Old French plate, its makers and marks
Old French plate, its makers and marks is a 1893 London study by Wilfred Joseph Cripps, published by John Murray, on French silver hallmarks and the goldsmiths who made them, written for collectors and specialists. The pictures are plates of maker's marks and assay punches laid out in tables by date, with some dated charts of stamped mark forms. Designers could draw on the dense grids of small heraldic punches, crowns, fleurs-de-lis and monograms as ready-made repeating motifs for emblems or border patterns.
