Archive for hallmarks
Britannia Silver
Posted by: | CommentsI came across a very unusual piece of 1970s jewellery today, it is special because it is made of Britannia Silver. Britannia silver is something not common these days as it is only used for the best pieces of Jewellery.
Britannia Silver Ingot
Britannia Silver was first used in England during the 1690s for coins and became a legal standard for Jewellery silver in the 172os. This special silver is marked with the Britannia symbol of a Lady seated on her throne. Britannia Silver is 95.84 % pure silver which is higher than the commonly seen Sterling Silver which is 92.5% pure.
I wanted to show you this Britannia Silver Ingot Pendant as it has very large hallmarks making it possible for me to photograph the Britannia symbol large enough for you to see it clearly. The gold colour is simply due to a gold plating rather than the main metal content of this piece of vintage jewellery. These vintage pendants are relatively common made from sterling silver.
Britannia Hallmark
There is only one other legal grade of silver currently in the UK which is 80% pure or 800 grade silver. Something to be aware of when looking at metals, do not confuse Britannia Silver with Britannia Metal. Britannia metal is a term you will regularly see on tea services ( teapots, coffee pots, milk jugs and sugar bowls) dating from circa 1920s to 1940s. Britannia Metal looks like pewter but has less lead content and no silver content at all.
Keep a look out for the Britannia Hallmark, I see very little Britannia Vintage silver jewellery and if you do manage to find any it should be quite high quality.
Hallmarking on Vintage and Antique Jewellery – resources
Posted by: | CommentsThe final part of my guide to hallmarking on Vintage Jewellery and Antique Jewellery provides a list of useful resources.
Books:
Bradburys Book of Hallmarks : The most useful single set of hallmarking tables. Want just to look up a hallmark or read a clear guide to the rules then buy this little book, quite inexpensive too.
Jacksons silver and gold marks: A much more comprehensive guide including makers marks. Expensive and for the dedicated collector
Websites:
Online silver marks Guide to silver marks worldwide – I often use this to look up European hallmarks and makers marks
London assay office
Learn more :
Retail Jewellery courses I’ve completed their Jewellers diplomas 1 and 2 . If you really want to learn in detail I recommend these courses. Expensive, hard work and time consuming.
I do hope this mini series on the hallmarking on antique jewellery and vintage jewellery has been useful and interesting. Any questions ? drop me a line either through this site or on Twitter.
Current British Hallmarks on Jewellery
Posted by: | CommentsContinuing my series on hallmarking on vintage and antique jewellery by taking a look at current British hallmarks. These are relevant to vintage jewellery as the basic system has been around since 1973 although it was updated in 1999.
Here are the important things to know about hallmarking on British jewellery since 1973:
- - You can only describe an article dating from 1973 onwards as gold, silver or platinum of it is fully hallmarked unless it weighs below Silver 7.8 grams, Gold 1 gram and Platinum 0.5 gram)
- - A set of British hallmarks is : The sponsors mark, the metal standard mark,the assay office mark, the date letter
- -The orb mark is used for platinum and the crown for gold ( along with the fineness), the lion remains for silver
1977 hallmarks
This has since been amended:……….
April 2007 also sees another amendment to hallmarking legislation in respect of items originally brought on to the market pre 1950.
Before 1975, many precious metal articles (e.g. rings, whatever their weight, other than wedding rings) were exempted from hallmarking. Platinum was not hallmarked at all. Any article covered by these exemptions, if (a) of minimum fineness* (b) proved to have been manufactured before 1975, may still be described and sold as precious metal.
However, even articles which should have been hallmarked when they were made, but bear no hallmark, are now treated as exempt if they were manufactured before a specific date. Since 1999, the date has been 1920, but the amended legislation alters this date to 1950. Therefore, any pre-1950 item may now be described and sold as precious metal, if the seller can prove that it is of minimum fineness and was manufactured before 1950.
- Hallmarks are now: Makers mark, fineness and assay office mark ( not no date letter is required but it is optional)
Convention Marks:
Convention marks became legally acceptable instead of hallmarks in 1976. Convention marks are struck by any country which is part of the convention . These countries are: UK, Austria,Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Latvia and Lithuania.
A convention mark consists of a pair of scales with the metal fineness number ( the common control mark) the fineness number and the assay office mark. The assay office marks can be any from the countries mentioned above.
