Hallmarks...required if item isn't "sold"?

[pearlescence]

It's called a sponsor mark, not a maker's mark

[Wallace]

it can also be referred to as the maker's mark

https://assayofficebirmingham.com/he...-of-a-hallmark

[CJ57]

From the Edinburgh Assay Office guidelines.

The Sponsor’s or Maker’s Mark
This indicates the maker or sponsor of the article. In the UK this mark consists of at least two letters within a shield. No two marks are the same.

[BarryM]

I don't know about the Cooksons offering that service, but I do know that if you just send items to the London Assay office they will assay and hallmark it with the LAO mark. I just know that loads of my pieces will go down in history as being made by Asprey as it has their hallmarks on it as they were commissioned or bought by them and sold in their shops around the world.

I made this piece back in 1981.
Attachment 8243
James

James - I have found the thread where this was discussed - HERE

[Goldsmith]

Barry, I saw that thread but didn't want to get involved. I think it would be great if it was the law that states the maker's mark should be on every hallmarked piece as Steve seemed to suggest, but we all know this is not true. Go to any high street jeweller and you will see their hallmark on the pieces they sell, do you actually believe they make the pieces. Ask yourself why the London Assay Office have a branch for collecting work for assay at Heathrow airport, most of the jewellery sold on the high street is made abroad these days, imported from the manufacturers in India or Thailand, then hallmarked in London with the shop's hallmark. I have a friend who owns a few jewellery shops and he can buy finished diamond set rings from Thailand for a cost that is less than the cost of just buying the gold and diamonds would be in the UK, without any manufacturing cost, so who can compete with that, and also the rings he buys all get hallmarked with his own registered hallmark as he is the commissioner of the pieces.
As I said before the likes of Garrard, who have not had their own workshops since 1953, so anything that has a Garrard hallmark on it, dated after then was not actually made by Garrard. The only workshop staff employed by Garrard do stock cleaning and restorations. It's the same at Asprey in recent years.

I have never in my life been employed at Asprey, but a friend of mine sent me this old Asprey Fifth Avenue catalogue that has a photo of me on it's second page. I was making an egg that Asprey purchased from my employer and then resold as their own manufacture complete with an Asprey Hallmark on it.



James

[BarryM]

I think Steve covered this in the thread, that a Retailer as the sponsor, rather than a manufacturer, can put their mark on items made by their contractors.
What I said was illegal was someone offering a service to use their registration to hallmark another persons else's items which are then returned to them for sale.
This is not what retailers do.


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[Goldsmith]

I think Steve covered this in the thread, that a Retailer as the sponsor, rather than a manufacturer, can put their mark on items made by their contractors.
What I said was illegal was someone offering a service to use their registration to hallmark another persons else's items which are then returned to them for sale.
This is not what retailers do.


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Yes I see that Barry, I didn't know about Cookson's offer of this service.

[CJ57]

Cookson and all the other companies offer us already hallmarked ring shanks for us to resell if we so wish. We would be reselling rings as our own but not made by us or having our makers mark

[pearlescence]

Would they not have to be re-assayed if anything done to them?

[DaisyDaisy]

So it would be illegal for me to send a piece made by a friend, who isn't registered with an assay office, to be hallmarked with my mark? I'm not fully understanding why that would be illegal because surely the hallmark is assurance of the metal quality rather than anything to do with the maker of the piece? Or am I missing something?

Just to add....this is just a scenario, I've not actually done this in case anyone was going to call me a lawbreaker