HALL MARKS ON PLATE.
70
GOLDSMITHS' CHARTER. Edward
The
first Charter was granted by Letters "the Wardens and Commonalty of the of the City of London." It is quoted at Mystery of Goldsmiths " length in Herbert's History of the London Livery Companies," both in French and English. The following are the principal provisions of this Charter That the Goldsmiths had by their petition exhibited to the King and Council in Parliament hoi den at Westminster shown that theretofore no private merchants or strangers were wont to bring into this land any money coined, but plate and silver to exchange for our coin that it had been ordained that all of the trade of Goldsmiths were to sit in their shops in the High Street of Cheap, and that no silver or gold plate ought to be sold in the City of London except in the King's Exchange or in Cheap, among the Goldsmiths, and that publicly, to the end that persons in the trade might inform themselves whether the seller came lawfully by it; but that of late both private merchants and strangers bring from foreign lands counterfeit sterling whereof the pound is not worth sixteen sols of the right sterling, and of this money none can know the right value but by melting it down; and that many of the trade of Goldsmiths do keep shops in obscure streets, and do buy vessels of gold and silver secretly without inquiring whether such vessels were stolen or come lawfully by, and immediately melting them down, make them into plate, and sell it to merchants trading beyond the sea, and so make false work of gold, silver and jewels, in which they set glass of divers colours, counterfeiting right stones, and Dut more alloy in their silver than they ought, which they sell to such as have no skill in such things that the cutlers cover tin with silver so subtilely and with such sleight that the same cannot be discerned nor separated,
1327.
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Edward HI
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and so sell the tin for fine silver; to the great damage and deceit of the King and his people The King, with the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal and the commons of the realm, willed and granted for him and his heirs that henceforth no one shall bring into this land any sort of money but only plate of fine silver, and that no plate of gold or silver be sold to sell again, or be carried out of the kingdom, but shall be sold openly for private use That none of the trade shall keep any shop except in Cheap, that it may be seen that their work be good that those of the trade may by virtue of these presents elect honest and sufficient men, best skilled in the trade, to inquire of the matters aforesaid, and that those who are so chosen reform what defects they shall find, and inflict punishment on the offenders, and that by the help of the mayor and sheriffs, if need be; that in all trading cities in England, where Goldsmiths reside, the same ordinance be observed as in London, and that one or two of every such city or town for the rest of the trade shall come to London to be ascertained of their touch of gold, and to have their works marked with the -puncheon of the leopard's head as it was anciently ordained. :
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