British Vintage Jewellery hallmarks from (1850s- 1970s)
Posted by: | CommentsPart four of AntiuqesAvenue’s guide to Hallmarks on Vintage Jewellery and Antique Jewellery:
Most of the Vintage and antique Jewellery we see today dates between the mid Victorian era and the 1970s so these are the most important Hallmarks to be able to read if we are looking at Vintage jewellery. The hallmarks during this time are complicated and often the jewellery has been worn and the hallmarks have become faint so they may be difficult to read. These hallmarks are for silver and gold only as Platinum was not hallmarked during this time. You can find the date letters, town marks and makers marks as well as the metal purity as hallmarks at this time.
vintage brooch 15ct
There are a few rules which will help you to roughly date and identify your piece of jewellery without needing to look up the hallmarks in a set of complicated Hallmark tables:
GOLD (1854 to 1973):
- From the Middle ages until 1853 there were only two standards of gold 18 and 22 carat
- In 1854 the lower carats of 9 (.375), 12 (.5) and 15 (.625) were introduced
- Between 1854 and 1974 articles made of the lower carats were marked with their carat mark and value.
- 18 and 22 carat golds would have the carat mark and a crown hallmark in England and a Thistle in Scotland
- In 1932 the 12 and 15 carat golds were replaced by 14 carat (.585)
Silver (Victorian times to 1973)
- There were just two standards of silver Britannia (.958) and Sterling ( .925) with sterling being by far the most common
- Britannia silver is denoted by the Britannia mark
- Sterling silver is hallmarked by the lion passant (England) and a Thistle ( Scotland)
There are all sorts of additional hallmarks and markings you can find on a piece of jewellery – Monarchs heads and special event commemorative marks for example. By the way if you see fine scratches in markings these are not hallmarks but identification marks made by various jewellers and pawnbrokers over the years.
If you find a piece of antique jewellery without hallmarks it may still be made of gold or silver but to be certain you need to get the metal tested and this is a skilled process which takes time to learn and care to carry out accurately.
The law changed in 1973 and is become quite a bit stricter and more uniform. I will discuss the hallmarks on more contemporary jewellery in the next part of my guide.
vintage jewellery hallmarks
Sometimes we get lucky and the hallmarks are clear to read and easy to look up. This set of hallmarks if from a silver bangle. CPS is the markers mark, The anchor is the town mark for Birmingham , the lion passant means that is is sterling silver . The letter X is a date letter – I need to refer to my hallmark tables for Birmingham and look for a letter X in the same font and background shape. In this case 1972. The word sterling is not a hallmark as such just additional information to help the customer.
Read vintage jewellery hallmarks – what are the symbols?
Posted by: | CommentsWhat are the different hallmark symbols you find on vintage jewellery. Well there can be all sorts of different marks . This is part three of my guide to hallmarking on British vintage and antique jewellery and it covers the standard symbols.
vintage jewellery hallmarks
Here is a full set of silver hallmarks on a piece of vintage jewellery. Think these are difficult to read? To me these are about the average standard of readability you can expect on an older piece as hallmarks do tend to wear away at the edges. There are several things to note here reading from left to right:
How hallmarks help with antique and vintage jewellery
Posted by: | Comments
silver hallmark on locket
OK – Part one of my mini series on reading gold and silver hallmarks. Before we learn how to read them I though it would be useful to look at what useful information they tell us.
As far as I am concerned it is wonderful to find a piece of antique or vintage jewellery with a full set of British hallmarks. From a full set of British hallmarks on vintage and antique jewellery you can tell:
- what metal the jewellery is made of ( gold, silver or platinum)
- what the quality of that metal is ( 9 carat or 22 carat gold?)
- the date the piece was hallmarked ( 1870 or 1970?)
- the town it was hallmarked in
- the sponsors mark of the company who had the piece hallmarked ( often the maker or artist but could be a retailer)
So from these tiny marks we can gain really accurate and guaranteed information. No wonder antique British jewellery is so popular to collect.More recently (since 1999) the British hallmarking system has changed and we can often get less information but that will affect vintage collectors of the future rather than those of today. At least we can tell that the piece is after 1999. Each European country has a different set of marks some useful, others very difficult. I will cover other European countries later on.
Before we go any further arm yourself with a loup ( a jewellers 10x magnifying glass) and carefully clean out the dirt from the hallmarks on the metal. They are often so clogged up you cant read them. Unless you are certain that all the gems set into your jewellery are safe to clean do take care and seek specialist advice before carrying out this step. I also find that pen and paper is handy – copy out the hallmarks the letters and shapes. This means that you can use the hallmark tables without needing to keep examining the piece.
You are going to find a huge variety of marks and also many of your pieces of jewellery will not have any hallmarks – I will cover how to identify jewellery without hallmarks at a later date
