| 1275 |
A decree of Philip the Bold required the marking of silver objects
with the town and maker's marks. |
| 1577 |
For fiscal reasons Henry III tried to introduce a new control
hallmark (droit de remède). |
| 1579 |
Henry III attempted to introduce another mark. Revenues from
this mark were to be given to an assignee. The king's plan failed because
of Opposition by Parisian goldsmiths. |
| 1672 |
A new tax (droit de marque sur l’or et l’argent) was introduced. The
collection of the tax was assigned and its payment was indicated on the
object with a special mark. |
| 1681 |
Another hallmark was added to the original single mark of the assignee.
In practice hallmarking was carried out as follows:
-
1. Before the maker completed the item, i. e. mainly before
putting the parts together, he stamped each part of the object with his
own mark, the so-called "poinçon à contre saign", later known
as the "poinçon de maitre"
-
2. The marked parts of the item were submitted in the ''bureau de
la régie" to the officials of an assignee who marked the product
with a stamp known as "poinçon de charge" This mark indicated
that the item was subject to taxation.
-
3. But the maker was not yet allowed to complete the item; he had
now to submit it to the guild;"bureau de la maison commune";where
guild assayers (gardes des communautés) examined the fineness of
the individual parts and stamped them with the town hallmark (usually also
with the letter indicating the year), the so-called "poinçon de
la maison commune".
-
4. The goldsmith could then complete the piece. Upon completion,
however, and before selling it, he had to go to the "bureau de la régie
" again where, after paying the assignee's fee, the item was stamped with
the so-called " poinçon de décharge". Only then could the
product be placed on sale. The object was therefore stamped with four marks.
Since the hallmarks of the guild assayers and assignees changed according
to the size of the object, according to the fineness of the metal, according
to the person of the assignee, and according to the revenue district (généralités),
their number runs into thousands and to this day not all of them have been
reliably ascertained.
|
| 1791 |
The system of assignees was abolished and thus the "charge" and "décharge"
marks disappeared |
| 1797 |
A new system of hallmarking was introduced. The test of fineness was
taken over by the state. Henceforth fineness was indicated by the "poinçon
de titre'', and payment of the revenue tax by the "poinçon de garantie". |
|
Explanation of certain special terms:
-
Poinçon de reconnaissance;the hallmark of the
as-signees, introduced in 1750 to indicate newly added parts to an older
object. Otherwise the name for various types of markings.
-
Poinçon de recense;new assignees could either
retain the hallmarks of their predecessors, or have new ones made for them.
In the event of a new hallmark being introduced, a general review was carried
out in which objects that had been taxed by the predecessor of the new
assignee were stamped with a special hallmark, free of charge, The first
gratuituous review came about in 1722 when spurious assignee hallmarks
were discovered .
-
Poinçon de vieux;a hallmark for older items which
appeared for resale, but had been hallmarked earlier by an assignee.
|
France