David and Goliath, a colour lithograph by (c. 1888)Goliath ( ) is described in the biblical as a defeated by the young in. The story signified 's unfitness to rule, as Saul himself should have fought for. Scholars today believe that the original listed killer of Goliath was, and that the authors of the changed the original text to credit the victory to the more famous character, David.The phrase ' has taken on a more popular meaning, denoting an situation, a contest where a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary. David hoists the severed head of Goliath as illustrated by (1866). The Goliath narrative in 1 Samuel 17 and the are facing the in the. Twice a day for 40 days, morning and evening, Goliath, the of the Philistines, comes out between the lines and challenges the Israelites to send out a champion of their own to decide the outcome in, but Saul is afraid., bringing food for his elder brothers on the battlefield, hears that Goliath has defied the armies of God and of the reward from Saul to the one that defeats him, and accepts the challenge.
Saul reluctantly agrees and offers his armor, which David declines, taking only his staff, sling and five stones from a brook.David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and javelin, David with his staff and sling. 'The Philistine cursed David by his gods', but David replies: 'This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God's, and he will give you into our hand.' David hurls a stone from his sling and hits Goliath in the center of his forehead, Goliath falls on his face to the ground, and David cuts off his head. The Philistines flee and are pursued by the Israelites 'as far as and the gates of '. David puts the armor of Goliath in his own tent and takes the head to, and Saul sends to bring the boy to him. The king asks whose son he is, and David answers, 'I am the son of your servant the.' Composition of the Book of Samuel and the Goliath narrative The, together with the books of, and, make up a unified history of Israel which biblical scholars call the.
The first edition of the history was probably written at the court of Judah's King (late 7th century BCE) and a revised second edition during the exile (6th century BCE), with further revisions in the post-exilic period. Traces of this can be seen in the contradictions and illogicalities of the Goliath story - to take a few examples, David turns from Saul's adult shield-bearer into a child herding sheep for his father, Saul finds it necessary to send for him when as the king's shield-bearer he should already be beside his royal master, and then has to ask who David is, which sits strangely with David's status at his court. David with the Head of Goliath, circa 1635, byGoliath's stature as described in various ancient manuscripts varies: the oldest manuscripts, the text of Samuel, the 1st-century historian, and the 4th-century Septuagint manuscripts, all give his height as 'four and a ' (6 feet 9 inches or 2.06 metres), whereas the gives this as 'six cubits and a span' (9 feet 9 inches or 2.97 metres). The taller reading probably arose through the error of a scribe whose eye was drawn by the number 'six hundred' in verse 17:7.
An early 20th Century Navy Deck / Pocket watch by H. Golay & Son Ltd London, the white enamel dial with makers name and watch no. Roman numerals and outer Arabic sweep seconds, matching blued-steel hands, engraved on back 'H.S. Approx 60mm dia. Antique Pocket Watches. Antique Pocket Watches by Period. Quarter Repeater Men's GOLIATH Pocket Watch Swiss Made 1920 Worldwide Shipping!! This is a Goliath quarter repeater men's steel open face pocket watch, made in Switzerland in 1920. 1913 British Military Omega Pocket Watch, Indian Issue.
A number of other scholars suggest it simply grew as it was being repeated. Goliath and Saul. David Presents the Head of Goliath to King Saul, q1627,The underlying purpose of the story of Goliath is to show that Saul is not fit to be king (and that David is). Saul was chosen to lead the Israelites against their enemies, but when faced with Goliath he refuses to do so; Saul is a very tall man, but Goliath is a giant. Saul's exact height is not given, but he was a head taller than anyone else in all Israel (1 Samuel 9:2), which implies he was over 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and the obvious challenger for Goliath, yet, David is the one who eventually defeated him. Also, Saul's armour and weaponry are apparently no worse than Goliath's (and David, of course, refuses Saul's armour in any case).
'David declares that when a lion or bear came and attacked his father's sheep, he battled against it and killed it, but Saul has been cowering in fear instead of rising up and attacking the threat to his sheep (i.e. Elhanan and Goliath 2 Samuel 21:19 tells how Goliath the was killed by ', the Bethlehemite.' According to Baruch Halperin, 'Most likely, storytellers displaced the deed from the otherwise obscure Elhanan onto the more famous character, David.' The fourth-century BC explains the second Goliath by saying that Elhanan 'slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath', constructing the name Lahmi from the last portion of the word 'Bethlehemite' (' beit-ha’lahmi'), and the adopted this into 2 Samuel 21:18–19, although the Hebrew text at this point makes no mention of the word 'brother'. Goliath and the Greeks The armor described in 1 Samuel 17 appears typical of Greek armor of the sixth century BCE rather than of Philistines armor of the tenth century. Narrative formulae such as the settlement of battle by between champions has been thought characteristic of the (the ) rather than of the ancient Near East.
