Silver Antiques

The lustrous sheen of silver antiques adds a special touch to your home or office. Silver trays, a silver tea or coffee service, or a collection of silver spoons set a tone of class and quality that can’t be mistaken. Trays are one of the most common of the silver antiques, and are found in a wide range of sizes, styles and prices, depending on age, condition, and rarity. Tea and coffee sets can be decorative accents, or may be usable, depending on the condition and value.

Silver salt cellars, silver salt spoons, and antique napkin rings are some of the smaller pieces that collectors like to amass. Silver rings, brooches or other jewelry are collectibles that can also be worn.

Whether you prefer Irish, Scottish or English silver antiques, or something from the Victorian era, silver is always a wise investment. Unlike many antiques, silver antiques are hallmarked. This means the silversmith who made each piece engraved it with a certain mark that lets a person know exactly who made it and when. British silver hallmarks were the first known consumer protection methods, originating back in the 1300’s. If you wish to collect silver antiques, it’s wise to invest in a hallmark book in order to learn these markings.

Guide to collecting silver antiques - British Silver Hallmarks

for as long as there has been silver it has been extremly diffcult ( if not in impossible ) to figure out the purity of silver by simply looking at it. Over time countries all over the world tried to come up with methods to protect the people that were buying the silver. Over 600 hundred years ago the british silver marks were developed to protect buyers of silver items A law was passed so the purity of silver could be set to at least 925 parts of silver in every thousand parts.



The standard that was developed became known as sterling silver. Each silver item made was to be stamped with a sterling silver hallmark. For this to be achieved each item had to be sent to the wardens of the goldsmiths guild at the london assay office. In 1478 the mark was changed and is huge value to collectors of antique silver items to add a date letter. This allows silver antiques collectors to be sure of the date of the item. As time went buy other assay offices were setup around the country each having there own marks. With this information and the true quality of british silver is one of the main reasons british silver is respect and sort after all over the world.

Its now possible for collectors & buyers of silver antiques to look at british silver and tell the

1. Standard
Sterling silver is the minium standard of silver in britain at 92.5%. The stamp for this is the Lion. In england it is the Lion passant and the Lion rampant in scotland.

lion_passant lion_rampant
Lion Passant Hallmark Lion Rampant Hallmark


Ireland had there own which is the crowned harp.
silver antiques
Crowned Harp Hallmark


In 1697 a higher standard was introduced which was called Britannia (95.8%). A thing to remeber as a collectable is that silver stamped with the britannia mark is quite rare and very collectable.

2. Town of the silver assay office.
Nowadays we take transport and communication for granted but 600 years ago transporting goods around the country was not so easy so towns around the country had there own assay office to make it easier for silversmiths to get there silver items hallmarked. Main offices included sheffield , birmingham and london amongst others. Many small towns like shrewsbury and preston also had there own offices. Main marks in scotland where edinburgh and glasgow and for ireland there was dublin. If you are looking for a particular mark we would recommend a few books for reference. Check out our Silver antique books section (we recommen ). As a collector of silver antiques its important to note that many of this small assay offices closed down so silverware with these hallmarks are becoming more and more rare and collectable and can fetch very high prices. Nowadays the only offices still open are:

silver antiques hallmark Birmingham
hallmark-london London
hallmark_edinburgh Edinburgh
hallmark-sheffield Sheffield


The only change to be aware of is that any silverware stamped in sheffield after 1975 is no longer a crown and now is a rose.
3. Silver Antiques Date Marker
Thankfully for silver antiques collectors a date stamp was introduced in london in 1478 to establish when the silver item was presented for assay. The date stamp changed annually in may. The stamp was differentiated by the changing of the font letter case and shield shape. Each assay office had there own way of doing the Date stamps.