank Collection. Lord Yarborough possesses two such gold cups, both of small size. The Corporation of Oxford has a solid gold porringer with two handles and cover, of the year 1680 ; and at Tredegar there is a gold cup presented to Sir Charles Could, Bart., by the Equitable Assurance Society, about 1780. It is very possible that a good many other specimens of gold plate may exist, but enough has been said to prove its extreme rarity at the present day ; indeed so little has been the demand for gold plate for a long time past that the Goldsmiths' Company in 1664 replied to an enquiry on the subject by the Secretary of State that "it is so seldom that any is made that it hath never been the usage and custom of the Company, as we can find, to make any entry thereof in any of their books." It w^as in fact included in the returns relating to silver plate. Formerly it was by no means uncommon. Gold plate is frequently mentioned in the AYardrobe Accounts ; and in the Intro- duction to the State Papers of the reign of Henry YIIL, printed by order of the Master of the Ptolls, a banquet given by that monarch is mentioned, at which two cupboards (by which we must understand a sort of sideboard of many stages), reaching from the floor to the roof, were covered with a large and varied assortment of vases all of massive gold, silver-gilt dishes of another sort being used for the service of the meats. •CHAV. X.] Obsolete Vessels. 239 An engraving of such a sideboard of five stages, taken from a volume published at Dilingcn in 1587. descriptive of the ceremonies at Prague when the Grand Duke Ferdinand of Austria invested the Emperor and the Grand Dakes Carl and Ernest with the order of the Golden Fleece, was given by the late Mr. W. Fairholt in his description of the cele- brated Londesborough Collection, and is reproduced here (No. 28). That eminent antiquary reminds us that the series of receding steps not only served for the due display of the plate, l)nt to indicate the Nil. 28. — SIDKliO.VRD UF KJTII CENTURY. rank of the person who used it; persons of royal blood alone being allowed to use dressers of five " degres " or stages, whilst those of f(jur were appropriated to nobles of the highest rank, and so on down to stages of two or but a single step, which were pro])er for knights-bannerets, and unennobled persons of gentle descent respectively. The engraving is also valuable for the examples it presents of niiiny quaint forms of plate then in use, and fitly introduces a few words about such obsolete articles before we go on to those that are still found and can be classed under definite heads. The tall tankard at the servitor's feet would in those days be called a " can " — a German as much as an English word. The large double cups made to shut upon the rims of each other 240 Old English Plate. [chap. x. are also noticeable. These, too, are mentioned occasionally in English inventories, and are called " double" or " trussing " cups. The will of a north-country ecclesiastic proved at York in 1395, describes his " ciphum duplicem argenti deaurati vocatum le trussyng coppe," and other early examples of them occur. A conspicuous object is the " nef," or ship, which was used in England as well as abroad ; it seems to have originally been used to contain the articles used by the noble at his banquet.* The writer knows of no example of English workmanship or bearing an English hall-mark, but there were a number of beautiful specimens in the Londesborough collection of foreign make. Like the '' nef," the "just " the " goddard " and the " voider " have all disappeared, but they deserve a passing word. Of the " justa," de Laborde says that it was a vase or flagon for the table of an invariable size as to capacity, but that its form varied. This agrees in general terms with the definition of the word as given b,y Du Cange. The "goddard" seems to be derived from the French jiodct, a sort of goblet or cup, often with a cover. Under the head of " mazers " a little later, we shall find some cups of that description called " goddards," in an account of the year 1444. The " voyder " was a large dish in which were collected the broken victuals which were removed from the table with a large knife with a broad flat blade called the royder-knifc, from rider., to empty, clear, or make void. The Boke of Xurtiire, by Hugh Ehodes, the date of which is 1577, one of the curious set of handbooks of manners and etiquette repro- duced by the Early English Text Society, speaks of these vessels as follows : — " See ye have Voyders ready for to avoid the Morsels that they doe leave on their Trenchours. Then with your Treuchour knyfe take of such fragments and put them in your Voyder and sette them downe cleane agayne." A " new voyder or charger " of silver is included in a list of plate made in the course of a lawsuit in 1616 ;t and a "great silver voyder with a lardge ewer belonging to it," occurs in a Tredegar inventory of 1676. Few silver ones remain, but some large brass, voiders or dishes which have probably been so used, may still be seen, of the history of which nothing is known by their present owners. The student of mediaeval wills and inventories will find manv other- * See p. 293, note. t Masters' Reports, 161C, F. toN. ciiAi'. X.] SpOOJlS. 241 vessels mentioned here and there which it is difficult or impossible to identify with any existing forms. A " skinking pot " occasionally occurs, deriving its name from the obsolete Saxon w'ord scencan — to serve drink at table. What is the cup called a "costard" in one Bristol will of 1491; or the article styled a " custerd cofllyn " in another of 1580 "? A " chaffar " of silver for " partrich mynced " is included in a list of plate of the year 1443 {Test. Ebor.). A " little silver pot with two ears called a little conscience," is another curious entry in the list of articles of plate in dispute upon the death of Sir H. Lee in IGIG of which mention has already been made.* But as we are not primarily concerned with this kind of enquiry, it is now time to turn to articles that may be met with by the amateur and collector of the present day. SPOONS. Our notices of domestic plate must begin with spoons by right of seniority, for, says the learned de Laborde,f " Les cuillers sont vieilles, je ne dirai pas comme le monde, mais certainement autant que la soupe " ; after this we shall not be surprised to find that amongst the most ancient pieces of English hall-marked plate in existence are simple spoons. In early days, when forks were as yet unknown, spoons played an even more important part at meals than they do at the present day, and persons of every rank seem to have striven to possess a spoon, if only a single one, of silver. Our ancestors evidently anticipated, in their way, the view of Professor Wilson — ''A plated spoon is a })itifu" imposition," though, be it said, their alternative would have been honest pewter or wood ; and no bad substitute either, according to the same modern authority, who adds : — "A wudden ladle; indeed, gents, I'm no sure, but it's no sac apt to be stowa : in the second, maist things taste weel out 0' wud ; tliinll\', there's nae ex[>ense in keei)in 't clean."4r It would be difficult anytime foi- the last six hundred years to lind a man, of however humble station, without a spoon or two to bequeath to his widow or his son. The wills and inventories of the rich mention them in great numbers ; and the quaint treatises, to which reference A "conscience"' = a bellarminc, see The Ordhmnj, a play by Cartwriglit, Ifini. t Notire dcs L'.r.nuj; etc., par AI. dc O.E.r. Laborde, II« Parte, 238. + Xoctes Ambrosia II w, XXXI. 242 Old Englisli Plate. [chap. >:. has been made on a preceding page, contain many directions as to the service and management of the spoon at board. The Bake of Ken-yncj, which was printed in 1513 by Wynkyn de Worde, perhaps from a MS. of much earlier date, instructs the panter as to setting on the salt and trenchoures, and proceeds : — " then laye your knyves and set your brede one lofe by an other, your spones and your napkyns fayre folden besyde your brede, then cover your brede and trenchoures spones and knyves." The Bahces Book of 1475 deals with the polite use of the spoons so laid : "And wlienne your potage to _yow shall be broulite. Take yow sponys and soupe by no way, And in youre dysshe leve nat j'our spone, I piaj'."' The Young Children's Book adds to this in 1500 the further advice, " Ne ple^'e with spone trenchcre nc IcnyfiEe."' The spoons of the thirteenth and two following centuries seem to have had stems terminating in a spear point, diamond point, pine cone, a plain knop, or sometimes an acorn. An entry of 1410 {Test. Ehor.) de uno codiari jAexihili, seems to point to a folding- spoon, as also do " my foulden sylver spoone " in another will of the same century, and unum coclear anjenti falden in 1432 {Test. Ehor.). The first mention known to the author of spoons with the image of the Virgin — cum ymaginihus Beati jSIarue in fine eorundem — occurs in a will of 1446. These were known later as "maidenhead" spoons; they are so called in a Bristol Orphan Book will of 1493, and are common enough in the sixteenth century, but not bofore. The same may be said of Apostles' spoons, which are seldom found before 1500, but were very popular for a century and a half afterwards. It was an old iMiglish custom for sponsors at christenings to present these spoons to the children for whom they answered ; the wealthy giving a complete set, others a smaller number, a poor person a single spoon with the figure of the saint in honour of whom the child was named, or perhaps the patron saint of the donor. Hone's Every Dai/ Book* gives some amusing notices of this laudable custom collected from various writers, Ben Jonson, Middle- ton, and Beaumont and Fletcher, amongst the number. Ben Jonson has a character in his Bartlioloniew Fair, saying "and all this for the hope of a couple of apostle-spoons, and a cup to eat caudle in." Beaumont and Fletcher likewise in the Noble Gentleman, say: — " I'll be a Gossip. Bewford, I have an odd apostle-spoon." * llanQ'& Every Day Book, vol. i., 176. CM A I". X.] Apostles' spoons. 