Wkstkopp — Dales on Plate "belonging to Trinity College. 75 



and marked. The Act, however, does not state this, and makes no mention 

 ahout the clause heing retrospective. 



There are pieces of plate belonging to Trinity College, made in the second 

 half of the seventeenth century, and not hall-marked yet. The Act of 1729 

 sets forth clearly that all plate made on and after the 25th March, 1730, was 

 to be liable to the duty of 6d. per oz. Plate made before this date was 

 not liable to duty, and, therefore, did not bear the figure of Hibernia. If a 

 piece of plate made, say, in the year 1720 was found not hall-marked, and 

 was brought to the hall to be assayed and stamped, say, in 1752, it would not 

 be liable to duty, not having been made after 25th March, 1730, and, there- 

 fore, could not have the duty-mark of Hibernia struck on it. 



The Provost in his paper suggests that pieces of plate sold unmarked 

 were years afterwards assayed and stamped with the hall-marks of the 

 period in which they were assayed. This conclusion he draws from the 

 fact that several pieces of the College plate have the assay scraping mark 

 still visible. 



All plate to be assayed must have a small portion scraped off in order to 

 ascertain the fineness of the metal. In most objects this scraping mark is 

 rubbed down and cleaned off in the final polishing ; but in many cases, where 

 the scraping would not show, it has been left just as the piece came from the 

 assay office. In some instances an assay may have been made at a date 

 much later than that of manufacture, as the owner may have been uncertain 

 as to the quality of the silver. 



If a person wished to purchase or sell a piece of silver, and was in doubt 

 as to its being of standard quality, he could ascertain this by taking it to the 

 assay office and getting it assayed. There would be no necessity to have it 

 stamped if it was only to be turned into money. 



In former times silversmiths were notorious for trying to get hall-marked 

 silver which was below standard. Numerous cases of fines having been 

 imposed on them for this offence occur in the records of the Dublin Gold- 

 smiths' Guild. 



In a very large number of cases pieces of Dublin plate of the eighteenth 

 century bear no date letter. This the Provost accounts for by the post- 

 assaying process. For example, a piece of plate made early in the eighteenth 

 century, and not assayed and stamped until, say, 1760, could not have a 

 date-letter struck on it, as the exact year in which it was made was not 

 known ; therefore no letter at all was struck. There are, however, examples 

 among the College plate, of supposed post-assayed pieces, which have the 

 date-letter, including a soup tureen, with inscribed date 1722, and hall- 

 marks, with date-letter for 1781, and three cups inscribed, respectively, 



