Assay Office Records

The Company’s minutes from 1334 (excepting 1579-1592) contain most of the information regarding the administration of the Assay Office and, from c.1720-1943 the (Standing) committee minutes also have relevant information.  From 1943 the assay office minutes are collected, with other committee minutes, in one volume, which, later, became an annual volume. Separate volumes commenced, from 1776 to 1890, to record the plate duty receipts.

Registers of marks survive from 1697, apart from 1739-1773.  A copper plate of makers’ marks from 1682 survives together with metal mark plates recording both the assay office marks and the craftsmen’s marks from the later 18th century’.

Archive files from the 17th century survive.

Content

Information on individuals as goldsmiths and silversmiths as they sought to make their fame and fortune in the craft are found in the minutes from the earliest period.  As in life it is the offenders who seem to gain the most infamy or notoriety by the recording of their misdeeds - either as a lesson to others or as a corporate record of the punishment meted out to malefactors.  Specific objects, such  as trencher (plates) tankards etc., found in searches are usually mentioned by name in the 17th century but by the beginning of the 18th century they tend to be described generically as ‘silver items’.

One copper plate from 1682 and registers of makers’ marks  from 1697 (except 1739-1773) allow researchers to identify most London craftsmen from 1682 to the present day through their registered marks. Metal mark plates recording the assay office marks survive from the 1770s.

The archive files cover  a wide range of subjects within the field often with original or contemporary copies of petitions and letters re assay office staff (1629 to present); statistics (1815 to present); the Trial of the Pyx (1603 to present); parliamentary legislation (1661 to present); offences (1695 to present); other UK assay offices (1854 to present).

How can I find information in these records?

A large percentage of the minutes are indexed but searching requires an open-ended approach and varies with the type and date of the record.  John Forbes’s history of the assay office is a good starting point.

The makers’ marks are recorded in the books on makers’ marks by Charles Jackson (pre 1697), and A.G.Grimwade and J.D.Culme who between them cover the period from 1697-1914 in London.

The archive papers are listed on the AIM25 website.