243 Hone notes, too, that in 1060, the usage was on the decline, quoting from the Gossips, a poem by Shipman : — " Formerly, when tlicy us'd to troul, Gilt bowls of sack, they gave the bowl ; Two spoons at least ; an use ill kept ; "J'is well if now our own be left."' A certain number of these spoons, which were called apostles' spoons from the figures of the apostles they bore on their handles, are still to be seen, and they are of considerable value from their antiquity and comparative rarity. Good specimens have fetched high prices, varying from =£5 to £10 each, and even much more of late years ; whilst a complete set of thirteen is so seldom to be met with, that a fine early set of matched spoons would doubtless realise a very large sum, perhaps not less than a thousand guineas, if put up to auction to-morrow. This opinion is borne out by the mention in the (Jiiart( )-Iij licvieir of April, 1876, of the sale in 1858 of a set of twelve spoons dated 1592, but not all apostles, once the property of Sir Eobt. Tich- borne, Lord Mayor in 1()56, for .€430. A set of eight apostles" spoons of 1527, the property of Bp. Whyte of Winchester, teni|>. Q. Eliz;., realised i'252 at Christie^ Manson & Woods' Rooms in 1890 ; and a very interesting set of twelve spoons, in two sets of six spoons each, the earlier being of the year 1524 and the later of 1553, but these last evidently made in that year to complete the set, which liad always been in the same hands, were sold at the same Rooms in March, 1892, for L'lOO. St. Paul replaces St. Judo in this set. Only two sets of thirteen are known to the writer : one of them is R 2 Xo. 29. — MAIDENUKAI) SI'OO.N', CIllOA 1540. 244 Cld English Plate. [chap. X. ^. ^ CHAP. X.] Apostles' spoons. 245 in the possession of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and consists of thirteen spoons, one of which is supposed to represent St. Paul. They are of the year 15GG-7, with the exception of the St. Paul spoon, which is of the year 1515-6. The other set has been pre- sented to the Goldsmiths' Company by Mr. George Lambert, F.S.A., and represents our Lord and twelve apostles, Matthias taking the place of Judas Iscariot. It is somewhat more modern ; but the spoons being all of one year, 1G2G, and by the same maker, form a set of unique interest and importance. A third set, which forms a complete series of the eleven apostles, was secured by the late He v. T. Staniforth at the Bernal sale, and is of great value from its antiquity, having been made in 1519. That gentleman also possessed the most ancient hall-marked apostle-spoon known, it being of the year 1493. The set of 162G has been selected for our engraving (No. 30), owing to the presence of the rare "Master" spoon, and the fact of the whole being made by one maker at the same time. A reference to the various emblems by which the apostles are here distinguished will facilitate the identification of individual figures found in private or public collections. 1. St. James the Less, with ix fuller's bat. 2. St. Bartholomew, with a butcher's knife. 3. St. Peter, with a key, sometimes a fish. 4. St. Jude, with a cross, a club, or a cari)eutcr's square. 5. St. James the Greater, with a pilgrim's staff and a gourd, bottle or scrip, and sometimes a hat with escallop shell. (j. St. Philip, with a long staff, sometimes with a cross in the T ; in other cases a double cross, or a small cross in his hand, or a basket of fish. 7. The Saviour, or " Master," with an orb and cross. 8. St. John, with a cup (the cup of sorrow). 9. St. Thomas, with a spear ; sometimes he beai's a builder's rule. iO. St. Matthew, with a wallet, sometimes an axe and spear. 11. St. Matthias, with an axe or halbeid. 12. St. Simon Zelotes, with a long saw. 13. St. Andicw, witli a saltire cross. The figure of St. Paul distinguished by a sword, or sometimes two swords, is frequently found, St. Jude being omitted from the set of twelve to make room for him, and St. I>uke and St. Mark occasionally replace St. Simon and St. Matthias. In the Byzantine Manual, James the Less, Jude and Matthias are all omitted, their places being taken by St. Paul, St. Luke and St. Mark. As to the emblems attributed to each, there is not much variation to be noted, but the saw is sometimes given to Jude as well as to 246 Old English Plate. [CHAI>. X. Simon. This is the case in the representations of the apostolic college, hy Agostino Caracci.* As it appeared advisable to give the No. 31. — apostles' spooks. 16th centuky. whole of these emblems on a single page, that they might be seen at one view, an illustration is given of a group of three other apostle- spoons from a set which belonged to the late Rev. S. Lysons (No. 31), * Mrs. Jaraeson".s Ltycndary Art. CHAP. X.] Scal-Jicadcd Spoons. 247 in order that the general shape and character of such spoons, their howls as well as handles, may he clearly understood. The figures represent St. Simon Zelotes, St. Andrew and St. James the Less. The most modern specimen that has come to the knowledge of the present writer is one of 16G0, and helonged to Mr. Staniforth. Mr. Octavius Morgan had seen one of as late a date as 1GG5, hearing the figure of St. James. This bears out what was said by Shipman iu 1666, as to the custom of presenting them at christenings being then on the wane. Besides " maidenhead " and " apostles " spoons are found some with sejant lions for knops. Other devices than these three are more uncommon, though balls and spear-points for handle ends occur. The lion-sejant spoon is found both in the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth century. A good specimen in the author's possession is of 1547. This is a very early example, and came from the Ashford Collection. The spoons with the ends of the handles simply cut off at an angle, as if they might once have been Apostles' spoons but had had the figures roughly lopped oft", are very commonly called " Puritan " spoons ; but spoons seem to have been often so made, and were not unpopular for a long period. Our subjoined list speaks of them in heraldic terminology as " slipped in the stalks " in 1500, and again as " sleppe-ended " in 1580. It may be remarked that when made in this fashion, the date-letter is often stamped at the end of the handle close to the slip end, perhaps to show that it has not been shortened or tampered with. Before turning to the ordinary domestic spoon, two special spoons must be mentioned, and first the coronation spoon preserved among the regalia at the Tower of London. Some think that the date of this is early in the thirteenth century, and that it maybe the original spoon, notwithstanding the goldsmith's account for the fabrication of a new one, at the coronation of King Charles II., which has been given at page 39. But many consider that the fashion of its bowl points conclusively to the later period, and this opinion is shared by the present writei'. The other is the ancient spoon said to have been given by King Henry YI. together with his boots and gloves to the htyal Sir Iial})h Pudsey, at whose seat, Bolton Hall, that unfortunate monarch concealed himself for some weeks after the battle of Hexham. Of the antiquity of this spoon there is no doubt, even if its identity with the spoon which is the subject of the historical tradition is open to question. The head of its handle is octiigonal, somewhat resembling the capital of a Gothic shaft, and on the Hat toj) is engraved a single rose, the badge of the king. Jt is of the usual form of ancient spoons. 248 Old English Plate. [chap. x. and the marks thereon are as follows : inside the hovd is stamped the leopard's head, — and all the ancient English spoons previous to the Restoration are so marked ; on the back of the stem is stamped with a punch a small heart for maker's mark ; and above that is the annual letter, also stamped with a punch. This was long supposed to be the Lombardic letter for the year 1445-6, which would certainly agree both with the history and the make of the spoon ; but there is now much more known about marks, and strong reason to assign it to the year 1525-6, and to suspect that the story has by some chance in the course of ages transferred itself from the original spoon to this one, which is ancient enough to have an interest of its own, but is not quite old enough to have belonged to King Henry YI. These accidents will sometimes happen. The " Godwin " cup at Berkeley Castle, "the property of Earl Godwin in 1066, and regilt by the Earl of Berkeley 1766 " as the inscription tells, seems to be formed out of the head of a mace of the year 1610. The silver furniture at Knole, long thought to have been provided in honour of a visit of King James I., was the boudoir suite of a Countess of Dorset probably presented in 1680, by her second husband Henry Poole Master of the Rolls, and certainly made in that year. The form of spoons used in England seems to have continued the same from the middle of the fifteenth century to the time of the Restoration, Avhen a new fashion was introduced which completely superseded the more ancient pattern. The more ancient model, with its baluster and seal-headed end, is shown by No. 1 (engraving No. 32).* Spoons of this form, very common from 1585 to about 1620, were made as late as 1659, the date of the very latest known to the writer, whilst a specimen of the next form (No. 2) and of the year 1667, was in the late Mr. 0. Morgan's collection. The shape was then altogether changed. The stem and handle became flat and broad at the extremity, which was divided by two clefts into three points, slightly turned up, whilst the bowl was elongated into a regular ellipse, and strengthened in its construction by a tongue which ran down the back. This form of spoon, the handle of which is termed by French antiquaries j)?