76 
is too soft for ordinary wear and tear, and the Government 
has always recognised the admixture of a small quantity of 
copper « la loi, or, as we now say, alloy, for a hardening purpose. 
In 1238 the relative quantities of copper and silver for goods 
were first regulated by statute of Henry III., and the proportion 
recommended by long experience, then and now prescribed, is 
925 parts pure silver and 75 of alloy. 
. In 1300 the regulation of assay for all England was delegated 
by King Edward I. to the Goldsmith’s Company of London, and 
the crowned leopard’s head was then first stamped, as it is now at 
the end of five hundred and seventy-two years. 
The next statute affecting the matter was a blunder, for it 
forbade what we now call “ silver plating.” This was in 1327: 
the statute had, of course to be modified, but it was not till 1742 
that silver plating revived in Europe. 
Proceeding with our chronology, in 1397 a statute was passed 
to associate the mayors of towns where silverware was made 
together with the incorporated goldsmiths, to prevent the latter 
from combining against the public. The mayor was directed to 
mark his approval of the metal by stamping the badge or arms of 
his city or borough. In 1423 a statute enumerates seven provincial 
offices established to save the cost and risk of conveyance of goods 
to London. The offices were at York, Lincoln, Newcastle-on- 
Tyne, Norwich, Bristol, Salisbury and Coventry. 
In 1462 Chester and Exeter seem to have been added as a 
charter of the London goldsmiths gives them power to inspect 
the process at both these places. ‘Her Majesty’s Lion,” as he 
is called, is first found upon plate in 1545. He is the English 
lion passant gardant, and he is mentioned as in use by a statute 
of 1597, but the exact date and origin of his appearance is not 
ascertained. This general ‘standard mark’ is put on next after 
the private mark or initial letters of the maker of the ware. In 
Treland this standard mark is a harp, and in Scotland two 