The designation of Goliath as a איש הביניים, 'man of the in-between' (a longstanding difficulty in translating 1 Samuel 17) appears to be a borrowing from Greek 'man of the metaikhmion ( μεταίχμιον)', i.e. The space between two opposite army camps where would take place.A story very similar to that of David and Goliath appears in the, written circa 760–710 BCE, where the young fights and conquers the giant Ereuthalion. Each giant wields a distinctive weapon—an iron club in Ereuthalion's case, a massive bronze spear in Goliath's; each giant, clad in armor, comes out of the enemy's massed array to challenge all the warriors in the opposing army; in each case the seasoned warriors are afraid, and the challenge is taken up by a stripling, the youngest in his family (Nestor is the twelfth son of, David the seventh or eighth son of ). In each case an older and more experienced father figure (Nestor's own father, David's patron Saul) tells the boy that he is too young and inexperienced, but in each case the young hero receives divine aid and the giant is left sprawling on the ground.
Nestor, fighting on foot, then takes the chariot of his enemy, while David, on foot, takes the sword of Goliath. The enemy army then flees, the victors pursue and slaughter them and return with their bodies, and the boy-hero is acclaimed by the people. Goliath's name , the biblical and traditional home of Goliath, has been the subject of extensive excavations by Israel's. The archaeologists have established that this was one of the largest of the Philistine cities until destroyed in the ninth century BC, an event from which it never recovered.
A discovered at the site, and reliably dated to the tenth to mid-ninth centuries BC, is inscribed with the two names 'alwt' and 'wlt'. While the names are not directly connected with the biblical Goliath ('glyt'), they are etymologically related and demonstrate that the name fits with the context of late-tenth/early-ninth-century BC Philistine culture.
The name 'Goliath' itself is non-Semitic and has been linked with the king, which also fits the Philistine context of the biblical Goliath story. A similar name, Uliat, is also attested in inscriptions., director of the excavation, comments: 'Here we have very nice evidence that the name Goliath appearing in the Bible in the context of the story of David and Goliath is not some later literary creation.' Later traditions Jewish According to the ( 42b) Goliath was a son of, the sister-in-law of, David's own great grandmother (Ruth → Obed → Jesse → David)., a haggadic and homiletic interpretation of the, makes the blood-relationship even closer, considering Orpah and Ruth to have been full sisters.
Orpah was said to have made a pretense of accompanying Ruth but after forty paces left her. Thereafter she led a dissolute life. According to the Goliath was born by, and had about one hundred fathers.The Talmud stresses Goliath's ungodliness: his taunts before the Israelites included the boast that it was he who had captured the and brought it to the temple of; and his challenges to combat were made at morning and evening in order to disturb the Israelites in their prayers. His armour weighed 60 tons, according to rabbi; 120, according to rabbi; and his sword, which became the sword of David, had marvellous powers. On his death it was found that his heart carried the image of Dagon, who thereby also came to a shameful downfall.In, believed to have been composed between 135 BC and 70 AD, David picks up seven stones and writes on them his father's name, his own name, and the name of God, one name per stone; then, speaking to Goliath, he says 'Hear this word before you die: were not the two woman from whom you and I were born, sisters? And your mother was Orpah and my mother Ruth.'
After David strikes Goliath with the stone he runs to Goliath before he dies and Goliath says 'Hurry and kill me and rejoice.' And David replies 'Before you die, open your eyes and see your slayer.' Goliath sees an angel and tells David that it is not he who has killed him but the angel. Pseudo-Philo then goes on to say that the angel of the Lord changes David's appearance so that no one recognizes him, and thus Saul asks who he is. Islam Goliath appears in chapter 2 of the (2: 247–252), in the narrative of David and Saul's battle against the Philistines.
Called ' Jalut' in Arabic (' جالوت'), Goliath's mention in the Quran is concise, though it remains a parallel to the account in the. Muslim scholars have tried to trace Goliath's origins, most commonly with the. Goliath, in early scholarly tradition, became a kind of byword or collective name for the oppressors of the nation before. Muslim tradition sees the battle with the Philistines as a prefiguration of 's, and sees Goliath as parallel to the enemies that Muhammad faced.
Adaptations. David and Goliath by, on theAmerican actor portrayed Goliath in the TV series Greatest Heroes of the Bible in 1978. Italian actor portrayed this nine-foot-tall giant in 's 1985 live-action movie as part of a flashback. This movie includes the King of the Philistines saying, 'Goliath has challenged the Israelites six times and no one has responded.'
It is then on the seventh time that David meets his challenge.The PBS series featured Goliath in its first-season episode 'Little Big Dog'.Big Idea's popular episode was called ', where voiced Goliath.In 1972, and collaborated on a movie called, which follows the story relatively closely but recasts the main characters as.In 1975, Israeli band release a song called Golyat on the album, loosely and humorously based on the story.' S song Rock In This Pocket (Song Of David) on the album is based on the story.In 2005, Lightstone Studios released a direct-to-DVD movie musical titled 'One Smooth Stone', which was later changed to 'David and Goliath'. It is part of the (now just Liken) series of movie musicals on DVD based on scripture stories., a former NBA basketball player, was cast to play the part of Goliath in this film.In 2009, aired which has a narrative loosely based on the Biblical story of, but set in a kingdom that culturally and technologically resembles the present-day United States. The part of Goliath is portrayed by a tank, which David destroys with a shoulder fired rocket launcher.Goliath was portrayed by in the 2013 TV miniseries.Italian Goliath film series (1960–1964) The Italians used Goliath as an action superhero in a series of biblical adventure films in the early 1960s.
