Assay Office

Delegates attending the latest Goldsmiths’ Company London Assay Office seminar on April 12 were warned to be alert for faked objects purporting to be by the preeminent 18th century Huguenot silversmith Paul de Lamerie (1688-1751).

More than £100,000 worth of silverware has been stolen from the Sheffield Assay Office after a group of burglars broke in using an angle grinder.

A round up of the latest appointments and events from across the art and antiques sector.

Opposition to the ‘outsourcing’ of UK hallmarks overseas is gathering momentum in the trade. Campaigners say the use of British hallmarks in India threatens a 700-year-old system for stamping precious metals.

A group of British silversmiths, jewellery retailers and manufacturers has launched a campaign against the ‘outsourcing’ of UK hallmarks overseas.

The Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office want to help more UK provincial auctioneers spot fakes by inviting them to their Fakes and Forgeries seminars at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London.

Plans to relocate Birmingham’s Assay office can now go ahead following the sale of its landmark building in Newhall Street.

THE Birmingham Assay Office is launching a new one-day course, Buying Scrap Gold and Silver, on January.

Six months after the most significant hallmarking deception case in living memory, the Assay Office has published a guide detailing many of the Peter Ashley-Russell fakes and forgeries. The document is available to download for free at www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk/assayoffice

A rare intervention by the London Assay Office has resulted in the wholesale withdrawal of a 124-lot collection of silver bosun’s calls scheduled to be sold in London last week.

Assay Office London will hold their next Fakes and Forgeries seminar at Goldsmiths’ Hall on Wednesday, January 24.

The London Assay Office is advising extra caution when buying antique silver following the assessment of spoons bearing forged marks submitted by four auctioneers last year.

Bradbury’s Book of Hallmarks, revised edition 2002, published by the Sheffield Assay Office, Guardians Hall, 137 Portobello Road, Sheffield Sl 4DS. Tel: 0114 275 5111 Hardback £16 ISBN l872212026. Paperback ISBN 1872212034 £5.50