('(/ dc bicJic or the hind's foot, obtained till the reign of George I., when a third fashion was introduced. In the latest part of its period, temp. Q. Anne, the outer points of the _2>'^(? de hiclie handle was just lopped off, so that the splay narrowed to the blunt point, which was bent backwards rather than upwards. It is a curious circumstance, that the first change in form occurred at the Restoration, * An unusually slight and tapering shaft I ventories — indicates an earlj" spoon of the or stem — "stele" as it is called in old in- | fourteenth or fifteenth century. CHAP. X.] Eiglitccntli Century Spoons. 249 and the second at the accession of the House of Hanover. Did the spoons brought over with the phite of the respective courts, at these periods, set the new fashion ? In the third form (No. 3), the bowl was more elongated and elliptical, and the extremity of the handle was quite round, turned up at the end, having a high sharp ridge down the middle. It continued 1. •-'. ;i. N(i. 32. — SPOONS OP ItJTH, 17th, and ISth ckntlriks. to be made certainly as late as 1767, but not to the exclusion of other patterns, for towards the end of the reign of George II. another new fashion came into use, which has continued to the i)resent time. The bowl became more pointed, or egg-shaped, the end of the liandle was turned down instead of up, whilst the tongue, which extended down the back of the ])()\vl, and is so well known by the 2ianie of " the rat's tail," v,ag shortened into a drop. Transition spoons with the Hanoverian handle, but the strengthening drop and not the rat-tail at tlie back of the liowls, appear in 1754 and 1762. Following this transition we have tlie well-known plain spoon of common use from 1760 or 1765 till 1800, to which we 250 Old English Plate. [chap. X. have refeiTetl, and which is called hy the trade the "old English" pattern. The tiddle-headed pattern, in which a sharp angular shoulder Avas introduced on either side the stem, just above the bowl and also near the end of the handle, came into vogue in the early part of the present century, and still seems popular. Tea-spoons follow the fashion of larger spoons, but are not often found before the middle years of the eighteenth century. Except as regards the ends of the handles, spoons have not usually been much ornamented. A little scroll-chasing is found on the back of bowls at the insertion of the handle of all periods from Charles 11. onwards. Tea-spoons of the Louis XV. period have, how- ever, been decorated with orna- ments of the time, both in bowl and on handle, and the handles were sometimes of fancy shapes, formed as vine tendrils, flower rose-sprays, and other such de- vices. From about 1775 to 1785 feather-edging and beaded-edging not unfrequently adorn the handles of the plain " old English " spoons then in use. Straining spoons for tea are mentioned later in this chapter. No. 33. TEA-SPOONS, CIRCA 1760, AT barber-surgeons' hall, LONDON. NOTES OP ANCIENT SPOONS, ARRANGED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. ]2r)lt. xii coclearia aryeiiti. (Will of Martin de St. Cross.)— Surtces Society Trans. Wills and Inv.* \->'M\. ix coclcar auri, j coclear argfuti iiiagnu p co(iua pond. xxis. iijd.— AVardrobe Accounts, 24 Edw. I. * Many references are made in this chap- ter to the invaluable collection of Mortuaries, Wills, and Inventories ijublished by the Surtees Society, under the following titles : — TestamentaEboracensia. Wills registered at York. [Test. Ehor.) Wills and Inventories from the Registry of the Archdeaconry of Richmond. [JiicJi. JVills. ) Wills and Inventories from the Registry of the Diocese of Durham. ( ir(7/s and Inv.) These volumes have also supplied some of the materials for Chapter IV. spoons. 251 i:{(»0. 7 coclear" rturi, S coclear argeiiti sigiiata in ctillo sigiu) I'aiisius scilt dc (luodani flore glcgelli. — Wardrobe Accounts. 28 Edw. I. \'MU\. coclcaiia nova ultimo facta in Ebor. — Hurtccs Society Trans. Test. Ebor. llis."). XXX cocliaria argcnti. — Will of Kic. dc Kavcnser, Archdeacon of Lincoln. 1 :>'.':.'. sex coclearia argentea cum acrinssc de auro. — Test. Ebor. 1121. xij cocliaria arg. de operc London. — Idem. 1482. calicem sanctiricatam cum patena et cocliari eideni caliei pertinente. — Idem. 144U. sex cocliaria argcnti dc fradelett. — Iilem. do. unum cocliar' argenti cum longo brachio pro riiidi zinzebro. — Idem. 1441. vj cocliaria argenti cum quodam signo viz liawthornleves. — Idem. 1444. xxiiij coclear' argenti de opt. (\\\\\ of Thos. Biygge de Salle.) — Norwich Registry. 144(i. ij coclearia argentea et deaurata unius sectie cum ymaginibus 15eat;e Mari;e in tine eorundem. xii coclearia argentea cum glandibus in nodis. vii coclearia argentea cum nodis deauratis. do. xxxxi coclearia argenti diversorum operum et ponderis. (Inv. of Durham Priory.) — Surtees Society Trans. Vol. II. 'Jl. 1452. sex cocliaria argenti de Parysh. — Test. Ebor. do. vj cocliaria arg. de una sorte signata cum flore vocato tlour de lice. — Idem. 14.")'.t. dim. dos coclearium arg. cum akehorns. — Test. Ebor. 1468. xii. coclearia argenti operis Paris' de una secta signata cum litera p^. — Idem. 1 474. ij sylver sponnes marked wt lybbanl hedys and square knoppis. — Idem. 1177. half doz. spones wt lepardes hedes prynted in the sponself. — (Will of llobeit Bagworth, C.P.C. 30 Wattys.) 14S7. ij dozen and vi spouys with dyamond poyntes pond xii une. i (pKi. at H.v. 2^/., vi. li. xs. viid. ob. (Inv. of Hubert Morton, gent.) — Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 30.064. 14',iO. vj cocliaria arg. cum fretlettez. vi coeleaiea arg. cum lez acornez deaur". — Test. Ebor. 14'.i7. se.x coclearia cum caiiitibus i)uellarum. — Idem. 14'.ts. a spone and a forke for grene ginger. (Will of Anne. Lady Scropc.) — Idem. l.">0(i. xii coclearia argenti slipped in lez stalkes jiond. inter se xiiij unc. (Will of Thos. llotherham, Abp. of York.) — Idem, do. 12 great spones with knobs wrought and gilt 24 oz. at 4a>. il. lt).y. : a dozen of spones not gilt 14 oz. at 3.9. 2fl. ; a little spone of gold. — Inv. of Thos. Kebeel S.L. ."0,",. xl doz. sponis, ij dos. gylt sponys. — liord Mayor's Feast. (K. E. Text Soc.) •">! n\. (; spoons with owls at the end of the handles. See Appendix A. — C. C. C. Oxford. '>\:>. ij silv' sponys being in a purse, 1 whrof being a gemewe spone and the other a s[)one with a forke. — Norf. Arch. Soc. Trans. ■'i(i. () spoons with balls on the ends of tiie stems gilt. See .\ppfiulix A. — C. C. C. Oxford. •">2."). spone knopi)ed with the image of oni' lady. — Bury Wilis. •'27. a spone of poldc witli a rose and pomegranat 11 oz. (jt. di. (Inv. df Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Kichmond.) — Camden Society Trans. i:))2. a Imige silver spone (and a longe forke) for sokett, a simiie witli an arorne doble gilt. (Will of Countess of Northumberland.)— Coll. Top. d Gen. ". hi. ij >ylver sponys withe angells on the knoppys gyltyd. — Wills and Inv. U<. 3 silver spones with mayden heids. — Ilich. Wills. ".."iS. xii silvr spones wt skallaj) shells on their lieads. one silv" spune kilt wt an accornc on the head. — Idem. "iiiO. syxe silver spones of ye niayden iied' Ralph Shirley.) — Stem. Shir. 1519. eleven apostles' spoons. See Appendix A. — From the Staniforth Collection. 1527. xiij spones of Chryst and the xii Apostells, whereof j gilt and the rest sylver with mages gylt. — Inv. of Minster Priory in Slie])pey. 1555. xii silver spones with xii apostles on heads. — Rich. Wills, do. Apostle spoon. See Appendix A. — W. R. M. Wynne. Esq., Peniartli. 1566. 12 Apostles' spoons. Sec Appendix A. — C. C. C. Cambridge. 1567. xiiij postle spones, xxv oz. — Rich. Wills. 1570. vi silver spones with postle heads. — Ideaa. 1580. one dozen of postell spoones of silver weyug 24 ounces at 4.v. — Idem. 1582. a dozen spones with apostles' heads xxxv oz. ol. \(\s. Sd. — Idem. 1587. my xii silver spones called the xii apostells. — Wills and Inv. 1588. xii appostell spons, the ends being gilted weing xx ounces at 4.v. 8(1. i)er ounce. — Idem. 1626. 13 Ajjostles' spoons. See AjJiicndix A. — Presented to Goldsmiths' Company by G. Lambert, Esq., F.S.A. For further notes of apostles' and other spoons now in existence, see chronological list in Appendix A. MAZFJRS. If spoons are as old as soup, drinking vessels have been in use as long as spoons, and from spoons it is therefore convenient to pass to the ancient and interesting howls that are known as mazers. It is easier to say that these Avere for centuries amongst the commonest articles iu domestic use, than to give a satisfactory reason for their being usually called " murra3 " in media3val inventories, or to define the material of which they were made. On the former of these points a great deal of learning has been expended by the antiquaries of past generations, so much indeed that it ought to have gone farther than it has towards settlino; the latter. cHAi'. X.] Ma::crs. 253 Du Cange only ventures to say that mazers were *' pretiosiora pocula," adding that opinions differed as to what they were made of. First he quotes Somner, a well-known writer of the early part of the seventeenth century, who supposed that they were wooden vessels and made of maple ; but he proceeds himself to say that the better opinion is that they were the vessels called " myrrhine " in classical ages. Other authorities are then cited who in turn suggest gum, porcelain, shell, metal and lastly onyx as the materials of which they vrere probably fashioned, Somner was guided by the fact that the word " maeser " signified in the Flemish language an excrescence of the maple-tree ; and notwithstanding the opinion of Du Cange, which was no doubt influenced by the inventories of the twelfth and following centuries, in which he found these vessels actually described as " de murra," " de murro," or by the adjective "murreus," there can be no doubt that nothing but wood was in ordinary use in mediaeval days for utensils such as these. The menders of broken cups in Paris are said by John de Ciarlandia in the eleventh century to have worked upon cups made of many difterent kinds of wood, " do murris, planis, brucis, do acere, et tremulo," and he gives it as the opinion of some that the "murra" was a tree mentioned by Lucan — in auro mun-arc hihunt. In England too, "treen"' vessels preceded pewter, as pewter did silver plate : — " Deech made their chests, their beds, their joiuM stools : Bcecli made the board, the platters and the bowls."" Cowley. A reference to the older English poets, or to early wills and the inventories which are often appended to them, will go far to convince us that mazers were merely the best sort of wooden bowls, and that these favourite drinking vessels were made of the speckled portions of the maple-tree, from which they derived their name. The word " maser " is explained by Skinner, an antiquary of the same century and as trustworthy as Somner, to mean a wooden cup, " poculum ligneum, a l>elg. ludcscr, tuber ligni aceris ex qua materia pr.'ecipuc hiBC pocula confici solebant " : and to this may be added Planta's definition of it, "un neud ou bossetiun arbre nomme erablc."