EXETER. thrice* with pounced letters Museum, Peel Park.
and date
295
1659.
In the Salford Royal
X
A silver apostle spoon has the letter crowned, as before, and a goldsmith's mark, and is pounced with letters and date of preRev. T. Staniforih, Storrs, Windermere. sentation, 1635. Dr. and Mrs. Ashford possess several apostle spoons, with the inscribed with the following dates, which in many incrowned stances are much later than the periods of their manufacture
X
:
1634 and 1646. eral angle,
1649.
The crowned on a round
The crowned
X
X
has a small cross in each
lat-
shield.
has a triangular pellet in each lateral
angle, ditto. 1660.
1675.
The crowned X is on an escutcheon shaped to the letter. Crowned X with round pellets in each lateral angle, on a round
1678.
shield.
Crowned
X
with two pellets and round beaded es-
cutcheon. 1682.
Crowned X with two stars of a small s under.
fi.ve
points at the sides
and
By reference to the date of presentation on the pieces of plate here described, it will be observed they range from 1586 to 1700; and doubtless at Exeter most of the plate made in the West of EngIndeed, so land, especially at Plymouth, was sent to be stamped. much was an Assay Office required, that in the year 1700 Exeter was included in the statute, and after that date the shield of arms of the town (a castle with three towers) was adopted and although ;
Bristol was empowered to assay plate, both by 2 Henry VI (1424), and also by 12 William III (1700), it never availed itself of the powers thereby conferred. On the other hand, Exeter, as soon as the Act came into operation, appointed its wardens and assayer with
convenient speed and safety. The first page of the register-book, in which the plate-workers entered their names and marks, being lost, we can only commence " with Peeter Eliot of Dartmouth," who entered on November 13, 1703, stamping the two first letters of his surname, E.L., in old English capitals, in compliance with the Act for the New Standard, a specimen of which will be seen in the examples (page 203) occurring on a rat-tail spoon of the year 1703. This was the twenty-fourth worker who had entered his mark. Other marks of goldsmiths follow, who resided principally at Plymouth, a few at Exeter, and other places all
:
*
Repetitions of the maker's mark frequently occur in close proximity This piece, when other stamps are wanting, on provincial silver. double or treble stamp may perhaps denote the quality of the silver, a system adopted in other countries; e.g., at Greneva, in the time of the old Republic, the stamp for silver of the first quality was the City Arms for the second, the double punch of the maker for the third, the maker's single punch.
on the same
;
;