Object Description
A fine early English silver charger, or sideboard dish, having a broad rim with applied gadroon border. Britannia standard silver*. Hand engraved to the centre is a magnificent and finely executed coat of arms.
Weight 936 grams, 30 troy ounces.
Diameter 33.5cm. Height 3cm.
London 1710.
Maker Robert Cooper.
*Britannia Standard silver. 95.8 per cent pure. In 1696, so extensive had become the melting and clipping of coinage that the silversmiths were forbidden to use the sterling standard for their wares, but had to use a new higher standard, 95.8 per cent. New hallmarks were ordered, “the figure of a woman commonly called Britannia” and the lion’s head erased (torn off at the neck) replacing the lion passant and the leopard’s head crowned. This continued until the old standard of 92.5 per cent was restored in 1720. Britannia standard silver still continues to be produced even today.
ROBERT COOPER
Robert Cooper, London silversmith, apprenticed to Thomas George 1664, free 1670. Livery 1685. There are records of one Old Standard mark pre-1697 mark. His New Standard nark, undated, was probably April 1697 on commencement of the register. Warden 1707,1711 and 1712 and Prime Warden 1717.