Sterling Silver Jewelry Hallmarking History In England Part I

To receive a hallmark, items of precious metal such as sterling silver jewelry must undergo tests carried out by the assay office, this is done to ascertain if the object’s content of precious metal meets the standard requirements of purity. The term hallmark comes from ‘Mark of the Hall of Goldsmiths’ in London, who in 1327 were the first official assay hallmarking office decreed by Parliament, to control the standard of precious metals circulating in the British Isles. To this day they still operate one of four authorized assay offices in Britain.

Forms of marking precious metal objects such as sterling silver jewelry were around from the Byzantine period in the early part of the first millennium A.D. However, it was under the rule of king Edward I of England, known as ‘Longshanks’ due to his size, that official hallmarking of sterling silver jewelry and other silver objects was first established. ‘Longshanks’, termed ‘The Hammer’ as a result of his merciless subjugation of Wales and Scotland, was both feared and revered by friend and foe alike.

If you have seen ‘Braveheart’ then you are already familiar with the films depiction of Edward ‘Longshanks’ as a crazed tyrant: however, in reality he was more diplomatic. ‘Longshanks’ founded the British Parliament based on the premise of ‘Parlez’, from the French verb meaning ‘To talk’, where subjects could approach the King to resolve problems. He also reestablished the ‘Magna Carta’, and introduced constitutional government passing laws such as “No taxation without representation”: meaning that no tax could be levied without consent of the realm and Parliament.

Besides waging wars, fighting crusades, having 16 children and other sovereignly pursuits, Longshanks also bought into effect one of the first consumer protection laws, a statute that regulated all silver jewelry, silverware and silver currency to be manufactured to the standard of .925 parts pure Silver to the 1000. This level of purity had been coined ‘Sterling Silver’ under the reign of the first ‘Plantagenet’ king, Henry II during the previous century, it is from this period that the term ‘Pound Sterling’ became synonymous with English currency.

To secure his exacting standards, Edward Longshanks decreed that all precious metal objects, including sterling silver jewelry, were to be assayed by “Guardians of the Craft”, who would then mark the approved sterling silver jewelry items with a leopard's head: signifying the hallmark of the London assay office still in use today. By the later stages of the 14th Century hallmarking had been refined to encompass not just the assay office’s stamp of approval, but also the marks of the individual maker and the date system allowing the accurate dating of any sterling silver jewelry or silverware piece.

Three hundred years later, at the turn of the 17th Century, King George I succeeded to the English throne. At this time, England’s .925 Sterling Silver coinage was being melted down by less scrupulous craftsmen to make sterling silver jewelry and ornamentation. To avert this, and protect the intrinsic value of the currency, King George decreed that a new standard, called ‘Britannia’ Silver comprising of .958 parts Silver to the 1000, was compulsory in the manufacturing of silverware and silver jewelry. If the objects in question, tested by the assay office, were found to contain England’s currency standard of .925 parts to the 1000 then the Silversmith responsible faced a heavy price.

When an article of silver jewelry didn’t comply with the required standard the assay offices were ordered to destroy the sterling silver jewelry object and fine the Silversmith. If the Silversmith offended for a second time, he faced public humiliation in the ‘Pillory’ stocks and was pelted with rotten fruit. If he did it again a limb would be hacked off, and the persistent offender would eventually be put to death. The reason behind these Draconian enforcements, the ultimate in sterling silver jewelry quality control, was that the manufacturing of Silver was united with the minting of currency. Therefore, by debasing these metals a Silversmith was undermining the coin of the realm, a treasonable offence. However, by 1720 the enforcement of the Britannia standard was more or less dropped and the Sterling Silver standard restored.

With the expansion of the English Empire, and its accumulated trade wealth, other cities outside of London such as Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, Chester and Birmingham prospered. Referred to as the city of a thousand and one trades Birmingham, situated in England’s midlands, boomed as it embraced the Industrial Revolution. In 1760 ‘John Betts & Sons’ opened the first precious metal refinery in Birmingham’s Hockley suburb to the north of the city.

The foundries attracted many different trades people: gunsmiths, button manufacturers, toy makers, Silversmiths and sterling silver jewelry craftsmen who all established different areas as the center for their workshops. However, the Silversmiths still had to make a long journey to Chester or London by horse and carriage to have their products assayed. The Industrial period bought about incredible wealth, but it bought poverty to most forcing people to commit desperate deeds in order to survive. A criminal trend, in the spirit of Robin Hood, which became very popular was the impoverished gentleman’s act of relieving the nouveaux riche industrialists of their wealth along England’s highways.

This extract is taken from The London Evening Post’s article on Plunket and Maclaine’s robbery of Horace Walpole, writer and son of Sir Robert Walpole, lord of the treasury and the English prime minister, in November 1749. “The Man with the Blunderbuss swore he would shoot him, if he spoke, bid him give him his Watch, and then riding up to the Chariot, they took Mr. Walpole’s Sword, and some Silver from the Footman, and rode off to Kensington Gate.”

Dick Turpin, Tom King, Captain Gallagher, ‘Swift Nick’, Plunket and Maclaine …all became English folk heroes to the cries of ‘Stand and deliver’. However, for the likes of Industrialists such as Mathew Boulton and Birmingham’s sterling silver jewelry manufacturers these felons spelt financial ruin. In 1773 after intense lobbying in London’s Parliament by Matthew Boulton, owner of Birmingham’s famous Soho manufactory, permission was granted for both Birmingham and Sheffield to have their own assay offices.

This article was written by David-John Turner for the Silvershake website, an online retailer of silver jewelry at wholesale prices. Purchase today and get gemstone silver jewelry worth up to $60...Free!

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