Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/185

ox THE ASSAY MAIJKS ON GOLD AND SILVER 1M>ATK. 131 make two patterns or trial pieces of silver, of the standard of 1 1 dcniers 14 grains, marked with the puncheon of Mont- pellicr, (for Philippe le Hai'di had in 1275 ordaine<l that each city should have a particular mark for works in silver) after which the goldsmiths should work, with the allowance of 2 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 should be made of 11 deniers and 1 obolc, also marked, which should remain with the consuls for trial with suspected works. Every master silversmith should mark, ivith 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 Montpcllier, 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 purj^ose 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 11 deniers 1 obole, they should denounce the worker to the consuls, who should make a second assay, and if they found the fraud confirmed 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 to form the crucible), lead, and fire should be used, it is clear that the assay w^as by the cupel. Nothing had hitherto been done or said about gold ; but, though less worked than silver, there w^ere equal abuses ; and, in 1401, the consuls and w-ardens 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 14 carats, and had, by a subse- quent decree, been raised to 18 carats, was now reduced to 1 6 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 silversmiths for working below the standard of 1355. A process was instituted against them in 1427.