* The same vessel was called in French niadrc, which, says Cotgrave, is used " of wood whose grain is full of crooked and speckled streaks or veins." The German Maser is a spot, speck, or the grain of wood ; Planta. Thrcsor du Lan'j. Bus. Aluian. 254 Old English Plate. [chap. X. Mascrholz is veined wood in the same language, and Maserlc, maple- wood or the maple-tree. From this source our word mazer is clearly derived. In old inventories the word is often turned into an adjective ; mazereus and mazcrinus are Latin, and mesli/it or Dtessillijifi English forms in which it is found. The latter recalls the lines of Chaucer: — '' They fet him first the swete win, Ami mcde eke in a maseliii, And real spicerie." Ifhinie of Sire Thopus. V. 13. 780. Such a meslyn or mazer is described more in detail by Spenser : — " A mazer y wrought of the maple wood Whereon is enchased many a fair sight Of bears and tigers that make fierce war." SlifphrriFx C(ilrnia4.i,! 4- :^t^B^ ai|i}K(||)f {wpiai DuteotnisMiir^f^igtopain m ton* BOtlitflMt iS'o. -THE SCKOl'E .MAZEK (CIKCA 140U) AT YOUK MIXSTER, AND IXSCKH'TION ON THE BAND. near Canterbury, as well as in the print or boss of a small mazer at Fairford Church, Gloucestershire, a white crystal is fixed, much resembling that found in the cover of the so-called " Poison Tankard " at Clare College, Cambridge. It may be that in all these cases such a crystal was selected for its supposed virtue in detecting poison. The list, long as it is, which is appended to this section, has been carefully selected from notes of a much larger number of English mazers, with the view of indicating their antiquity, variety, value, the domestic purpose they served, and the period at which they fell out of use.f Turning meanwhile to extant specimens that wc may see for our- selves what manner of vessels these ancient bowls were, it is found •' .Mr. .J. 11. Daniel - Tyssen's Surrey Church Goods, temp. Edw. VI. f An interesting catalogue of foreign instances, extending from the year 1080 J« Be yow mere and glade and soo the Masters ToLerys do hyde," — an invitation to drink which has no doubt often been accepted. The words are divided by an ape, a dog, a pig, a stag, a huntsman, fruit or flower. The mount of the bowl is of the year 1534, but as usual the bowl itself seems older, whilst the foot bears the hall-marks proper for 1560-1. This foot is simply a fine tazza inverted and fastened beneath the mazer, from which it differs much in style, being quite Renaissance whilst the mazer is Gothic. Were this hybrid composition divided horizontally, two fine pieces of 16th CHAI'. X.] Mazers. 261 century plate would be restored to their proper condition witljout injury to either. A fine specimen of the larger howls is at Armourers' Hall, London. It is nearly a foot in diameter, and of considerable depth ; the rim and foot are of silver- gilt, and are united to each other by vertical bands, all the metal-work being covered with inscriptions, from which it appears that it was repaired in 1579, the year of its hall- mark (1578-9), though the original bowl was older, having been presented by Everard Frere, the first master of the Armourers' Company after its incorporation in 1-453. Within the bowl are the arms of the Company, St. George and the Dragon, and a cross within a wreath. Coming to the smaller mazers, some of which have already been spoken of, we find the same style of ornament on nearly all of the Xo. 38. — MAZER (OIKCA 1450; AT IllO^.MUNi.iKUs' HALL, LONDON. extant bowls of the fifteenth century ; but some of them bear inscrip- tions on the band, which is left plain in others. One of a pair amongst the ancient plate of the Ironmongers' Company (No. 38), bears a Latin inscription from Luke i. verses 28 and 42, in old Gothic letters : — Sibr . iWaria . %\a. . plnu . tnis . trrum . trnrtiirta . tii in luultrrib' . f tnirtiirtiis . fnirtiis. Its fellow has no inscription. They are of about the same size and date. A somewhat similar specimen is at Oriel College, Oxford. I'hc Oriel mazer, said to have been given to the College by Bishop Car])enter, circa 1470, is described minutely in Shaw's Ancient Fiiiiiil iiri', and Skelton's (iiniiht AiillfjiKi lusldiinihi, io whicli the reader is referred. For the beautiful woodcut (No. 39) of it, prepared by the late Sir A. AV. Franics to illustrate a proposed paper by ]\ir. Albei't "Way. but unhappily never put into use owing to Mv. Way's 262 Old English Plate. [OIIAP. X. lamented death, the author is indebted to the Council of the Royal Archaeological Institute. The bowl is of about the date of its gift to the College, and is somewhat larger than the smaller pair at All Souls', being as much as 8 inches across, and "Ih inches in depth. The inscription upon it is in Gothic characters : — "Ftr rartonr ttbas non tuioti prtil atra boluptag Sir raio rasta tiatur lis Iingiir fiupprittatur." It should be remarked that with the end of the fifteenth century we come also to the end of Grothic lettering of this description, which N>. 39.— MAZER (circa 1470) AT OllIF.L COLLEGE, OXFORH. gives place to the sort of Tudor capitals that are found on the Tokerys bowl and on the mazer long preserved at Narford Hall, Norfolk. The Narford mazer was engraved many years since in Arclueolofila.* It is of the early part of the sixteenth century, and has a silver-gilt rim with inscription, as follows: ciphus eefectorit eofensis per featre^e ROBERTUM PECHAM. Of part of this rim and inscription an engraving 'No. 40) is given of the full size, which may be of use in identifying lettering of the period upon other specimens, for the hall-mark fixes the date of this interesting bowl as of the year 1532. It has an enamelled boss bearing the figure of St. Benedict with staft' and book, with flowers in green and red, and s. benit inscribed round the border. * Vol. xxiii., p. 392. :ii \p. x.] Mazers. 263 At the Fonutaine sale, in 1884, it passed into the hands of the late Sir A. W. Franks. Another mazer in the Franks Collection is very like the last. The inscription on this is taken from Job xix. 21, Vulgate version : MISEREMINI • MET ' MISERK:\]INI ' MEI * SALTEM * VOS ' AMICI * iJIEI, and No. 40. MAZER (15:?2'> FORMKRLY AT NARFORP HALL, CO. NORFOLK, PART OF ENGRAVED BAND, FULL SIZE. the similarity of some of the letters to those on the Narford mazer ^vill lie seen by the annexed engraving (No. 41). It has been already remarked that some of these small mazers were mounted on feet ; and it will 1)e convenient to close this section Avith an illustration of one of the latest now preserved having this addition (Xo. 42). It is one of the All Souls' Colleo-e series and of Xo. -Jl. — M I/Hl liii\\L ^iIRCV iriJO-lli), IN IHI llvVNk^ (iiILKCTION. the year 1529. It is of interest to note that it bears the name of " Pt. Hoveden* Cnstos, 1571," scratched on the inside of the foot with a pointed instrument, ai)])arently by the warden's own hand, for it corresponds with his signature as appended to the ('ollcgc inventory of 1588, which has already been mentioned. '■' liobcrt Hoveden, of the well-known yeoman family of ITovenden (as the name i.s usually fouml), uf Ilarrietsliain, Craiihrook and other ])laces in Kent, became ^N'aidcn in that year. He died in 1614, 264 Old English Plate. [chap. X. There seems to be but a single mazer known of more modern date than the three last-mentioned specimens, which are all temp. Henry VIII. , and which like the chalices of that reign show, it will be noticed, almost hemispherical bowls instead of the more conical or " splayed " bowls of earlier times. This, therefore, brings us to the end of English mazers, but a notice of mazer-bowls would be incomplete without some reference to another form of wooden cup which, though of consider- able rarity, is represented in several English collections. No less than five of these have come under the notice of the Society of Antiquaries at different times, to whom as well as to Mr. Octavius Morgan, we are indebted for the accompanying en- gravings. They all appear to be of the fifteenth cen- tury, or earlier, and from their occurrence in German heraldry, it has been thought probable that they are chiefly of German and Swiss origin. Cups of this kind appear as the arms and crest of the family of Liebenberg, of the Canton Zurich, in a curious Eoll of Arms published by the Society of Antiquaries at Zurich, I>ii' WappenroUe von Zuricli, which is of the middle of the fourteenth century ; and in some remarkable German illuminations of the early part of the fifteenth century, now preserved in the British Museum (Add. MS. 24,189), being illustrations to Maudeville's Travels, a covered cup of the kind in question occurs. It stands on a table set out for a feast, and is apparently all of one material ; a similar cup is held by one of the attendants.