Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/182

 128 ON THE ASSAY MAEKS ON GOLD AND SILYEK PLATE. mined. For testing silver, sets of needles were also used. In Germany the set consisted of sixteen, after the sixteen loths, according to which their standard of fineness was computed ; but it is j^robable that they varied in diflferent countries, according to the computation of the standard. This mode has, however, been discontinued for many centuries, and it could not have been a satisfactory mode of ascertaining the purity of silver, into which so much copper could be introduced without materially affecting its colour, though it is probable that the hardness of the alloy aided the detection of fraud. The period of the adoption of the chemical assay, or assay of silver by the cupel, I do not know ; but the knowledge of it was probably coeval with the science of metallurgy. " The touch," however, continued as the mode of trying gold for a very long time, and indeed is even used at the present day for rough examinations. This much, however, is certain, that the assay was practised in the thirteenth century, and, as we shall see, was the mode of examination adopted by the authorities in the fourteenth, and this is early enough for our purpose. In the thirteenth century, the standard or " touch of Paris" was esteemed the best alloy for gold, and for silver that of the sterling or coin of England. At this period, however, frauds in goldsmiths' work and jewellery were committed to an enormous extent ; not only was gold of inferior quality substituted, but articles made in latten were gilt and sold for gold, and pewter was silvered and sold for the genuine metal ; so that it became necessary for the provost of Paris, about 12 GO, to issue a code of statutes for the regulation of the goldsmiths, who already existed there as a corporate body.^ In these statutes gold is ordered to be of the " touch of Paris," and silver as good as Sterhngs (estehns), which was the standard of the English coin. In England a fraternity or guild of goldsmiths had existed from an early period, for in 1180, 26th of Henry II., it was, among other guilds, amerced for being adulterine, that is, set up without the King's license. It was not, however, incorporated by charter for nearly 150 years after, although it had special duties assigned to it. I'.u-^*"'^^ recently published in Paris, gives much curious information iu this " L Histoire de TOrfevrerie et Joaillerie," matter.