He possessed amazing strength, and the films were similar in theme to their and movies. After the classic (1958) became a blockbuster sensation in the film industry, the 1959 film Terrore dei Barbari ( Terror of the Barbarians) was retitled in the United States, (after claimed the sole right to the name of Hercules); the film was so successful at the box office, it inspired Italian filmmakers to do a series of four more films featuring a beefcake hero named Goliath, although the films were not really related to each other. (The 1960 Italian film David and Goliath starring was not one of these, since that movie was a straightforward adaptation of the Biblical story).The four titles in the Italian Goliath series were as follows:.
Goliath contro i giganti/ (1960) starring. Goliath e la schiava ribelle/ (a.k.a. The Tyrant of Lydia vs. The Son of Hercules) (1963) starring. Golia e il cavaliere mascherato/ Goliath and the Masked Rider (a.k.a. ) (1964) starring. Golia alla conquista di Bagdad/ Goliath at the Conquest of Baghdad (a.k.a., 1964) starringThe name Goliath was later inserted into the film titles of three other Italian muscle man movies that were retitled for distribution in the United States in an attempt to cash in on the Goliath craze, but these films were not originally made as Goliath movies in Italy.Both (1961) and (1963) actually featured the famed superhero Maciste in the original Italian versions, but American distributors did not feel the name Maciste had any meaning to American audiences.
(1960) was originally an Italian Hercules movie called The Revenge of Hercules.Modern usage of 'David and Goliath' In modern usage, the phrase 'David and Goliath' has taken on a secular meaning, denoting an situation, a contest where a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary; if successful, the underdog may win in an unusual or surprising way. It is arguably the most famous underdog story.professor Leonard Greenspoon, in his essay, 'David vs. Goliath in the Sports Pages', explains that 'most writers use the story for its underdog overtones (the little guy wins). Less likely to show up in newsprint is the contrast that was most important to the biblical authors: David's victory shows the power of his God, while Goliath's defeat reveals the weakness of the Philistine deities.' The phrase is widely used in news media to succinctly characterize underdog situations in many contexts without religious overtones. Contemporary headlines include: sports ('Haye relishes underdog role in 'David and Goliath' fight with Nikolai Valuev'— ); business ('On Internet, David-and-Goliath Battle Over Instant Messages'— ); science ('David and Goliath: How a tiny spider catches much larger prey'—; politics ('Dissent in Cuba: David and Goliath'— ); social justice ('David-and-Goliath Saga Brings Cable to Skid Row'— ).See also. ('Battle of Goliath Well')., the 37th season of, which utilizes the David and Goliath theme.Notes., p. 519., p. 8.
^. Oxford Advanced American Dictionary. Retrieved 11 February 2015. 'used to describe a situation in which a small or weak person or organization tries to defeat another much larger or stronger opponent: The game looks like it will be a David and Goliath contest.'
., p. 2 and fn6., p. 10–11., p. 262 fn62., p. 259-260 fn58., p. 10-11. Ehrlich, C. 'Goliath (Person)'. Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol.
New York: Doubleday. ^ Hays, J. Daniel (December 2005). 48 (4): 701–14. Jason Driesbach (2016). P. 73.
^ Halpern, Baruch (2003). Eerdmans Publishing. 54:373–95 (2004).
See also, 'The Philistines in the Bible: A Late Monarchic Perspective', 27:131:67. For a brief online overview, see, a blog by Christopher Heard, Associate Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University. Israel Finkelstein; Neil Asher Silberman (3 April 2007). Simon and Schuster. Pp. 198–., Book 7 ll.132–160., The East Face of. West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1997 pp. 370, 376.
and; For the editio princeps and an in-depth discussion of the inscription, see now: Maeir, A.M., Wimmer, S.J., Zukerman, A., and Demsky, A. (2008 (in press)). 'An Iron Age I/IIA Archaic Alphabetic Inscription from Tell es-Safi/Gath: Paleography, Dating, and Historical-Cultural Significance'. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Vernet Pons, M.
'The etymology of Goliath in the light of Carian Wljat/Wliat: a new proposal'. Kadmos, 51, 143–164. November 15, 2005. Yebamoth, 24b. For a brief overview of Talmudic traditions on Goliath, see. Charlesworth, James H.
The Old Testament pseudepigrapha vol 2. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
374. ^ Encyclopedia of Islam, G. Vajda, Djalut. ^ Hughes Dictionary of Islam, T.P.
