In August 2024 RCP Museum staff and volunteers undertook a deep cleaning of the Treasures Room, one of the main exhibition spaces. During this weeklong process of taking out individual objects from the cases, cleaning, condition checking and replacing each item, I was fascinated to discover several pieces of Britannia silver in the collection.
What is Britannia silver? In (very) short, it is a standard for silver similar to Sterling, which you’ve probably heard of.
But to properly explain why the discovery of Britannia silver in the collection is exciting I need to tell you about the history of English silver.
Before the late 17th century there were no banknotes, no stocks, no credit cards, so what was a rich person to do with all their gold and silver currency?
Of course some was needed for daily use, but typically gold and silver coins would be melted down and fashioned into fabulous cups, ewers, basins etc. forming a collection that would show off your wealth to visitors. When times got tough, or your family needed to relocate, you could take your silver items to be melted down and turned back into coins. This cycle meant that the value of wrought plate (i.e. items made of silver) and the value of coins were connected.
The problem is that pure silver is too soft to properly be worked into wrought plate, and so too fragile to be used as coins. A base metal, or alloy, is added into the melted silver, adding durability without affecting appearance. A standard ratio for this mixture was set in the 12th century: 92.5% silver to 7.5% copper, and this has (officially at least) been the standard for silver since then.
Despite the standard being set, it would be very easy (and tempting) for a silversmith to introduce more alloy into the mix when fashioning coins into cups, and pocket the excess pure silver for themselves.
To combat this, in 1300 a law was introduced forbidding gold and silver items to be sold without first having been tested (assayed) by the Goldsmiths Guild, and this is how we get our first hallmark.
Called the King’s Mark, this first mark depicted a lion’s head looking straight out, but, due to some fun quirks of history and language, it is referred to as a Leopard’s head mark. This mark served as a guarantee that the silver you were buying had been tested and was found to be of the correct standard. Although this helped, it was still not enough to completely dissuade dishonest smiths.
Subsequently a mark referring to the maker was introduced, and then one for the year the silver was tested. Initially all these marks could only be obtained by sending your piece of silver to London, to the Goldsmith’s Hall (hence hallmarks, marks from the hall), so when other cities were granted permission to assay, we have the introduction of town marks. It is around this time that the previous fineness mark of the leopard’s head becomes the town mark for London.
Now, these three marks should have been plenty to ascertain the purity of your silver, had the value of coinage (for many different reasons) not been steadily dropping until it was roughly half of its original value during the reign of Henry VIII. The value of silver plate however, remained the same, and to prove this the Goldsmiths introduced a new mark in the 1540s: the full body of a lion walking left, front paw raised, known as the Lion Passant or Sterling Mark, replacing the Leopard’s Head as a fineness mark.
So, we have a Maker’s Mark, Date Letter, Town Mark and Sterling Mark, surely now 4 marks were enough? They would have been if not for the Civil War (1642-9) and subsequent restoration of the monarchy, both of which required substantial amounts of silver: the war to pay for itself, and the monarchy and nobles to restore their lavish lifestyles.
To understand the next part in our silver history we need to look back at how coins were made: the metal was stamped by hammer and die and clipped with shears. It was very common practice to clip slivers off coins to keep for yourself, eventually having enough free silver to melt down and turn back into money with fake stamps. Or, after the war, sell your clippings to a silversmith who would often pay more than coin value for it. Coin clipping was already a crime, but it was such a lucrative practice that the punishment wasn’t enough of a deterrent. To combat this a coin mill was introduced under the direction of Charles II, producing perfectly round coins with engravings along the edge, making counterfeit coining virtually impossible.
While the crown worked to fix this money issue, in 1697 the standard for wrought plate was raised from 92.5% silver to 95.84% silver, making melted coinage and scraps of sterling silver useless to honest smiths. This higher standard was called the New Sterling or Britannia standard, due to the figure of Britannia used for the mark. Another new symbol was added along with Britannia, that of a Lion’s head facing left with a jagged neckline, as though it had been ripped from the body, or ‘erased’. In London the Lion’s head erased replaced the Leopard’s head but was used alongside the town mark elsewhere.
Britannia silver did not live long though as the higher silver content meant that it was too soft to work correctly and in 1720 the standard reverted to Sterling. Although clients and smiths were still able to choose Britannia standard if they so wished.
Britannia Silver was the standard for only around for 23 years, and it is much rarer than sterling silver. Coupled with the fact that the fashion for collecting and placing value on old silver is also relatively new, and that plate would often be melted down either as money was required or to be remade to follow the fashion, survival of antique silver is in general quite remarkable.
Now that you know a little bit about the history of hallmarks and English silver, I’m sure you can understand my excitement at finding that first piece of Britannia silver.
The RCP’s collection of silver is comprised of mostly ceremonial and decorative pieces, inkstands, cups and trophies, candlesticks, so it makes sense for there to be several items of the softer Britannia silver. Decorative and ceremonial objects need not be as hard wearing as say a tea, or flatware service.
The first item of Britannia silver I came across is the silver monteith in the Treasures Room. A large, scalloped bowl, monteiths were typically made of silver, but could also be made of ceramic, glass or wood, and contained ice or cold water to cool or rinse wine glasses. The foot of the glass would be held by the scalloped notches and kept dry, while the body sat in the water to cool.
This monteith sports the maker’s mark for William Westall, the Lion’s Head Erased, Britannia, and the date letter for 1719. It was given in 1719 by the four censors for 1718–19 Hugh Chamberlen, Richard Hale, John Friend and Richard Tyson. The bowl was given for use in the election of the President, and to this day fellows can still cast their ballot into the silver bowl (combined with a very modern electronic voting system). Very much a ceremonial item in the guise of a punch bowl. (This monteith featured in the 2014 RCP exhibition on alcohol “This Bewitching Poison” and can be seen in Raymond Piper’s 1968 Comitia painting)
A look through some of the other RCP silver in storage revealed more Britannia standard silver.
An interesting discovery was that this caster is Britannia silver. It bears the maker’s mark for Walter Keith, the date letter for 1892, and of course the Britannia standard and Lion’s head erased. As we’ve seen the standard reverted to Sterling in 1720, meaning that a conscious choice was made for the finer silver. The caster was given to the Fellow’s Club by William Hale-White in 1920.
Casters would usually be produced as a set of three to contain sugar, pepper and cayenne for use and display on a grand table. Beginning in the 19th century, caster sets began to become more of a novelty item, and were replaced on the table by cruet sets, comprised of a stand and small containers for condiments. Given the date of late 19th century of this caster, it is unlikely that this object ever contained sugar and was very probably produced only as a decorative or ceremonial item.
There are sure to be more pieces of Britannia Silver in the museum stores, and I look forward to uncovering them!
Catrina Brizzi
Collections Officer