* The suggestion, then, that they were the German representatives of mazer-bowls, like them used for drinking, and the smaller ones — for No. 42.- MAMUXG M.\ZER (1529) AT ALL .SuULS" COLLEGE, OXFORI'. * There are some other early German and French notices of them given in the Pro- CC(dinjs of the Society of Antiquaries for June 20, 1861, from which the above have been taken. Markers. 26^ some of them are ver}' small — employed in testing' or taking assay of the drink, seems a very good one, but it is by no means safe to conclude that they were not also fasliionable in England at the same time, and to be included equally amongst the English drinking vessel.-i of the period. One such cup has been in the possession of the Rodney family for cen- turies, and bears their arms ; another formerly belonged to the Hamilton Palace collection. Like mazers, too, they lent their peculiar form to vessels made of other materials than wood, and whilst some of them are of maple, others, including the Jiodney and Hamilton Cups, are of silver gilt. The former is shown in tlie wood-cut given here (No. 48). It is G;l inches high, and 4^^ inches in diameter at the widest part. It probably, says Mr. Morgan, was made for, and belonged to. Sir John liodney, Knt., of Iiodney Stoke, who was living in 1512, as the arms of the Rodney family — three eagles displayed — are engraved on the top of the handle of the cover in a style very ancient, and not improbably coeval with the make of the cup. The Hamilton cup is of about the same size as the last, or a little smaller, but in the wood-cut (No. 44) is drawn on a somewhat larger scale. It has no cover, and no ornament save the narrow (lotliic bands shown." Neither of these cups is hall-marked. Other specimens, of which engravings are here given (Nos. 45 and 46), were exhibited by John Webb, ]^s(]., and Octavius jNlorgan, ]"^s(|., No. 43. -sii,vicK-i;ri/r ci p, wirn aum.s ok thk KUD.NKV KAMll.V. * At the sale of the Ilainiltuii Colloctimi fit Messrs. Christie and Matison's in 1882, this piece was sohl for no less a sum than 40.5 guineas. It is now, witli so many other choii^e ))ieces, in tlic Fr;uiior. unum mazerum cum jiede ar.ucnti. — Idem. unum eiphum de nnirro meliore quem haljc^. — Idem. unum eiphum murreum cum quadam ymagine de Trinitates depictii in fundo. — Idem. meliorem ciphttm de murro vocatum knop- mazcr unmn eiphum de murro cum uno :founce.* — Idem. unum parvum mazereum cum coo])erculo de mazar. — Idem. parvum mazerinum meum cum circulo deaurato. — Idem. les mazers.- — Idem. one mazer cup Ijnund with silver gilt value lO.v., another smaller value o.s-., stolen from John Fi-ensshe, gold- smith. — Riley's Loii- don Life, etc. viij mazeris argenti lig- atis ct deauratis (from an indictment f(M' house-breaking). — P. II. 0. per late W. 1 ). Selby, Es:]. 184S. 13.-)!. IS.-)'.!. 1 3(ir,. 1 :?«(;. VMY.K 13,^1. i;?s2. ]:'-;• 1. * Froionc, of a cup, front i- nella, in modern <,'o]flsniiths' art tlie ornament ca'lctl "gadrooncl " from Fr. goderonne — knurling. Cotg., it implies a " \vriid5. iinum ciphum de mazer cum cooperturA et pede argenti deaurati sig latuni cum diversis literis de bees (BB). — Idem, do. unns godet de murro cum cooperculo murrio. — Idem. 13'.M3. unum mazerum quem nuper emi de executoribus Domini Johannis de Bysshopeston cum uno cooperculo argenteo deaurato ligato in summitate ejusdem scriptum. f)o so jjs Irngyst a Igbc tafe tf)t6 rope tottt otDtgu stvj)ff.— Idem. 13J»9. Iti" j aut'e petit hanaj) de mazer ove le cov'cle a guj'se dun pot steant sr iij peez t garnis darg' d' enorrez pris vis viijdi. It™ j large mazer cont' iij galons liez environ' d'arg endorrez enbossez en le f ounce,* itm j g'nt pee endorrez pr la dee masei', pois xiiij lb iiij unc. It'll j niaser tour de nutte garnisez d'argent enorrez t cov"ez. — Treasury Inv. 1 Hen. IV. IKXi. cum uno cypho ile mazer nomine mortuarii mei. — Test. Ebor. tlo. unum mazer vocatum Spang ; meliorem cijihum meum de murreo scilicet mazer. These were be:iueathed by Sir 11. le Scro}) (Lord Bolton) to liis son tlie Archbishop of York. — Idem. 1404. unam murram in cui fundo infra scribit. hoc nomeu .Ihc in asura p'cii xs. — Bristol Orphan Book. 1406. uuus ciphus masar stans super pedeiu argenti dcauratam mobilem portatum super tres leones cum bonlura argenti deaurata et ymagine Sancti Johannis Baptists; in fundo cooperculum borduratum de aquilis argenti deauratis et pomellum aimellatum de azuro cum j chapcUetto viridi et iiij rosis albis. Will of a Bp. of Durham.— Test. Ebor. 1415. unu' ciphum vocat grete maser qui quondam fuit ciphus p'ris mei ad te'minu' vitas suae. — Coll. Top. et Gen. 1433. unum mazer flat cum singula liga argenti deauratum ; unum mazer cum ymagine Saucta; Katherinse vocat Frounce in fundo.* — Test. Ebor. 1434. majorem patellam de meslyn. — Idem. 1436. unam murram qute vocatur cossyn. — Idem. 1442. unum standyng maser ligatum cum argento. — Idem. 1444. a standing maser of silver and gilt, uncov'ed, wt p'armes of England and F'aiince, and wt a poyse write Good Edward, weyng xxi ounces p's peunce iij' iij'l Sma., Ixx', also ij litil masers called Godurdci<, cov'ed and anoJ?er litil maser uncov'e. a staiidynge maser wt. cover of wode. — Idem. ].->0L'. j pelvim de meslyn. — Idem. l."i()(;. a pardon maser (having round the brim an indulgence of 4o days to the drinker). — Idem. l.">27. a standyiige maser with a cover, the foot gilt ; ij greate, and ij less mazers with ];rymmys and rosys in the botome save j lacketh a roose. — Inv. of Minster Priory in Shepey. 1.534. a standj'iige maser wt. a cov' and shell wtall weyng xxvi unces di. : Itm one great maser wt a sengle band wt a prynt in the bottom gilt wt an ymage of AUmyghti god sittynge at the iugement in the myddes of iiij evangelistes weynge xlix unces di. ; Itm a masar wt a sengle band wt a prj^nt in the bothomof the passion of saynt Thomas the martir and a plate of sylv' and gilte wt an Ape lokynge in an vrynall written wt these woordes " this wat' is p'olows " weynge xv unc. di. These and many other mazers are described in an Invent, of the Guild of the B. V. M. at Boston, co. Line. — Peacock's Church Fnrnifnrc. \T)'.^'). V grete masers with small bonds of sylver and gylt ; iiij masers whrof iij of them be with gylt bonds and the fourth with a sylver bond dailj'c occupied xxiiij un. : ij masers with brode bands sylver and gilt and a little mazer with a fote and a small band sylver and gilt xviij un. : ij small masers with brode bands of sylver and gilt. Inv. of iMaison Dieu at Dover, 2(3 Hen. VI II. I.J42. a silver masser. — llici'. Wills. liA'H. a masour cuppe and three silver sponcs, to each of testator's two daughters. — Idem. ].").")."). ij mcssilliiig basi-ens. — Idem. \'i'>l . j masser egged about with silver. — Idem. ].")77. one mazer with one edgle oi sylver.— Idi-m. 1 jj7S. ij massers. ].">8r>. j silvar mazar. — Wills and Inv. l.")'J2. A maser cuppe 2.V. Or/. — Idem. THE SALT. We now come to what was tlic principnl article of domestic plate in English houses of whatever degree. 'Jlie massive salt-cellar, which adorned the centre of the table, served to indicate the importance of * See note on page 2(57. 270 Old English Plate. [chap. X. Xpxapi its owner, and to divide the lord and his nobler guests from the inferior guests and menials, who were entitled to places *' below the salt " and at the lower ends of the tables only. It seems rather to have served this pur^DOse than to hold salt for the meal, a supply of which was usually placed near each person's trencher in a smaller salt-cellar, called a "trencher" salt. There are many allusions in the poets to the distinction marked by the position of the salt amongst the guests, and to the social inferiority of '* humble cousins who sit beneath the salt." The great salt was, therefore, an object of considerable interest, and it was often of great magnificence and of curious device. Edmund Mortimer, Ea)'l of March, in 1380, had such a salt-cellar, "in the shape of a dog " ; John Earl of Warenne's was in the form of an " olifaunt " (1347) ; salt-cellars, enamelled or gilt, nearly all with covers, are found on every table. Fifteenth century wills mention salts of every shape and size and kind. Salts square, round, plain, wreathed, high, low, with covers and without, are all found; the words "^)yo sale'' being often added to the description of the vessel. Salts formed as dragons occur, and also those shaped as lions. Silver, silver-gilt, and " berall "*' are the materials of which most are made. Whoever could afford an article of plate, besides his spoon, had it, in those days, in his salt, even in prefer- ence to a silver cup for his own parti- cular use. A very fine and early salt is the Huntsman Salt (No. 47) at All Souls' College, Oxford, and of the fifteenth cen- tury. It is so called from the standing figure bearing upon his head the receptacle for salt, which, be it noted, is a box made of rock-crystal with a hinged lid of the same. A No. 47. — THE IIUNT.S.MAX (15th century) at souls' coll., oxford. SALT ALL Test. Ehor. 1471. Salts. 