Hughes, Goliath. Retrieved 2011-04-28. Alston, Joshua (16 July 2009). NEWSWEEK LLC. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
Macmillan Dictionary. Retrieved 11 February 2015. 'used for describing a situation in which a small person or organization defeats a much larger one in a surprising way'. Bodner, Keith.
Society of Biblical Literature. Retrieved 18 February 2015. Greenspoon, Leonard.
Society of Biblical Literature. Retrieved 12 February 2015. McRae, Donald (3 November 2009). Retrieved 3 November 2009. Smaller boxer battles gigantic WBA world heavyweight champion.
Blair, Jayson (24 June 2000). Retrieved 27 March 2015. Tiny online start-up battles Internet giant. 12 June 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2016. Tiny spider preys on ants up to almost four times its size.
16 January 2003. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
'A one-party election faces a small but unprecedented challenge.' . Rivera, Carla (21 November 2001). Retrieved 27 March 2015. Skid row resident battles telecoms giant to win cable access.Bibliography.
Campbell, Antony F.; O'Brien, Mark A. Fortress Press. Halpern, Baruch (2003). Eerdmans Publishing Co. Johnson, Benjamin J.M. Mohr Siebeck. Nelson, William R.
In Freedman, David Noel; Myers, Allen C. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Eerdmans. Person, Raymond F. Society of Biblical Literature.
West, M.L. Clarendon Press.External links.
Media related to at Wikimedia Commons.
Contents.Precious metal (gold and silver, and more recently platinum) objects have by law been tested and marked in England since at least the year 1300, and since 1478 have had to be taken or sent to an assay office for this process. The first of these assay offices was at Goldsmiths' Hall in London, from which the term ‘hallmarking’ originate. This page is about a change to British hallmarking in 1907. The required that from 1 June 1907 all imported gold and silver watch cases to be assayed in a British assay office and, if they passed, to be marked with new specific hallmarks that identified them clearly as imported items, so that no one would think that they had been made in Britain. These hallmarks are called ‘British import hallmarks’.Since at least 1738 the cases of foreign gold and silver watches retailed in Britain should, by law, have been assayed and hallmarked with British hallmarks in exactly the same way as British made gold and silver cases, but the law was misinterpreted by both the customs and assay authorities. It was effectively a choice whether imported gold and silver watches were hallmarked in Britain, and only a very small proportion were, the majority of those between 1874 and 1887 which is explained on the page about.English watch manufacturers objected to any imported watch having British hallmarks, so the Merchandise Marks Act of 1887 specified that from 1 January 1888 onwards new British hallmarks for imported watches with the word ‘Foreign’ across the middle would be applied to any watch cases sent to a British assay office to be hallmarked. This effectively put a stop to the practice of getting imported gold or silver watch cases hallmarked in Britain, although by law all such cases should have been hallmarked in Britain before being offered for sale.In 1904 an Act introduced new hallmarks for imported gold and silver items other than watch cases, which included new town marks.
Some of these town marks were changed in 1906 when they were found to resemble existing trademarks. The 1904 and 1906 laws regarding the hallmarking of imported gold and silver items did not apply to watch cases because the 1887 Merchandise Marks Act that had introduced the hallmarks with 'Foreign' across the middle for imported watch cases was not repealed and remained in force.British law regarding the marking of imported watch cases was changed from 1 June 1907 by the ‘Assay of Imported Watch-Cases (Existing Stocks Exemption) Act’, which required that all imported gold and silver watch cases had to be assayed and hallmarked in a British assay office. The 1907 Act brought the hallmarking of watch cases into line with the hallmarking of other imported gold and silver items. Import Hallmarks Act 1907The British Assay of Imported Watch-Cases (Existing Stocks Exemption) Act required that from 1 June 1907 all imported gold and silver watch cases to be assayed and hallmarked in a British assay office.
It was further required that the hallmarks struck onto imported items by the assay offices be different from those that were struck onto items made in Britain.The ‘town mark’ identifies at which assay office an article was tested and hallmarked. From 1906 the town marks struck by British assay offices on imported gold and silver items other than watch cases had been made to be different from those struck on items that had been made in Britain. This requirement was first applied to imported watch cases on 1 June 1907.The new town marks first struck on imported gold and silver watch cases on 1 June 1907 were:LondonZodiac sign of LeoBirminghamEquilateral triangleChesterAcorn and two leavesSheffieldZodiac sign of libraEdindurghSt. Andrew's crossGlasgowOpposed 'F's proneDublinBoujet (water carrier)Town marks used by British assay offices on imported watches after 1 June 1907Import hallmarks were struck in all imported gold and silver watch cases from 1 June 1907 onwards.
This gave rise to an enormous amount of new and extra work for the British assay offices because thousands of watches with gold and silver cases were imported every year. Before 1 June 1907 were simply imported and sold without British hallmarks.The Act also created work for the importers of watches, because cases had to be marked with a British registered sponsor's mark before they could be sent to be assayed and hallmarked.
