![]() ![]() Especially in countries with no governmental assay offices, like the USA, the need for in-shop trained professionals in this field is required to interpret these stamps correctly. The interpretation of these hallmarks, however, requires specific training and a keen eye. Thanks to the hallmark research that began in the late 1800s, a good picture of hallmarking practices throughout the ages is now readily available. This deceit lasted to around the turn of the 20th century. The smiths of the day, mostly trained in the old tradition, were more than happy to provide the market with freshly crafted “antiques” and the mimicked hallmarks added to the authenticity of those desired objects.Īs there had never been a real prior interest in hallmarks, other than identifying the people responsible for the quality of the precious metal, these marks were interpreted as genuine foreign antique marks by the customs officers and collectors. A second factor was the renewed interest in antique artifacts of the applied arts that was kindled by the first World Exhibition in London (1851). Paying taxes has never been on the priority list of entrepreneurs and some gold and silversmiths in Germany and the Netherlands started stamping marks on their jewelry and silver work that mimicked antique hallmarks. In those days the English government raised taxes on imported gold and silver work, with the exemption of antique items. This changed around 1840 when falsified hallmarks, named “pseudo marks” appeared on the market to dodge taxes. It was for this reason that in the late middle ages, several European sovereigns issued regulations requiring that all gold and silver artifacts be marked with a unique stamp to identify the maker of the object a responsibility mark to protect consumers.įrom medieval times to the mid-19th century, hallmarks were used only as a means of consumer protection. ![]() In present time, labour costs exceed the profits to do so. Scraping a small portion of a gold coin, or diluting a golden ornament with non-precious metals while selling it as pure gold, could in time build a small fortune and that type of counterfeiting was not uncommon in days gone by. Since pre-Roman times gold and silver have been used as currency or as the counter deposit for money and one can imagine that a not so scrupulous person, with little fear of severe punishments, would find a means to tamper with the precious metal. Although the technicalities in this legendary story are most likely based on myth, it does give an early account of fraud with precious metals. The famous story ends with Archimedes running through the streets shouting “eureka, eureka” after he found a means to expose the deceit while he sat in a bathtub. King Hiero II of Syracuse gave Archimedes the assignment to investigate the purity of a newly commissioned golden wreath, believing silver was added to the gold content. In the first century BC, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio described Archimedes’ discovery of hydrostatic weighing. ![]() Rather, they were an early type of consumer protection. Contemporary jewelry historians use hallmarks for research purposes but these hallmarks were never intended to make the life of appraisers easier. Although the study of hallmarks serves as a wonderful research avocation to many involved in the antiques trade, a trained professional can, and should, put such a desired object in the proper time frame without the presence of such marks. The most encountered hallmark on jewelry is undoubtedly the “purity” mark which indicates the total amount of gold or silver used to manufacture a coveted jewel. ![]() For estate jewelers and jewelry historians, hallmarks provide for an extra source of information to accurately date a jewelry object and determine by whom it was made. ![]()
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