London Silver Vaults
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 |  Printer Friendly
London’s Silver vaults are situated in a basement at 53-64 Chancery Lane. The visitor will find a gathering of about 42 dealers all trading from these underground vaults.
The vaults were opened in 1876 and trading has been going on there ever since. Originally, it was thought that this area would serve as storage rooms for the wealthy of London, but slowly it developed into a trading area.
Today people visiting the vaults can buy, sell or exchange articles of (mainly) English silver. The vaults have proved to be a good place for small pieces of high quality silver. The dealers are also very happy to give advice, which even includes advice on how to clean silver and silver jewellery. More often than not the dealers themselves use a pre-moistened wipe as they find it most effective.
An important question is how does the average person recognise the article as being silver? This is done by understanding and interpreting the silver hallmark. Not only will you be told of the country of manufacture but also the city and even the year.
Goods made of silver have been subject to a quality control for more than 600 years. All silver articles must be sent to the Assay Office for testing to ensure that they are of the required standard of sterling silver and, provided they conform to that standard, a series of symbols are stamped on to each separate part of each article. Only articles complying with the strict standards can be hallmarked.
The symbols show the place, year of manufacture and the manufacturer. There is a book available, showing the various hallmarks with suitable explanations.
There are a number of hallmarks in use in the United Kingdom and below are a few of the typical marks seen on silver in the UK.
The Britannia Standard Mark
From 1696 to 1720 the standard of silver was raised from 92.5% to 95.8% pure. It was denoted by the figure of Britannia.
The Lion (or Sterling) Mark
This mark is a ‘made in England’ indicator and first appeared on English silver and gold in 1544. It has been used ever since by all English Assay Offices, with minor variations.
In addition there are also the city marks to indicate the relevant assay office where the silver was tested. these marks are known as the Assay Office Marks.
The Sheffield Rose (formerly a Crown)
Used from the inception of the Assay Office in 1773 , the Crown was the town mark of Sheffield. Because of possible confusion with the Crown mark used after 1798 as the hallmark for 18ct gold, the mark was changed on January 1st 1975 to a tudor rose.
The Birmingham Anchor
The Birmingham Assay Office mark is an anchor. For the Assay Office’s bicentenary in 1973, Birmingham struck a special anchor with a ‘C’ on either side of the stock, to indicate two hundred years.
London Leopard’s Head
The distinguishing mark of London is the leopard’s head. This mark was ‘crowned’ in 1478 and remained so until 1821. Since then the mark remains as an uncrowned leopard’s head.
Edinburgh - Castle & Thistle
Scottish hallmarks have been regulated by statute since 1457 although the earliest known example dates only from 1556.
Dublin -- Hibernia and Harp
The hallmarking of Irish silver began towards the middle of the 17th century. The mark of origin is the Harp Crowned and it appears with a date letter and maker’s mark. In 1731, the figure of Hibernia was added.
A detailed list of all hallmarks and appropriate illustrations is available at
http://www.925-1000.com/british_marks.html.
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