271 description of the principal salt of Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Ricbmoncl, the natural son of Henry YIII., taken from the inventory made on his death in 1527, gives a good idea of those which graced the board of royalty. It was •' a salte of golde Avith a hlak dragon and v perles on the bak, and upon the fote iij course saphirs, iij course balaces, xxiij course garnisshing perles, and upon the cover of the same salt vij saphirs or glasses, and iiij course balaces, and xxxij garnishing perles, upon the knoppe a white rose with rubyes and a pyn of silver to here the salt going through the dragon and the bace made fast to a plate of silver and gilt under the said bace weing xxv onz. di." To this may be added that one of his small salts Avas " a little salt of birrall, the cover and fote well garnisshed with golde stones and perles, sent from my Ld. Cardiuelle for a New Yere's gift, anno xismo, with a ruby upon the cover, weing vi. onz." Another, of even less weight but of no less value, Avas " a salte of gold, supposed to be of an unycorn horn, Avelle Avrought and sett Avith perles, and the cover Avitli turkasses sent from the king by Mr. Magnus, v onz. di." A Lincolnshire Avill of 1558 mentions "my silver salte Avith a cover doble gilte, having in the middle of it a pece of Birrall." Let the little treatise of 1500 entitled F/oi' to Serce a Lord, say how the chief salt-cellar should be placed : — " Thenne here-uppon the boteler or panter shall bring forthe his pryncipall salte ... he shall sette the saler in the myddys of the tabull accordyng to the place where the principall soverain shall sette . . . thenne the seconde salte alt the lower ende . . . then salte selers shall be sette up})on the syde-tablys." The Buke of Kcrnjiuj too directs that the salt shall be set on tlie right side " where your soverayne shall sytte." Furthermore, it Avas not graceful to take the salt except Avith "the clone knyfe," so says the Yottiiij Child rrii's lioo};, in 1500, far less to dip your meat into No. 48. t-ALT ^lli'o/ AX iNinV C'ULLEGH, OXfOKD. 272 Old English Plate. [i-HAl'. X. the salt-cellar. The Bahees Book is strong upon this point, even a generation before (1475) : " The salte also touche not in his salere With nokyns mete, but lay it honestly On youre Trenchoure, for that is curtesy." Omitting for the present the smaller trencher salts, there are four patterns of Old English salt-cellars, of which examples have come down to our time, and of each of them an illustra- tion must be given. First come the hour-glass salts of the reigns of Henry Yll. and Henry YIH., of which some five or six hall - marked specimens are known to the writer, besides one or two un- dated. The undated ones are the older, and they comprise some of the finest workmanship and great beauty. Two are at Oxford, Corpus Christi College and New College each boasting of one. The Corpus salt was given by the founder, Bishop Fox ; and bearing the letters R and E amongst the orna- mentation, it seems safe to refer it to the period during which he held the see of Exeter, 1487 to 1492. The New College specimen, given by Walter Hill, is dated 1493, and serves well as an illustration of these beautiful salts (No. 48). Both these are figured in Shaw's SjH'cimcns of Ancient Fiirnititre. A pair at Christ's College, Cambridge, part of the plate of the foundress, Margaret, Countess of Ptichmond, are of about the same period. They arc ornamented with a double rose in repousse work on the alternate lobes and Gothic work with pinnacles at the angles round the waist. Amongst the later and hall-marked examples is a third given to Christ's College, Cambridge, by its foundress. This is engraved with Tudor rose, fleur-de-lys and portcullis on alternate lobes, and uSACHS; No. 49. -SALT (1518) AT IKONMOXGERS' HALL, LONDON. CHAP. X.] St an ding Salts. 273 -was made in 1507. The next is at Cotebele and of 1516 ; whilst the pair from which our second ilhistration (No. 49) of this class of salt is taken, are of 1518 and 15*22, and in the possession of the Iron- mongers' Company in London. All alike are six-sided in plan, with raised lobes alternately orna- mented and plain, only differing in the details of the decora- tion. The salt at Cotehele has beautiful Gothic pinnacles around the knop or waist, like the earlier pair at Christ's College, Cam- bridge, By the middle of the sixteenth century we come to the second type, and the earliest of this class again is at Corpus College, Oxford. It is a cylindrical standing salt, of the year 1554, and with its cover, is ornamented with repousse and engraved work in a pattern formed of three principal cartouches with central bosses, the intervals filled with foliated scrolls. The cover is surmounted by a statuette of a boy with a staff and shield. It was exhibited in the South Ken- sington Loan Collection of 18G2, and has been erroneously cata- logued at different times as of 161B and of 1594. Later specimens of this fashion of salt are in the possession of the Goldsmiths' and the Armourers' Company. These cylindrical salts Xo. oO.— cylindrical salt (ir.t;ii) in tih: occur oftener than the square ones. The example selected to repre- sent them (No. 50) is one in the possession of tlie Corporation of Norwich, given by Peter Eeade, who died in 15(58. It was made in Norwich in the following year. The drawing is after one published some years ago in a volume relating to Norwich anti- quities, but for want of shading hardly gives it a sufficiently rounded O.E.P. T rOSSESSION NORWICH. iK TIIK COIU'OItATIHN 274 Old English Plate. [cnAi-. X. form. It afiords a good example of Norwich work, and of this style of salt. Of the same type, but square instead of cylindrical, is the beautiful salt of the year 1569, belonging to the Yintners' Company. From this the illustration No. 51 is taken, and it is a possession of which its owners are justly proud. It is thus described in the catalogue of the works of art exhibited at the Hall of the Ironmongers' Company some years ago : — *'A square salt silver gilt with cover. It is VI inches high, and 4i inches square ; on the panels at the sides, in bold relief, are four female figures, representing Virtues, viz. : 1. Justice, with sword and scales ; 2. Fortitude, holding in her left hand a blazing heart, and in her right a dart ; 3. Temperance, pouring from a vessel into a cup ; 4. Chastity, with a lamb at her feet ; all within land- scapes, and at the angles are therm figures. The cornice and foot are boldly moulded and richly embossed. The whole rests on four sphinxes, crowned ; above the arch of each panel is an escallop. The cover is sur- mounted by a female figure, standing on a richly embossed vase ; a serpent is coiled round her, and she holds a shield, whereon are the arms of the Yintners' Company." The Hammersley salt (No. 52), at Haberdashers' Hall, is of 1595. The drum is in repousse with pastoral subjects in bold relief, which have a very pleasant effect, and contrast with the conventional decoration which was more usually affected at that period. At the very end of the sixteenth century we find a circular bell- shaped salt, or spice -box, in three tiers or compartments, much in fashion, but only for a few years. They are no doubt the "Bell" No. 51.- -8ALT (]f)69) AT VINTKEHb' HALL, LONDON. Staiidijii!' Salts 75 salts of contemporary inventories. " The bell salt of silver with his cover " was an item in the will of Sir Thomas Scott, of Scot's Hall, which is dated 1594 ; and a Durham will of 1593 refers to *' a white bell salt" as well as "a trencher salt." The specimen from which our illustration (No. 53) is taken belongs to Christ's Hospital, London, and is fourteen inches high. Its style of ornamentation speaks for itself, and is very representative of its period. The two lower compartments form salt-cellars, and the upper one serves as a pepper-castor. A similar salt of 1594, found at Stoke Prior, is now in the S. Kensington Museum ; and a third specimen was in the collection of Mr. Octavius Morgan. A pair, one of 1599 and the other of the fol- lowing year, were in the posses- sion of the late Sir G. Dasent. As to their value, it may be mentioned that a piece in the Hailstone Collection, almost ex- actly like the Christ's Hospital salt, was sold for 330 guineas in 1891. It had been bought at Exeter in the year 1858 for five pounds. About the middle of the seventeenth century we find a rare example of a style of decoration more aftected in Holland than in our own country, in the Waldo salt of 16(51 at Clothworkers' Hall (No. 54). The Dutch repousse work of the Utrecht School was marked by the skill with which silver was hammered into volutes, which shape themselves at every point into grotesque faces or masks, testifying to a mastery of the art of metal- working which has never been surpassed. Next comes a sinq)lc and wcU-kiiown form of salt, which carries us all through the seventeenth century, from 1638, the date of one of the earliest known, to 1685, when some in the possession of the Worshipful Company of Piercers were made, from one of which our engraving (No. 55) is taken. These salts of the Mercers' Company show the stiff feather decoration under the shield of arms, which is so characteristic of the period from 1670 to 1685. It is most common x2 -SALT (1595) AT HABKUDASHERS' HALL, LONDON. 276 Old English Plate. [chap. X. No. 53. — SAI,T (1607) AT CIIUIST's hospital, LONDON. CHAP. X.] Staiidinf^- Salts. 277 s '^^mrnm/mmmmmmmmimm: No. Ol. — SALT (1661; at CLOTHWOHKEUs' hall, LONDi. n. of all about the year 1G75. Similar salts of Jutermediate date are amongst the splendid plate of the Clotliworkers' Company. Some of tliem are circular, others are square or octagonal. No. .^.5. — OCTAUONAL SALT (lfi8j) AT MKKI' Kits' irALL, l.dNlM.N. It ^vill have been observed how carefull}' the earlier salts were covered to preserve the cleanliness of the salt, and perhaps to prevent No. 5i>l. Stoneware jug with cover engraved with musical instruments. — Messrs. Garrards. \T>'>7. iij stone drinking potts covered with silver ij oz. ix s iiij d. l.")()2. Stoneware jug, cover engraved in Elizalx'than fashion ; see engraving No. '>S. — Vintners' Company. 15(37. Silver jug with handle and cover engraved with Elizabetliau strapwork. — Armoirrers' Comi)any. ir>70. 2 ston jjottes, w^^^ covers and bands doble gilt and one i)ot covered with silv', vi li siij s iiij d. — Rich. Wills. 1571. Silver jug with handle and cover ornamented with Elizabethan engraving like that of 15(i7 at Armourers' Hall. — Trea-;ure of the Patriach, Moscow. 1572. a stone cupp garnished witli sylver and gjlte. — Inv. of Thomas Lee. of Marton, CO. Piucks. 1574. 1 stone pott garnished with silver pcell gilt. — Rich. Wills. 1577. twoo stone pottes layde with silver gylte. — Wills and Liv. 1578. ij stone potts bounden with silver doble gilt. — Rich. Wills. 