Archive for hallmarks
Is this silver jewellery?
Posted by: | CommentsEvaluating jewellery every day I am often faced with deciding if a piece is silver or not and how to describe the metal the jewellery is made of on my web shop. Over the years I have come up with a few tricks to help me with this which I though I would share here with you today.
1. British Silver Hallmarks
The first thing I look for on a piece of vintage jewellery is hallmarks. A set of silver hallmarks is a positive identification of silver and usually help me to date the piece of jewellery accurately as well. Silver hallmarks have changed many times over the years since they were first introduced and I use books of silver hallmarks to help me translate these strange markings into a description for you.
2. Other Marks on Silver
There are lots of other marks other than British Silver Hallmarks you can find on silver. These include the .925 stamp, the words ” Sterling” or ”Silver” or Hallmarks from other countries. European hallmarks are complicated and again have to be looked up in hallmark tables, you can really spend hours just trying to find one Continental European Hallmark.
Sometimes silver is stamped as .800. This grade of silver was not used or legal in the UK until recently but jewellery was widely made from this grade in Europe and so it suggests a European origin for the piece of jewellery. .800 silver jewellery was widely made in France, Germany, Austria as well as other countries.
As well as hallmarks you can find makers initials on silver jewellery. Often these are smaller makers but finding a well know maker or simply being able to identify the craftsman is always fun.
3. Silver testing
In the complete absence of hallmarks a piece of jewellery can be tested to determine if it is silver. Look at the piece of jewellery under 10x magnification, it is especially useful to look at joints or points which are most likely to wear easily. If there is a golden or brassy colour beneath the silver showing at points of wear then it is plated or silver toned metal. If the piece is attracted by a magnet is is also not silver.
You can acid test for silver. This is done by making a very tiny scratch in the surface at a point where the mark will not show. A tiny spot a silver testing acid is then applied to the scratch and you observe the reaction. This observation takes skill and practice. The best way to learn is to carry out the testing on pieces you already know are silver eg hallmarked as sterling. Observe the chemical reactions you get with pieces you know and then compare the reaction you get when testing pieces of metal jewellery you know are definitely not silver. Try the reactions on pieces of jewellery stamped as silver plate or on pieces you know to be silver toned costume jewellery.
Silver test kits are available for home use but please do be careful with them as the acid is strong and burns – take the safety instructions seriously.
4. White Metal
Have you seen pieces describes as “white metal”. This term is often used by auctioneers who have pieces of silver coloured metal which is not hallmarked. They find it easiest and safest for themselves to simply describe the piece as “white metal” rather than to risk being wrong or illegal. (see .5 on staying Legal). Often these pieces of “white metal” are silver but you have to use your judgement during the auciton viewing process as you cant actually test them until you have them bought and taken home. Its a great way to buy a bargain if your judgement is correct.
5. Staying Legal
Silver is a metal where the use of the name has clear legal implications in the UK. Here is a guide to those implications but please contact your local hallmarking office if in any doubt ( eg do not hold me to this its just to help you make a decision not a definitive legal guide).
- The piece has full silver hallmarks or convention hallmarks for imported pieces
- The piece is not hallmarked and has silver content of less than 7.8 grams then if you are certain it is silver then the term can be used.
- It is a piece of silver antique jewellery which was legally silver at the time it was made and dates from before 1975. EG it weighs over 7.8 grams and is stamped as silver and is a genuine antique it could well still be legally described as silver today.
- There are many more exceptions to the hallmarking law, these can be found on the assay offices websites.
6. Silver and White Metal Descriptions on AntiquesAvenue
When you are looking at a piece of silver of white metal jewellery on AntiquesAvenue web shop how can you be sure if it is silver or not. I is the following terms:
- Hallmarked silver or Hallmarked sterling . This will have a set of British hallmarks unless I qualify the term with eg Continental Hallmarks, or Scandinavian silver hallmarks
- Stamped as “Sterling ” or ” “sil” or “silver” . I will only call these silver if they were made at a time when these terms were legal for silver
- stamped as .925 . I call this silver if the item is under the legal silver weight of 7.8 grams.
- All other items I will test and if my observations lead me to believe they are silver and unmarked silver items were legal at the time the piece was made I will say something like “ This item tests the same as silver”.
- Silver toned metal is a term I normally reserve for vitnage costume jewellery.
- Silver plated is definitely not silver it just has a silver layer over base metal
- Silver gilt is normally silver with a light gold toned wash over the top to give a golden appearance.
I hoe this helps when you are searching out vitnage jewllery
Happy Hunting
Anne x
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 AntiquesAvenue’s guide to Hallmarks on Vintage Jewellery and Antique Jewellery:
Gold brooch
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.
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 Jewellery
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.
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