Chats on Old Silver

Chapter I, titled The Marks Stamped Upon Silver, takes in the hall-mark, the standard mark, the date mark, the maker’s mark, the higher standard mark, the duty mark and the foreign mark. The hall-mark is the mark stamped upon gold or silver plate by a recognized guild, and signifies that the object so stamped has successfully passed the assay applied to it to determine its quality.

The text says British hall-marks possess a reputation which they undoubtedly deserve. The fiddle pattern in common use to-day was a late eighteenth-century innovation, the text says, and there is nothing beautiful in the ears of the fiddle pattern, which might well be lopped off. The text says it may readily be imagined that the use of coffee and tea brought the small spoon into commoner use. A list of entries with page numbers points to the duty mark, ecclesiastical plate, eighteenth-century beverages, and a teapot presented to the East India Company.