No item would be accepted at an assay office for hallmarking without a sponsor's mark, which showed who was legally responsible for submitting the item.Some large and well organised companies such as Longines sent over cases to be hallmarked and then returned to Switzerland to have movements put in. Other smaller manufacturers found this impractical and so sent over complete watches. The movements had to be taken out of the cases, and the cases punched with the registered sponsor's mark before they were sent for hallmarking. After hallmarking the cases had to be finish polished and re-fitted with their movements. This gave rise to specialists who performed this work for Swiss manufacturers who didn't have an operation in Britain, this is discussed in.
NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin article.Click this link toD14909One of the principal changes to the British hallmarks struck on imported silver items was that the lion passant, which had been struck on sterling silver since 1544 and was widely recognised and thought by the public to be a mark of British manufacture, was not allowed to be used. Instead imported items were marked with the decimal equivalent of the fineness of sterling silver, 0.925 for 92.5% pure silver, in an oval such as the mark shown here.British made gold items of the higher standards of 22 and 18 carat, and for its brief existence 15 carat, were marked with a crown in addition to the decimal fineness. The crown was omitted on imported items of these standards. The lower standards of 14, 12, and 9 carat gold were only ever hallmarked with the numerical carat value and its decimal equivalent, e.g. '9/.375' for 9 carat gold which is 9 / 24 = 0.375 or 37.5% fine gold.The new law came into effect on 1 June 1907; this is discussed further at the bottom of this page and in my article published in the NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin as shown here.
Articles in the NAWCC Bulletin are copyright and usually only available to NAWCC members. However, after a request from the the archivist of the Incorporation of Goldsmiths, who looks after the historical records of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Assay Offices, the editor of the NAWCC Bulletin has allowed the article to be made publicly available and it can now be downloaded by clicking on this this link:. My research has also been incorporated in the latest version of Bradbury's Book of Hallmarks, you can read about this at.If you want details of British hallmarks used on watch cases before 1907, and which continued to be used on British manufactured watch cases after 1907, please refer to my page. The Hallmarking Amendment Act 1988The The Hallmarking Amendment Act 1998 removed import marks leaving only the traditional town marks such as the leopard for London and the anchor for Birmingham as legal marks, so there could no longer be any distinction made between items made in the UK and those made abroad. The assay offices have taken this as an opportunity to expand their business by marking items made outside the UK with the traditional British hallmarks, and some have even opened offices abroad.Sheffield were the first assay office to mark offshore in Italy using the Rose town mark. The London and Edinburgh assay offices hallmark at Heathrow products shipped off planes while they rest in customs. The Birmingham Assay Office now hallmarks items in India using the anchor.
The assay master of the Birmingham Assay Office told me 'At a conservative estimate we have marked 50 million imported articles with anchor hallmarks since 1999.' Import hallmarksMost of the early wristwatches that I am interested in were imported after June 1907, simply because there were very few men's wristwatches made before 1907. The picture here shows the inside case back of a silver wristwatch imported in 1916 or 1917 with typical British import hallmarks.
The principal differences between these and hallmarks on a British made silver item is that the town mark of the assay office is one of the new town marks, and the standard of fineness is indicated by the decimal equivalent of sterling silver,.925, instead of the lion passant. The British import hallmarks are inside the red box. If you click on the image a larger version will pop up.Marks on imported gold cases are very similar to marks in this silver case. The new town mark indicates the assay office, and the standard of fineness is given as the decimal equivalent of the legal gold standards.
The crown that was used on 22 and 18 carat gold British items was not struck on imported items. The date letters for gold items have a different shaped shield to those on silver items, as discussed below. SilverImported silver items were marked with the decimal equivalent of the legal fineness in an oval such as the mark shown here. The decimal.925 was used instead of the lion passant on sterling silver, the decimal.9584 instead of the figure of Britannia for the higher 'new' standard of Britannia silver.
I have never seen this on a watch case and I doubt that any imported watch cases were made of Britannia fineness silver. GoldFor imported gold items the standard marks show the carats and decimal equivalent, as shown here for 9 carat gold. The decimal equivalent of the purity is found by dividing the carats by 24, so for 9 carat the decimal equivalent is 9/24 = 0.375, which is 37.5% gold. From 1854 the gold standards allowed were 22 carats (.916), 18 (.75), 15 (.625), 12 (.5) and 9 (.375). The Dublin Assay Office only was authorised to also mark 20 carat (.833) gold.
In 1932 the standards of 15 and 12 were replaced by a single standard of 14 (.585) carats, the others standards remaining. Sponsor's MarkTo send an item to an assay office to be assayed, a person must first be registered with that particular office. The reason for this is pretty obvious - the office needs to know who to invoice for their services and who to return the items to.
