WOMAN'S HOME and there to have a stamp of a puncheon of a leopard's head marked upon their work as it was anciently ordained." The First Mark on Plate This leopard's head is the first mark referred to in any law concerning the gold- smiths' craft in England, and it is generally supposed to have been a modification of the head of a lion passant, guardant — i.e., the front face of a lion. The earliest examples of the mark show the representation to have been the head of a lion, full-faced, bearded, maned, and wearing a crown. These characteristics it retained until the second half of the sixteenth century. Then it was treated more pic- turesquely ; the mane was made longer, and the lines of the features were cut more deeply. Acts of Parliament have from time to time confirmed and added to the powers granted to the guild, and many new rules were laid down concerning the manufacture of gold and silver plate.* In the middle of the fourteenth century an order was issued declaring that only sterling silver should be worked by smiths, and that, in addition to the head described above, everything made or sold by them should bear some distinc- tive mark by which the maker could be identified . These workers' or makers' marks, first came into use in 1363, and were in most cases emblems, such as a ball or a bird. At that time but few people could read, hence the initial letters which later came into use would have been intelligible to the educated alone. Unfortun- a t ely, al- though the names of several great London goldsmiths of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are known, only about twenty examples exist of English work of an earlier date than 1500, . and of these scarcely any bear a distinctive mark. Noteworthy examples of such work are the Gothic pastoral staff of W illiam of
- All these Acts are quoted at length in the
original edition of Wilfrid Cripps' " Old English Plate," and form, with the records of the guild, an exhaustive history of the practice of the gold and silversmiths' craft in England. 706 Old English silver candlestick bearinR London hall-mark for 1767-8 1688 TO 1836. CONDON DATE MARK* Wykcham and the Hour- OM Old Plate. gi^gg g^i^^ ^^^^j^ ^f which are at New College, Oxford ; more important, however,, in that it bears the hall- mark of 1481-2, is the Anathema Cup at Pembroke College, Cambridge. This cup bears the ominous in- scription, " Qui alienaverit anathema .sit "'(" Cursed be he who shall part with me "), and from the inscription it derives its significant name. 1691-9 1693-8 1694-6 W.lll 1695-6 ffi 16S6-7 1696-7 1697-8 1686-? 1699-0 1701-a Anna 17M-8 1704-6 1706 6 1706-7 1707-8 1708-9 1709-0 17101 17H-a 1718-8 171B-4 Qto.l 1714-6 17U-4 1717-8 1718-9 1719-0 1720-1 1731 2 1722-8 1726-6 1726-7 Geo.// 1727-8 17898 1788-4 1784 6 1786 6 1786-7 1787 -8 1788-9 1788-4 17401 1741-9 1749.8 institution of the Annual Letters In the last quarter of the fifteenth century it became usual for plate to be marked by the assayer of the Goldsmiths' Guild with what is known as the annual letter. The letters used were selected from alphabets which did not contain every letter ; J, U or V, W, X, Y and Z being left out. At first these letters were merely set in a framework consisting of a single line following the form of each letter. As time went on, however, this line was replaced by heraldic shields. The earlier annual letters were stamped with punches of their own shape, but the later ones with punches in the form of a shield, in the centre of which the actual letter was cut. The letters L and M, for some unex- plained reason, formed an exception to this rule, and in 1726-7-8, were produced with square punches.* The sixteenth century was a time of exceptional aesthetic activity in England, and, in spite of the reckless destruction of ecclesiastical plate after the dissolution of the monasteries and the 1759-0 Geolll ITbO-l 1817-8 1818-9 1819-0 QaolV 1820-1 A table of date- marks.
- Tables of the alphabets used for the annual
letters are given at the end of the " Plate-Collectors* Guide." i
