Hall marks on gold & silver plate

PREFACE TO SIXTH EDITION. ix
J. H. Sanderson of that city (in carefully consulting
the Records of
the Goldsmiths' Company, and comparing them with pieces of old
Scotch plate), to give a correct Table of the Assay Letters used there
from the year i68i. I take this opportunity of thanking him for
his trouble and kind assistance.
In Ireland, the principal Assay Office was at Dublin, and the
Corporation of Goldsmiths of that city, through their Master,
Edmond Johnston, Esq., liberally granted me permission to examine
their Records, and, with the assistance of Mr. Thomas Ryves Met-
calf, their Clerk (who furnished me with extracts from the local
Acts by which they are governed), I am enabled to give a List of
Assay Office Letters used there since 1646.
Impressions in wax or gutta-percha of early stamps
plate, especially those with engraved dates of presentation,
on ancient
will be
very acceptable, that the blanks in the earlier cycles may be filled up
satisfactorily.
Preffice
W. CHAFFERS.
to the Sixth Edition.
IN offering the Sixth Edition of " HALL MARKS ON PLATE," a feiv
prefatory re<strong>marks</strong> are necessary to explain that numerous addi-
tions have been made in the various sections. All the recent
enactments have been consulted, and the important clauses embodied
in the work. The whole has undergone careful revision, and as it
is essentially a book of reference for Plate Collectors and Gold-
smiths, due attention has been paid in giving facilities for that
purpose. The new Act, abolishing the use of pennyweights and
grains and dividing the Troy ounce into thousandths, has caused
some difficulty to goldsmiths in weighing plate by the new weights,