To facilitate this, the Assay Office requires that each registered person have a registered mark which is unique to them. This usually consists of the persons initials set in a 'shield', a surrounding shape.Items have to be stamped with a sponsor's punch mark before they are even assayed, let alone hallmarked. It has been the (the year 1363 that is, over 650 years ago) that an item will not be hallmarked unless it already bears the sponsor's mark.
Today the assay office will hold your punch and stamp items for you if you wish. This is what I do. If the items fail assay they would still charge for punching the marks, but fortunately I have never encountered this, I buy my silver and gold from a reliable bullion dealer.This mark is sometimes erroneously called the 'maker's mark', but this is very misleading at the best of times and of course for an imported watch case it is completely wrong. The term 'sponsor's mark' should always be used for this mark.If a person wishing to register a mark has the same initials as someone already registered, the shield of their mark will be different so that the two marks can be distinguished. The registered sponsor's mark is punched on to each item before it is sent for assay and hallmarking. If more than one punch is needed, because the are a lot of items to be marked, or because one wears out, then each individual punch must be registered.The sponsor's mark is the registered mark of the person with a British address under whose name an item was submitted for hallmarking.
On a Swiss made watch case there may also be the Swiss maker's mark, but a Swiss based sponsor would not be acceptable to a British assay office and therefore the sponsor must have a British address. You can look up details of sponsor's marks on my page. Date LettersThe year denoted by the so called 'date letter' can be confusing because until the 1973 act, the hallmarking year did not run from 1 January. This mark was introduced in 1478 and was at first called the 'assayer's mark' as a record of who was responsible for the assay. It was changed each year when new wardens were elected, which in London was at the end of May, so an item marked with an 'a', which the table in Bradbury indicates is the date letter for 1916, could have been marked at any time from 29 May 1916 to 28 May 1917, or possibly even some time in June if the punches were delivered late as sometimes happened.Each assay office had its own sequence of letters, which was different from all the other assay offices, depending on when the office first opened for business.
The Glasgow hallmarking year ran from 1 July to 30 June the next year, evenly spanning two calendar years. The Glasgow office closed in 1964. The Birmingham office also changed its date letter with the annual election of the wardens on 1 July.Because the date letter punches were changed when new wardens were elected each year, which took place part way through the year, hallmark date letters span two calendar years. This is not noted in most tables of hallmarks, which only show the year when the punch was first used. Remember that an entry of, for example, '1914' really means 1914 to 1915.See also the sections below about Shield Shapes for Import Hallmarks and Second Dublin HallmarksSometimes watch cases are seen with hallmarks from a British mainland assay office, and a second set of hallmarks from the Dublin Assay Office. The British hallmarks were struck first, the Dublin marks later when the watch was imported into Ireland. Glasgow and Dublin hallmarksBefore 1922 all of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, and hallmarks struck in any UK assay office were valid throughout the realm.
In 1922 the Irish Free State separated from the United Kingdom and formed the republic of Ireland. As a result of this separation, Irish hallmarks were not accepted in the UK after 1923, and UK hallmarks were not accepted in Ireland after 1927. Because of this, watches imported into Britain and hallmarked in Britain, if sent to Ireland, were then also assayed and hallmarked in Dublin.This was confirmed to me in 2013 by Mr Le Bas, Assay Master at the Dublin Assay Office at the time.This happened more than you might think at first sight, because many Swiss manufacturers and watch importers had offices in London, and held stocks of hallmarked watches in England.
If a retailer in Ireland ordered a watch, it was sent from England and assayed and assayed and hallmarked again in Dublin before sale, so one watches with both British and Irish hallmarks are not too unusual.An example of a Rolex case marked this way can be seen in the Rolex case with Glasgow and Dublin hallmarks is shown here. The Glasgow Assay Office import hallmark for sterling silver have the date letter 'f' for the year 1928 to 1929. The Dublin hallmark has the date letter 'Q' for the year 1932 to 1933. These dates were during the great depression and it is evident that the watch hallmarked and then kept in stock in London for several years before it was sent to Dublin and hallmarked for a second time. Punches, Shields and EscutcheonsMarks such as a sponsor's mark or the walking ‘lion passant’ are usually rendered in 'cameo' or 'relief'. To make the mark the metal around the letter or shape is pressed down by a punch and the letter or shape itself remains at the original surface level, standing out in relief against the metal that has been pressed down. The shape formed by the nose of the punch as an outline around the mark is called the 'shield', or sometimes the 'escutcheon'.An alternative form of punching is called 'intaglio' or 'incuse'.
The shape of a letter or mark is simply pressed or cut into the surface of the metal. This type of mark often has no shield, although sometimes the punch also presses or cuts a shield around the letters or mark. Cameo and Intaglio marksThe sketch here shows the two types of punches for stamping two different styles of sponsor's marks.
The cameo punch is cut away so that the initials are created in relief (cameo) by pressing down the metal around them. The outside shape of the nose of the punch forms the shield around the initials. This is called a cameo mark. The intaglio or incuse punch presses the shape of the initials into the metal. Sometimes a shield is also made, as shown in the picture, which is also pressed into the metal. This is called an incuse mark.The shield shapes around cameo marks, and around incuse marks if they have them, are an important part of the mark.
