Old English plate, ecclesiastical, decorative, and domestic : its makers and marks / by Wilfred Joseph Cripps.

  • Wilfred Joseph Cripps
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Old English plate, ecclesiastical, decorative, and domestic : its makers and marks / by Wilfred Joseph Cripps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    stating that 'when they had refashioned a part of the broken plate differently, and sent it in again under another maker’s mark, it passed. Colley describes cutting out part of a condemned platter and making it into a taster 'which passed, and he further complained that out of a nest of howls or of a tankard of no more than thirty ounces, Kelynge took as much as a quarter of au ounce, or at least half a quarter, for himself.*' There were however faults on both sides, and the strict supervision of the Goldsmiths’ Company was still both exercised and needed, as the following entry found among their records testifies :— “ 4th May, 1597—Edward Cole, Attorney-General, filed an information against John Moore and Eobert Thomas; that whereas it had been heretofore of long time provided by divers laws and statutes for the avoiding deceit and fraud in the making of plate, that every gold- smith should before the sale of any plate by him made, bring the same first to the Goldsmiths’ Hall for trial by assay, to he touched or marked and allowed by the wardens of the said company of Goldsmiths; the which wardens did by their indenture in their search, find out the aforesaid deceitful workmanship and counter- feit also of plate and puncheons; yet the said John Moore and K. Thomas being lately made free of the Goldsmiths’ Compan}-, did about three months past make divers parcels of counterfeit plate debased and worse than her Majesty’s standard 1‘2‘^ and more in the oz.; and to give appearance to the said counterfeit plate being good and lawful, did thereto put and counterfeit the marks of her Majesty’s Lion, the leopard’s head limited by statute and the alphabetical mark approved by ordinance amongst themselves, which are the private marks of the Goldsmiths’ Hall, and be and remain in the custody of the said wardens and puncheons to be worked and imprinted thereon, and the said John Moore did afterwards sell the same for good and sufficient plate to the defrauding of her Majesty’s subjects, &c.” It remains to be said that they were convicted and sentenced to stand in the pillory at Westminster, with their ears nailed thereto, and 'with papers above their heads stating their offence to be “for making false plate and counterfeiting her Majesty’s touch.” They Avere then put in the pillory at Cheapside, had one ear cut off, and Avere taken through Foster Lane to Fleet Prison, and had to pay a fine of ten marks. Here Ave have the first actual mention by name of the Lion and an cdplicibetical letter, though both had been long in use, the former for about half a century, and the latter for more than double that time. \ b ■ ' «• [ ■ ■ * Public Record Office—Exchequer, Q. R. {Mint. MiscelL), tern]). Elk.
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