Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/318

242 ON THE ASSAY MARKS ON GOLD AND SILVER PLATE. of the Montpellier Goldsmiths, that in consequence of repeated and increased frauds, new securities were invented from time to time to provide against them, till at last, in the year 1427, it was ordained as a fresh security, that, in order to insure the fineness of the articles assayed after that time, the name of the warden of the mystery inscribed on the register of the city, should be followed by one of the letters of the alphabet, which letter should be reproduced beneath the arms of the town on the piece of plate, in ordei* that it mioht be known under what warden it was made, so that in effect he might be held answerable for having made a fraudulent assay, and suffered bad silver to be sold as good standard. And that this was the object of the annual letter seems to be confirmed by the Statute of Elizabeth in 1576, which ordains that, if any article shall be touched for good by the wardens, and there shall afterwards be found fraud or deceit therein, the warden shall pay forfeit the value of the thing so marked. The fact of the Montpellier ordinances giving the specific reason for the introduction of a new mark, seems to me very like the origin of it, and I am much inclined to attribute the first invention and adoption of this mark to the authorities of Montpellier in 1427; and when once adopted in one place, it probably soon became a custom in others, as an improved security against fraud ; and the date of our first alphabet here, in 1438, very well agrees with the supposition of that being the period of its first introduction into this country. The cycles of twenty years seem to have proceeded regularly from 1438 to 1696, when on the occasion of the new standard being introduced, and the concomitant new marks, a new alphabet was begun. The entries in the Goldsmiths' minutes are as follows : — A. D. 1696, May 29th. — New puncheons received; the letter for the year being t in a. scutcheon, ^ A.D. 1697, March 2 7th. — The puncheons for the remaining part of this year were received, being according to an Act of Parliament, a Lyon's head erased, a Britannia, and for the letter, the great court A in an escutcheon, § It must be borne in mind that as the new year before the correction of the style did not begin till March, and as the new letters were not fixed till the 29th May, each letter served a portion of two years ; this T and A, therefore, were