Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/316

 240 ON TUE ASSAY MARKS ON GOLD AND SILVER PLATE. THE ANNUAL LETTER. The next mark in our series is the Annual Letter, and this is perhaps the most interesting, for it enables us to ascertain the precise year in which any piece of plate was made. The earUest notice respecting this mark which I have found in any document, is in 1597, when the Attorney- general filed an information against certain parties for working fraudulent silver, and counterfeiting the marks. It is there styled "the alphabetical mark approved by ordinance amongst the goldsmiths," although I have not been able to discover the ordinance by which it was authorised, nor any earUer mention of it. It had, however, been very long in use, as we shall see. The letter was annually changed on the day of election of the new wardens (that being St. Dunstan's day prior to the Restoration, and the 29th May subsequent to it), when the new punches were dehvered to the Assay Master. Nothing js however said of the letter till after some dispute with the officers of the Assay, after which the letters were mentioned. The earhest, however, that I find is that for 1629, and after that date they are sufficiently regular to construct the alphabet. For the earher letters, therefore, it is only by the examination of a great many pieces of ancient plate, chiefly belonging to public companies, colleges, corporations, and churches, of which the histories are known, that I have been able to collect the information necessary to enable me to construct a table of the various alphabets used, which I hope soon to complete. The prin- ciple by which this mark was regulated, seems to have been by cycles of twenty years, a new alphabet having been adopted at every such period. When, therefore, a certain letter is found to belong to a certain year, and that its proper one in the order, the character of the C3^cle of twenty years is obtained ; and I have found all other letters of similar character to tally with and confirm it. The dates, however, which are found engraved on ancient plate, cannot always be relied on for the date of the work. Oftentimes pieces of plate which individuals or their famihes have had in their possession for many years have afterwards been given or bequeathed by them to public bodies, and then the date of the gift is recorded in the inscription, which will not