Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/191

ox THE ASSAY MARKS ON GOLD AND SII.YKIJ I'l.ATK. )7 of gold and silver to the standard, and how it sliall bu delivered," " Also, it is ordeyned that no goldsmith of England, nor nowhere else within the reahne, work no manner of vessel nor any other thing of gold nor silver ; but if it be of verry alloy, according to the standard of England, called sterling money, or better." " That no manner of vessel, nor any other thing, be borne out from the hands of the workers, nor sold till it be assayed by the wardens of the craft, or their dcput}^ the assayer ordained therefore, and that it be marked with the lyperde's head, crowned, according to the acts of diverse parliaments, and the mark of the maker thereof." No worker was to be a freeman of the company until he had been apprenticed seven years ; and the ordinances were to be read publicly every St. Dunstan's Day. At the end of the book are some additional ordinances of the 22d Henry VII., 1507, by which it is ordained that no goldsmith should put to sale any vessel or other work of gold or silver, until he had set his mark 2(pon it. That he should take it to the assay-house of the Hall of the Goldsmiths to be assayed by the assayer, who should set his mark upon it, and should deliver it to the warden, wdio should set on it the leopard's head, crowned. Again, in another MS. book on vellum, which has the arms of the Goldsmiths' Company emblazoned on the first page, and contains ordinances dated 24th July 1513, 5th Ilenry VIIL, we find that it is ordained that before any work of gold or silver is put to sale, the maker shall set on it his own mark ; that it shall be assayed by the assayer, who shall set on it his mark, and the wardens shall mark it with the leopard's head, crowned. Here, then, in both sets of ordinances, we have three distinct marks mentioned ; the maker's, the assayer's and the leopard's head, or king's. What the assayer's mark was we are not informed, nor have I been able to discover it. The pound sterhng of silver had been lessened in value several different times since the Conquest, but it was always effected by diminishing the weight, leaving the fineness of the silver unaltered ; but, in 1543, Henry VIIL not only altered the weio;ht, but reduced the standard from 11 oz. 2 dwts. fine and IS alloy, to 10 oz. fine and 2 oz. alloy. In 1545 the fineness was again debased, it being but 6 oz., or half fine and half allov. In 154() the fineness was still