Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/320

 244 ON THE ASSAY MARKS ON GOLD AND SILVER PLATE. THE LION PASSANT. The next mark to be considered is the Lion Passant. It seems evidentl}^ to have been taken from the arms of England, but its origin, intention, and the precise date of its adoption are obscure, for they are not mentioned in any document I have met with, and are, therefore, at present only matters of conjecture ; but it is possible that among the many folio volumes of the records of the Goldsmiths' Company, there may be some explanation, although I have failed to find it. The earhest mention of it which I have met with, is in the indictment filed by the Attorney-general in 1597, against certain parties for working and selling fraudulent silver, and "counterfeiting the marks of Her Majesty's Hon, the Leopard's head, limited. by statute," and the marks of the Goldsmiths' Company. At the Assay Office it has been usually considered the King's mark, as ordered to be set on plate by the Statute of Edward III, in 1363. But this it cannot be, for I have not seen it on any piece of plate earlier than the reign of Ehzabeth. I was at one time inclined to think that the lion might have been the assa^^er's mark mentioned in the Goldsmiths' ordinances of 1507 ; but in that case it should be found on all plate made after that period, whereas that is not the fact. It is possible that it may have been adopted in the reign of Henry YIIL, as a mark of the inferior silver when that monarch caused the standard to be debased ; but I am more disposed to consider that it was most probably introduced in the reign of Ehzabeth, when in the year 1560 she restored the standard to its original quality, for the purpose of dis- tinguishing the plate made of that silver from that of the debased standard of her father, a practice which was, on a subsequent occasion in the reign of William III., adopted for a similar purpose ; and though I find no mention of it in the Goldsmiths' Records, it may have been appointed by warrant or ordinance from the Queen. This hypothesis agrees also with the fact of its being called in the above mentioned indictment, " Her Majesty's Lion," whilst the Leopard's head is described as being "limited by statute.' The earliest piece of plate on which I have found this mark is a chalice of the date 15(53. It is, however, to the ArcluL'ologist an important mark, as its absence or presence