1580. my stone pot with a cover of sylver. — Wills and Inv. do. one stone pott garnished with sylver, w'^ a cover and gilt. — Rich. Wills. 1583. a stone cruse with cover brim and foote of silver doble gilt. — Bristol Orphan Book. 1585. ij stone pottes with silver covers gilte and imboste. L588. one stone jugge double gilted 1 li 10 s ; one stone jugge covered with silver. 1 li 10 s.— Wills and Inv. 1596. ij stone jugges garnished with silver and double gylted. — Wills and Inv. EWERS, BASIXS. AND SALVERS. These occur in every old will and inventory of any importance, and being articles in daily use at every table, must have been very common indeed, making up as they did for the want of any such utensil as the modern fork. • We must remember that sometimes more than one person ate off the same dish, and that with the lingers, aided only with the knife or spoon, as the case required ; and even if a rule prescribed in the Bohc of yiti-tur«' were never transgressed, — " Sett never on fysche norflesche beest nor fowle trewly More than ij fyngurs and a thombe for that is curtesie,"' still we shall agree with de Laborde in his remark on ancient basins, "que I'absence de fourchette et Thabitude de manger a deux dans la meme ecuelle et a plusieurs dans le meme plat, rendaient neeessaire CIIAl". X.] EcL'crs, Basins, and Salvers. 283 la proprete des mains, pour les autres avant le diner, pour soi-meme apres." Ewers and basins were accordin^l}- banded before and after every meal, and after every course, tbe bands being lield over tbe basin wbilst water, bot, cold, or scented, was poured over tbem from tbe ewer by tbe server. In tbe bouses of tbe great tbey were of costly No. 60. — SALVKll (154.")), AT (OlirUS CHKISTI C(iI.I.F,GE, camb. material, and fine naperic for use witb tbem is found in abundance amongst tbe bousebold goods of tbe middle ages. Tbe Bohr of Kerrj/nf/ and tbe liaJx'cs liohc do not omit to regulate tbe serving of tbe ewer and basin. Tbe 7jo/,r of Kcnyng directs tbe attendant to see before meat tbat " tbyn eweiy be arayed with basyns and ewers and water bote and colde, and se ye bave napkyns ..." and tbe manner in wbicb tbey sbould be used at tbe end of tbe meal is laid down in tbe InthccH Bake : — " 'J'liaiiiie sdiiiinc di" yuw fur water owe to ljoi) Siimnic liolde tlic clothe, soinine poure n|ipoii hi- iiaiule.'" Tbe little manual entitled Fjor to scrrc a Burd directs this service before and after meat in 1500, and even in li)ll tbe Bohe of Nurture mentions "a basen ewer and towell to aray your cupbord." AVitli tbe appearance of forks tbe use of tbe btisin was to a great 284 Old English Plate. [chap. X. extent discontinued, and most of the basins themselves have dis- appeared, perhaps to be converted into forks. It may well be that some of the forks now in use were made out of the ewers and basins Avhich their invention rendered superfluous. The few now remaining are used for sideboard decoration, or for handing rose-water after dinner, and the most ancient of them are only of the middle of the sixteenth century. Amongst the earliest specimens are the silver-gilt ewer and salver engraved with foliated arabesques, which were the gift of Archbishop Parker to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1570. They bear the hall-mark of 1545. Of these the engrav- ings (Nos. 60 ^; 61) give a good idea, show- ing the arabesques which were the usual decoration of the Henry VIII. period. Next to these rank a silver gilt ewer and salver of 1579 and 1581 respectively, the property of the Duke of Rutland, the former formed of agate rings with silver-gilt bands between them, orna- mented, as well as the top and bottom of the vase, in repousse, Avith dolphins and tritons in cartouches, snails, shells, fruit, flowers, birds, lobsters, tortoises and many other objects, " the mounts con- nected by four projecting female terminal figures, with figures on their heads ending in scrolls ; the handle is formed by the head and body of a warrior, and terminates in twisted serpents' tails. On the back of the warrior is a large snail, with a smaller snail on the top of its shell, under the lip a female mask. The circular foot is repousse with lions' claws, masks, and fruit between, with a boss of four projecting eagles' heads." The salver is 18 inches in diameter, and has eight oval pieces of agate inserted on the border, and a circular piece in the raised boss, the whole field being filled with repousse scrolls and arabesques of birds, Ko. 61. -EWER (1545), AT CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMB. CHAP. X.] Ezc'crs, Basins^ and Salvers. 28^ etc., and the centre ornaments bcinj^^ a shrimp, k)hster, dolphin and tortoise. In the early part of the seventeenth century they were ornamented with beautiful repousse strap-work, interlaced and enclosing boldly treated flowers or marine monsters, and have raised bosses, or No. 62. ROSK-WATKR SAI.VEK (ir)97), AT MKKCIIA:*'!' TAYLOKS" IIALF.. LipMioN. " prints," in the centre of the basin, sometimes enamelled, but oftener engraved, with coats of arms or other devices. The engraving (No. 02) is of a rose-water dish belonging to the Mercbant Taylors' Company, one of two such dishes exhibited l)y them in the loan collection of 1802 at South Kensington. It is described in the catalogue as "a circular rose-water disli. silver, parcel gilt. On a boss in the centre, much raised up, is a coat of arms, viz., a fcss between eight billets. Hound the boss are six panels, containing d(dphins and flowers, all in repousse. Dolphins and flowers in panels are also repeated in the rim. ]Marine monsters are frequently found from ]595 to 1035. The other part of tbc dish 286 Old English Plate. [chap. X. is engraved with flowers in scrolls." It may be added that the arms are those of Maye ; one Richard Maye was Warden of the Company in 1575, and Master some few years later. Of this fashion is the salver of 1595, with a ewer to match of 1617, No. t)3. EWER (1617), THE PROPEKTY OF THE CORPORATION OF KORM'ICH. which are the oldest specimens of English silver work in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. By the gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen, these are given as the frontispiece to this volume. The Corporations of Bristol and Norwich possess fine sets, — that at Bristol bearing the date-letter for 1595, and the other the marks for 1617. These are admirable examples of the goldsmiths' art of this CHAT. X.] Ezccrs, Basins, and Salvers. 287 period. The Norwich ewer and salver are given as ilhistrations (Nos. (i'd and 64). Such examples are found down to the end of the reign of Charles I.^, after which a plainer fashion prevails, the salver being quite unorna- mented, and the ewers somewhat rude cup-shaped jugs, with or without stems, and with a plain handle. With the accession of James II. come in the well-known helmet-shaped patterns which afterwards became very usual, and lasted till about 1720. The later No. H4. — SALVER (1617 ones were sometimes of elaborate design and linish ; and, by permis- sion of the Goldsmiths' Company, an engraving is given of the tinest known specimen by that celebrated smith, Paul Lamerie (No. 65). " On the lower part of the vase is a winged mermaid with two tails, accompanied by two boy-tritons blowing conches. The foot consists of marine flowers, shells, and reptiles. On the upper part of the vase are festoons of flowers and the C()m})any's badges, the leopards" heads. The handle has a very bold half-length figure of a sea-god,, terminatin'f in foliage." It is of the vear 1741. 288 Old English Plate. [chap. X. This is perhaps the appropriate place to comment upon the remark- able absence in English ^vork of examples of the more extravagant rococo fashion found in French collections from 1735 to 1755. English specimens of this character may be counted upon the fingers, No. 65. — EWER il7il), BY I'AUL LAMERIE, AT GOLDSMITHS* HALL, LONDON. and are chiefly by Paul Lamerie. The Goldsmiths' ewer may be taken as a good sample of the class. A curious soup-tureen with its cover piled with grapes and pears, and the bowl resting upon two goats, whose heads belong to the bowl and bodies to the stand, of a very French type, was sold in 1888. It was made by Paul Crespin in 1740, and was probably designed to match a pair of soiqneres (sold for ^1,600 the pair) in the same collection by J. Koettiers. These were of 1739, and were made, of course, in Paris. The English piece seems to have owed its inspiration to its foreign companions. CHAP. X.] Eic'crs, Basins, and Salvers. 289 The great cistern mentioned later (No. 107), by Kandlcr, of 1734, is a third of these rare examples ; but this is more distinctly English in its design and workmanship than the other pieces described above. The salver of 1741, at Goldsmiths' Hall, is of workmanship to correspond with the ewer, the border being designed boldly in Louis Quatorze scrolls, and panels enclosing figures of boys representing heathen gods. It is not, however, very effective. The salvers of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries were plain circular dishes, and repousse work gave way to plain engraving towards the middle of the former century. Those which accompany the helmet-shaped ewers are usually quite plain. In the reign of Queen Anne, chasing is found, the edges of the salvers being both chased and shaped, the salvers themselves standing on three, or sometimes four, small feet. Some are both engraved and chased ; the talents of Hogarth were for some six years employed in engraving plate for Mr. Ellis Gamble, the silversmith, to whom he was apprenticed in 1712 ; and salvers or waiters, decorated by him, are said still to be seen. Strangely enough, the mark of his master is not to be found amongst those registered at Goldsmiths' Hall at that period. The plainer salvers of this date have often a gadrooned edge. Some simple but effective ornamentation is given to some salvers, circa 1735, by small semi-circular notches, eight or ten in number, in the moulded rim. This style of ornament was succeeded by the l)eaded edges of the time of George III., and circular or shaped salvers were replaced by the plain oval trays, having handles at the ends, which are then found almost to the exclusion of any other patterns. The following list gives a selection of examples, of all dates from the earliest : — 12>!4. pn,r pelvium arg" cmp Lond. — Account ol: " jocalia '' purchased for the king's use and presents, 12 &; 13 Edw. I. ]2'.t(j. 1 jiar pelvium ; 1 lavator' arg' n aula, 1 l>acinus arg' |? codeni. — Wardrobe Accounts, 2-1 Edw. I. ]:V2i. un cwcr a triper dorve ayniall t~ taille d'une vyne. — Indenture of royal plate, 17 Edw. II. J'SM). uu eawer cndorre od doubles ymages (aymals) en* founce t~ on poniel chisellez (Tune vignc. — Indenture of " joealia" found in the Treasury, 12 Edw. III. i:il7. ij bacyns, ma hure d'argent dorc, mi petit ewer d'argent doiiv (will of John, Earl of Warren).