This applies to all the marks, but is especially important for date letters and sponsor's marks where there are lots of basically similar marks that must all be unique. For instance, when I registered my sponsor's mark at the London Assay Office I found that someone with the same initials, DBB, had already registered their mark with a rectangular shield, so I chose to have a shield with angular ends as shown in the picture, which makes this mark unique to me. Blurred or ‘Rubbed’ MarksFaint marks that are difficult to read are described as blurred or 'rubbed'. This is often thought to be the result of years of polishing, but the most substantial rubbing took place as the case was being finished after hallmarking.The punching of hallmarks at the assay office often caused considerable distortion to the case and so, after hallmarking, watch cases needed 'rectification' to straighten out distortions caused by the punch and polish out any scratches. If the polisher was not paying attention or left the work on the rotating buff for a little too long, a punch mark in gold or silver, which are relatively soft, is easily rubbed or blurred.
Anyone who works with silver or gold knows this from experience.Sometimes the marks were none too clear when they were stamped. The punches used to stamp the marks wore down a little bit each time they were used, and eventually the mark they made was nothing like as crisp as when the punch was new. Because punches were expensive they continued to be used until they had worn down to the point at which the mark was no longer clear.
Shield ShapesThe shields around date letters are maintained for one cycle of date letters, i.e. A to U for the London Assay Office or A to Z for most of the other offices. For the next cycle the case and the font face of the letter is changed, for example from upper case sans-serif letters to lower case serif letters. The shield shape is also changed for each cycle to make it even more unique.Different shield shapes were also used for the date letters on gold and silver. This often causes confusion because often only the shield shapes for date letters used on silver are shown in most reference books. There is more explanation about this at.The shape of the shield of a sponsor's mark is very important because it is part of what makes each sponsor's mark unique. A sponsor's mark is a compulsory component of the hallmark and comprises the initials of the sponsor's personal or company name surrounded by a shield to form a unique mark.
![H Golay And Sons London Goliath Military Watch H Golay And Sons London Goliath Military Watch](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125383225/933366740.jpg)
All sponsors' marks are unique and once allocated will never be re-issued to anyone else. When I wanted to register my sponsors mark I found that there was already a mark registered with my DBB initials.
By choosing a shield shape with angled ends as shown in the picture, I was able to create a sponsor's mark that was unique to me. Bear this in mind when you are looking at a sponsor's mark, the shield shape is just as important as the letters. Shield Shapes for Import Hallmark Date Letters. Glasgow 'u' 1917/18Chester 'Z' 1925/26The shields or surrounds around the date letters of British import hallmarks were often oval. This means that they are different from the shields around date letters of native manufactured silver items, which are the ones that are illustrated in reference books such as Bradbury's.The Glasgow and Chester Assay Offices seem to have been consistent in this practice. 1888 to 1907 foreign marksBefore 1738 specific requirements for hallmarking foreign items had not developed because there were very few such items in circulation. An Act of 1738 required that all items of silver or gold that were traded or 'exposed for sale' must be hallmarked; by implication this included foreign made wares.
An Act of 1842 stated explicitly that all imported silver and gold items must be hallmarked. An Act of 1867 required that a letter 'F' be struck alongside the hallmarks to indicate that the that item was not made in the UK.Each Assay Office has its own 'town' mark to show at which office an item was assayed. Amongst the most familiar of these are the leopard's head for London, the anchor for Birmingham, the upright sword between three wheatsheaves (garbs) for Chester, etc. An Act of 1887 required that after 1 January 1888 the marks struck on foreign watch cases were to be completely different from the normal UK hallmarks, so that they couldn't be mistaken for UK manufactured watch cases.New town marks were stipulated for use on foreign watch cases as part of a single compound punched mark containing the town mark, the standard mark and the date letter all inside a single cross (for silver) or octagonal (for gold) shield with the word 'foreign' prominently across the middle. The marks to be used by the London Assay Office are shown in the picture to the right, other offices had similar marks with their own town letter where the sun symbol is in the London mark.As I explain on my page, the use of these compound marks is more than extremely rare, it is virtually unknown; I have never seen one, and I don't know anyone who has. If you ever see one of these marks, please let me know!
