Hall marks on gold & silver plate

FALSE PUNCHES, ETC. 157
The service consisted of the following :
326 table, dessert, and tea spoons.
17 gravy spoons, fish slices, ladles, and butter knives.
180 silver-handled knives and forks.
120 gilt dessert knives, forks, and spoons.
643
It may be desirable to give a more minute description of these
particular articles as a caution to future collectors, especially as
many most imposing pieces of plate of the time of William and
Mary and Anne have come under our notice bearing, in some cases,
identical <strong>marks</strong>, and being evidently from the same source; and
although of different periods, bearmg makers' initials which were
never entered at Goldsmiths' <strong>Hall</strong>, or if imitated, were not in existence
at the date falsely indicated.
Those pieces with the bust of Queen Anne bear four <strong>Hall</strong>-<strong>marks</strong>
all cast in the same mould as the stem itself. These were: (i)
Britannia; (2) lion's head erased; (3) date letter H, of the year 1703;
and (4) the maker's initials, PE, crowned. The pieces with the bust
of Prince George of Denmark have three <strong>marks</strong> cast, but on several
the fourth, indicating the date, is struck with a false punch of the
Court hand R, of 171 2-3. The maker's initials are // in italics, no
such letters being entered in the book at Goldsmiths' <strong>Hall</strong> of that
date. Other pieces of an equally suspicious character, bear the same
struck letter R^ of 17 12, the other three being cast, and the maker's
initials, H. B., not found at the <strong>Hall</strong> of that date.
We may also add that on an assay being made, the quality of
the silver was far below the Britannia or New Standard. The fraud
having been brought to the notice of the House of Commons, application
was made to the Goldsmiths' <strong>Hall</strong> for information, and
their clerk, Mr. Walter Prideaux, reported on June 22, 1880, as
follows :
"In the years 1872 and 1873 a silversmith in London, in an
extensive way of business, sold a large quantity of silver plate to
a customer. Last autumn a gentleman who is well acquainted with
plate-<strong>marks</strong> saw this plate, and informed . the owner that it was
spurious.
"Hereupon the Goldsmiths' Company were communicated with.
Their officers were sent to examine the plate, and over six hundred
pieces were found to bear counterfeit <strong>marks</strong>.
"Application was then made to the seller, and he was informed
that the Goldsmiths' Company would sue for the penalties, unless
he could relieve himself under the statute by making known the
person, and the place of abode of the person, from whom he received
it. After having seen the invoices he admitted the sale, and, after
some time, during which he had the plate examined by several persons
in the trade, gave the name and residence of a person who, he
said, supplied him with all the articles in question. This person is
a working silversmith in a small way of business.