UK makers' marks: how to identify the sponsor's punch and what it is worth

What the mark is, and what it is not

The sponsor's mark is one of the four punches that make up a full UK hallmark: sponsor, standard (fineness), assay office, and date letter. It has been legally required alongside British hallmarks since a statute of 1363. The name has changed over time — you will see it called the maker's mark, the maker's initials, the workshop mark, or the responsibility mark — but the current legal term in the UK is sponsor's mark.

The mark is registered by the person or company legally responsible for submitting the piece for assay. That may be:

• The actual workshop or silversmith who made the piece.
• The retailer who commissioned it from a workshop.
• The importer who brought a foreign-made piece into the UK for assay.
• A trade sponsor who submits work on behalf of smaller workshops.

The mark tells you who submitted the piece. It does not always tell you who physically made it. On retailer-marked pieces (Asprey, Garrard, Mappin & Webb), the actual workshop is usually a subcontractor whose own mark does not appear on the finished piece.

How to read the shield

The sponsor's mark is always in a distinctive shield outline. The shield shape matters as much as the letters inside it:

• Rectangular shield with cut corners — sole trader.
• Oval shield — partnership.
• Rectangular shield with rounded ends (lozenge) — limited company.
• Diamond shield — traditionally a female sole trader (though the convention has fallen out of formal use).
• Circular or shaped shield with special outline — often a large or historic firm with a registered custom shield.

The initials are almost always the first letters of a personal name (John Smith = JS) or a firm name (Deakin & Francis = D&F). Some historic firms use full stops between letters, some do not. Some use dates within the punch. The rules have varied over 660 years, so a mark that looks unusual is not automatically fake — it may just be old.

Where to look the mark up

The four British assay offices — London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh — hold the master records of registered marks. Dublin (which was a fifth assay office until 1922) is now under Irish jurisdiction. Public tools:

• Assay Office London's online reference — the largest UK database of historic marks. Freely searchable by initials and date range.
• Assay Office Birmingham's Anchor Certification — provides paid verification of a specific mark against their register.
• The Silver Society and Silver Collectors' online guides — enthusiast-maintained references with photos of famous marks and their variations.
• Culme, John: The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths, Jewellers and Allied Traders 1838–1914 — the standard reference book for Victorian and Edwardian British trade. Two volumes, still in print. Any decent auction house or good reference library will have a copy.
• Grimwade, Arthur: London Goldsmiths 1697–1837 — the definitive reference for 18th and early 19th century London marks.
• Jackson, Sir Charles: Silver and Gold Marks of England, Scotland and Ireland — the classic single-volume reference, now over a century old but still widely used.

For a piece worth serious money, do not rely on a single online image match. Two marks with the same initials, same shield and same date letter can still belong to different registered sponsors. Cross-check against a printed reference, or pay an auction house or independent valuer for a definitive attribution.

Not sure how any of this applies to your own items? Send a photo on WhatsApp and ask. We answer honestly, there is no obligation, and nothing is posted until you decide. Or call 07944 014111, 8am to 9pm, 7 days a week.

British makers whose marks add value

A verified mark from any of the following typically lifts a piece above pure metal value. Prices vary enormously by piece, condition and current market — treat the notes as directional, not as a valuation.

• Asprey (London) — luxury retailer, marks going back to the 19th century. Signed pieces in their original fitted case add strongly. Silverware and cufflinks are common finds.
• Mappin & Webb (London and Sheffield) — royal warrant holder, extensive silverware and jewellery ranges. Marked pieces attract collectors, particularly Edwardian and Art Deco.
• Garrard & Co (London) — Crown Jeweller for over 150 years. Any well-preserved Garrard silverware or jewellery with the original case carries a premium.
• Deakin & Francis (Birmingham) — cufflink and dress-accessory specialists since 1786, still trading. Verified marks on their signature enamel and stone-set cufflinks add material value.
• Boodle & Dunthorne / Boodles (Liverpool, Chester) — long-established retailer. Chester-hallmarked pieces from before the office closed in 1962 are collected in their own right.
• Elkington & Co (Birmingham) — a caveat rather than a headline. Elkington were the great pioneers of silver electroplate. Many Elkington pieces are electroplated base metal, not solid silver, and carry no assay mark. Only pieces with a genuine assay office hallmark are solid silver. Read carefully.
• Garrard's, Hunt & Roskell, Storr & Mortimer — 19th-century royal-warrant retailers whose pieces command significant premiums when clearly marked.

Foreign makers whose UK-hallmarked pieces also add value include Tiffany & Co, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Boucheron — each of which imported pieces for UK retail carry British import assay marks in addition to their maker's stamp.

Common mistakes when reading a mark

Six errors that trip people up most often when reading a mark:

• Assuming a pretty name means value. A mark reading "T&Co" is not automatically Tiffany. The initials may match a hundred other historic sponsors. Verify against the full hallmark set (assay office, date letter, standard) before making claims.
• Confusing the assay office punch with the maker's mark. The leopard's head (London), anchor (Birmingham) or crown (Sheffield) is the assay office. The maker is the separate punch of initials.
• Confusing the standard mark with a maker's mark. The lion passant (sterling silver), 750 (18ct gold) and similar are fineness marks, not maker's marks.
• Missing a mark that is very worn. On heavily used silver, the sponsor's mark is often the first to wear away. Absence does not necessarily mean forgery — but it does make attribution harder.
• Treating electroplate as solid silver. EPNS (electroplated nickel silver), EPBM (electroplated Britannia metal) and Sheffield plate carry maker's marks but no assay office hallmark. They are not solid silver and have almost no scrap value.
• Reading a foreign mark as British. German (800/1000 silver), continental European (830/1000), and American (STERLING) marks look superficially similar to UK marks. The assay office punch is the diagnostic — no British town punch means it is not British hallmarked.

Verifying a mark before you commit

If you suspect you have a signed piece with real premium, the process is:

• Photograph the full hallmark set with a good camera phone, on a plain background, in daylight. Include the whole piece and a close-up of the marks.
• Cross-check the sponsor's initials, shield shape, assay office and date letter against a reference (Culme, Jackson, Grimwade or a verified online resource).
• Email the photos to a specialist jewellery or silver auction house. Fellows (Birmingham), Woolley & Wallis (Salisbury), Bonhams and Tennants all provide free preliminary valuations by email.
• If two independent sources confirm the maker, you have a piece worth taking to auction rather than scrap.
• If the mark is ordinary trade, or cannot be verified, treat it as scrap value only.

What we do with maker-marked pieces

When a piece arrives with a sponsor's mark we recognise as adding premium, we tell you before quoting scrap. If it looks like a signed Asprey cufflink pair, a Garrard salt cellar or a Deakin & Francis enamel set, we say so — and either offer a fair second-hand price above scrap, or suggest an auction house that will do better.

We are not an auction house. Our business is metal, and we are honest about which pieces belong somewhere else. For plain trade-marked scrap, we pay on metal within the working day. For signed pieces that deserve a saleroom, free return post is standing offer.

Our full hallmark guide covers the four-punch system in order. For antique-specific selling, see selling antique gold in the UK.

Common questions

Related guides

Reference pages

• Gold price today, UK rates
• Silver price today, UK rates
• UK gold hallmark guide
• How we value gold