Assay of Imported Watch-Cases (Existing Stocks Exemption)However, due to a massive misunderstanding of the law by the UK Board of Customs and the Assay Offices, these legal requirements were not properly implemented until 1 June 1907, and Swiss watches with UK hallmarks (either normal UK hallmarks, with or without the letter 'F', or the special import marks introduced for watch cases in 1887) before that date are rare. The 1887 marks (shown at are so rare that there may be no watches still in existence carrying them; if you find one, please do let me know.In 1907 an Act, the 'Assay of Imported Watch-Cases (Existing Stocks Exemption) Act 1907' was passed to exempt all watch cases imported into the UK before 1 June 1907 from hallmarking, but requiring that all watches imported after 1 June 1907 be correctly hallmarked. As a result of this there was a sudden and huge increase in workload at the assay offices. You can read the full sorry tale of this 169 year long run of misunderstanding on my page.This change in the law in 1907, or rather the official implementation of the existing law, was the reason the major importing agents Arthur George Rendell (AGR) of Robert Pringle & Sons (one of the UK's largest wholesalers of jewellery, silverware and watches), and George Stockwell (GS) (one of the UK's biggest carriers and import agencies) registered sponsor's marks for the first time at the London Assay Office in 1907, Stockwell on 15 June 1907 and Rendell on 25 June 1907. These assay agents and many others registered their sponsor's marks so that they could organise the hallmarking of imported watches. You can look up details of Rendell, Pringle, Stockwell and other sponsor's and maker's marks on my page.After 1 June 1907 all imported watch cases have the new town marks struck on their own in the usual fashion for hallmarks, that is not part of a composite mark but struck separately from the standard and date letters. The symbols defined in 1888 for watch cases had never been used until in 1904 they began to be stamped on imported gold and silver items other than watch cases.
This brought to light problems with some of them the symbols, such as the sign of Phoebus (a radiant sun's head) that had been defined for London. To overcome this new town marks were defined in 1906 for London, Dublin, Glasgow and Sheffield. The marks shown in reference books as being in use by these assay offices between 1904 and 1906 were never used for watch cases.Back to the of the page.The Great War and Gold CasesBefore the Great War (1914 - 1918) London was used by many Swiss companies as the route by which they could access the large market of the British Empire, through subsidiaries or branch offices in London with English speaking staff. In 1915, to conserve foreign currency reserves as part of the war effort, the British Government imposed an ad valorem duty of 33⅓% on imported luxuries, including clocks and watches.
This meant that any watches imported into London, even if only for checking with subsequent export abroad, would be subject to this new high rate of tax.The new tax had a major effect on the import of Swiss watches in gold cases. The high cost of gold meant that a large part of the cost of a gold watch was due to the cost of the metal in its case, which is also why so many gold watches have been stripped of their cases over the centuries. Because of this high rate of tax, many Swiss companies switched to importing bare movements into Britain and having them put into gold cases by English companies such as the. London date letter 'H' for 1883/84 from Bradbury, and same date on 18 carat goldThe picture here has superimposed at the top the entry from Bradbury of the London date letter 'H' for 1883 to 1884. It also shows an 'H' date letter mark on an 18 carat gold watch case for the same hallmarking year 1883 to 1884. But the shape surrounding the letter is different, so how can it be the same year? The reason is that different shield shapes were used on silver and gold, but most reference books show only the marks used on silver.The date letter in this 18 carat gold watch case is rectangular, which is the shape used by the London Assay Office on the 'higher standards' of 18 and 22 carat gold for date letter cycle XXI.
The shields around date letters marked by the London Assay Office on the 'lower standards' of 15, 12 and 9 carat gold during this cycle were round.Why do most books only show the marks on silver? Most collectors of hallmarked plate collect silver, for the simple reason that items made from gold such as plates, spoons and cream jugs are virtually non-existent and extremely expensive. I expect that the only person who has a collection of gold plate is Her Majesty the Queen, and I doubt that she needs to consult a book to know about it. Watches and wedding rings are the only gold items most people will ever own or handle, and tables do not usually reproduce the date letters found on them.There is only one book that I am aware of, Jackson's Silver and Gold Marks, that shows the London Assay Office date shield shapes for the higher and lower standards of gold in addition to those for silver for each cycle of date letters. Why did Jackson choose to list the different shield shape marks for date letters on all the standards of gold and silver?
Well, he was very thorough, and his book is regarded as the bible of silver collecting as a result. There is a reasonably priced pocket version available that shows the different shapes of most date gold and silver letter shields. But note: only for London hallmarks. Other Date Letter CautionsEven Jackson's doesn't show all of the variations in the punch marks. Punches were made in various sizes, and those for watch cases were at the smallest end of the range. The marks were combined in a single 'press punch' so that they were all struck in one go using a fly press.
The shields around the marks on the press punches used on watch cases were often different to those used on larger pieces of plate of the same metal. For instance, on silver instead of the base of the shield around the date letter having a small point it was rounded.
![Goliath Goliath](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125383225/765848796.png)
This was likely because of the difficulty of making the point on a small punch, but might have been done to get even striking.Some Birmingham town mark and date letter shields for silver are also not the same shape as shown in the published tables but instead are triangular with a point at the base, and sometimes cut top corners. The Birmingham Assay Office told me that the outline around hallmarks for watch cases are not shown in Bradbury and that the marks shown are those used for silver wares and that watch cases often have different shield shapes. However, I have at least one example of Birmingham hallmarks with the 'k' of 1909/1910 that does have the same shield shapes as shown in Bradbury, so I think this was principally a nineteenth century practice.