— Test. Ebor. I'U'.i. duos baciones cnaymaillatos in fundo (juorum in uno est judiciuui Salanionis et in alio est rota fortune, duo magna lavatoria (will of Henry, Lord de Percy). — Mem. * These images were slipped trefoils, the alternate ones lioii)g turned upside down. O.E.P. U 290 Old Eiis'Ush Plate. [chap. x. '^ 1369. un peire des bacyns ove swages endorres et enammaylles ; ewers ove spoutes. — Vessels bought of the executors of John Hiltoft, goldsmith, 42 Edw. III. 1392. Kichard, Earl of Arundel, leaves to his wife Philippa a pair of basons, '-in which I was accustomed to wash before dinner and supper." — Nichols' Test. Vet. 1400. uuum perepelvm de argento cum coopert' cum armis meis et Domini de Nevylle in fundo ; cum ij pelvis et ij aquariis argenti cum armis meis in fuudo (will of Richard de Scrop). — Test. Ebor. 1419. duos pelves argenteos cum rosis in medio deauratis, duos aquarios cum ij idriis argenteis (will of Will. Gascoigne, L. C. J.). — Idem. 1433. unum ewer argenti cum le spowte in certis partibus deauratum. — Idem. 1444. j laver cum ij spowtes deaurat'. — Idem. 1463. iij pelves cum pryntis et boses argenti et enameld in medio corundum. — Idem. ir)00. two basons and two ewers part gilt weighing 117 oz. at 3.y. id. per oz. ; two great basons with two ewers partly gilt 183 oz. at 'is. 4rf.— Will of Thomas Kebeel, S.L. 1.503. an ewer and basin of silver the swages gilt. I.0O5. a payyer of gilt basons, xviij basins with ewers. — Inv. of Lord Mayor's Feast. (E. E. Text Society.) 1519. duos pelves argenti cu lavafs in medio unius est una Rosa in alio scutii armor' meor' (will of Rawf Lathom citizen and goldsmith). — C.P.C. 32 Ayloffe. For existing specimens see Appendix A. : — 1545, 1590, 1595, 1616, 1617, 1640, 1651, 1668, 1670, 1675, 1676, 1677, 1679, 1680, 1685, 1705, 1706, 1715, 1720, 1721. STANDING CUPS AND HANAPS. An article of hardly less importance in medi;\3val times than the great salt-cellar, was the standing cup in which lord, ahbot, or gentle- man received his Avine from the butler's hand after it had been duly " essayed." Whilst simple " treen " cups were used by the lower classes, those which graced the table of the high-born and wealthy were always of great magnificence and of costly material. The splendour of tbe cup marked the consequence of him who used it, as the standing salt did the position of the lord of the feast ; and if not of gold, silver, or silver- gilt, it was formed of some then rare material, such as the egg of the ostrich, the shell of the cocoanut, or, at least, of curiously mottled wood mounted on a foot and surrounded with bands of precious metal. Such cups were of great value, and some were prized no less for the historical or other associations which surrounded them than for their intrinsic worth. They were often known, not only in the household of the owner, but even in the district in which he lived, by special names, and the custody of the cup has signified the ownership of an estate. The " Constable Cup " of Sir Richard de Scrop in 1400, and the great silver cup with a cover called " Le Chartre of Morpeth," mentioned ^'"•^i'- x] Standing Cups and Haiiaps. 29I in the will of John, Lord of Greystock, in 1430, must have been of some such importance as this.* Richard, Earl of Arundel, in 1392 bequeaths to his wife Philippa " her own cup called Bealchier."! This was no doubt a family possession of much interest ; and in many other less notable cases, drinking-cups are found to bear particular names, sometimes being called after saints. Mazers named " Spang," "Cossyn," and " Crumpuldud " have already been mentioned, all of the fifteenth century ; and a still earlier one called " Godezere " was 1»equeathed by a burgess of Bristol to the chapel of St. Thomas there in 1391.1 These few instances will be enough to show that favourite (Irinkiug-cups were often given pet or special names; but the list might be prolonged indefinitely. The same Bishop of Durham whose Indian nut will be presently mentioned, calls one of his cups " Chaute- plure " in 1259 ; § whilst Edmund de Mortimer, Earl of March, has u cup of gold with an acorn called '* Benesonne " and another of silver called "Wassail," at his deatli in 1380.1 John Halle, rector of Buscot, leaves to his friend and neighbour the vicar of Lechlade, a cup called " Cobbard " in 1400. The prior of Durham called one of the cups of his house " Beda " in 1440, IT whilst two others there were named " Herdewyke " and " Abell " respectively. A few words must be said both as to the term " lianap," so often applied to cups of this description, and as to the mode of using them, before going into further detail as to their varying fashion. The Norman-French word "hanap," then, which has at last come to mean a basket for package, in fact a hamper, is derived from the Saxon luuep, a cup or goblet, and was applied in media3val days to standing cups with covers, but only as it would seem to cups of some size and import- ance. As drinking vessels grew up, with the increasing luxury of the times, from wooden bowls into the tall "standing cups and covers" which is the proper description of the cups called hanaps, the use of the latter term became confined to such cups alone, and the place where such hanaps were kept was termed the hdiKipcriuin. This was necessarily a place of safe keeping and therefore a sort of Treasury. The hanaper accordingly was the safe place in the Chan- cery where the fees due for the sealing of patents and cinirters were deposited, and being received by the Clerk of the Hanaper (or clerk of the Chancery Treasury), the term hanaper office has continiUHl to the ])resent time. The hanaperium may originally have been a strong chest, and so the terms "hanaper" or "hamper" may have been * Surtees Society. — Test. Ehor. t Nichols.— r^/. V Henry VIII. l.'.'S. a nutt gilt with a cover. — Surtees Society. Wills and Inv. I.-jTO. one nutt double gilt weinge xxxv.ounces x'lli. xiii.s\ iiij^/. — Idem. 1572. a nutt enclosed with silver and gilte<)f accorne woorcke and a cover gilte for the same. — Bristol Orphan Book. 1 .")77. my black nut with the cover. — Wills and Inv. l.'.'.M). one nutte of silver to drink in dwoble gilte with a cover. — Wills and Inv. Tliese notes plainly indicate that jnst as a silver-gilt bowl shaped as a mazer would some- times be called by that name, silver cups were called nuts or eggs if they were so formed. Cujis of all three materials arc extant. Cocoa-nut cups of the fifteenth century are to be seen at Oriel and New Colleges, Ox- ford, the latter society owning two specimens. The great City Companies possess several ; the Vintners, the Armourers, and the Ironmongers each hove one, from the latter of which our engraving (No. ()(>) is taken. It gives a very good idea of the way in which they were generally mounted at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The example at Vintners Hall is very like this, and bears the hall-mark of 1518. Ostrich-egg cups are not so common, perhaps because they were rather more easily Nu. 06. — COCOA-NUT CUP (circa 1.^00), AT IRONMONaERS' HALL, LONDON. 2g6 Old English Plate. [chap. X. broken. Exeter College, Oxford, possesses an egg-cup of the first years of the seventeenth century (No. 67), and the Earl Howe another of earlier date ; all these Avere exhibited in the Loan Collection at South Kensington in 18G2. There is a very ancient ostrich egg at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the history of which can be traced to the four- teenth century. It was originally used for carrying about the Host, and being broken in the mastership of one Moptyd, or between 1553 and 1557, it is said to have been re- newed at the expense of Richard Fletcher, when Bishop of Bristol (1589-92). This account of it, given by Masters in his history of the college, written late in the last century, is borne out by the hall-mark which is still legible on the mount, and fixes its date as of the year 1592. The cup, now much broken, is held together by its very plain silver tripod mounting, the only ornament of which is a little Elizabethan engraving. The Exeter College cup is of 1610, and has a characteristic foot of that period with a stem formed as ostriches' legs ; the cover is surmounted by an ostrich standing on a plume of ostrich-feathers (No. 67). A third, somewhat more modern but an excellent and typical specimen never- theless, is the beautiful cup in the collection of Mr. Henry AVillett (No. 68). Its history is told by an inscription running round the top of the cup and on the flag borne by the figure surmounting the cover. The date of its presentation as engraved on the cup accords with the hall- mark, which gives the year 1623. The Earl of Ducie has a silver-gilt cup of ostrich-egg or cocoa-nut shape, mounted with vertical hinged bands to hold the bowl, which rests in a socket or frame supported by four dolphins placed on the top of a circular foot. This specimen, which is possibly unique, is of the year 1584. Nil. ti7. —