Silver objects from before 1814 are part of our country's heritage. When handicrafts were still real handicrafts, these objects were all carefully crafted by a silversmith. In the past it was seen as money and the weight in silver was paid to the silversmith. If things went badly, the item was melted down again to convert it into hard currency. Many items have been melted down and unfortunately lost that way.
There have been documents that speak of gold and silversmiths since the 14th century. This often concerns case law or an inheritance in which a goldsmith appears. Very little is known and preserved from that time. More information became available from the end of the 16th century.
Most larger silver items from the 16th century onwards have a maker's mark (the unique hallmark of the silversmith), city hallmark (each city had its own stamp), year letter (the alphabet repeated itself over and over again) and silver content hallmark (awarded after testing). This way, after all these years, these objects can still be traced back to the original maker, city and year.
Each city had its own guild. Each guild had its own guild board. Many have been preserved and here the awards were taken from the masters who worked in the city. The guild also tested the silver and stamped the year letter into the object.
You did not just get access to a guild, you had to pass a test. Often a complex piece of work that was assessed by the other guild members. After paying the entrance fee, people eventually became members of the guild.
It goes too far to name all cities and all quality standards, but a number of examples from our collection are:
Amsterdam: 23-11-103
Sneek: 23-10-075
Delft: 24-03-943
Smaller objects such as cream spoons were often only marked with the master mark, see also: 24-01-927
After 1815, silver hallmarking took a different approach, which we will discuss in a next blog.
