Norwich Silver

This is the only important public collection in existence and numbers over one hundred pieces. Many objects have provenances that firmly link them with local collections since the time of their production. The majority of the objects belonging to the museum are secular as most Norwich church plate remains with the churches that commissioned it. However the collection also includes a number of ecclesiastical objects on loan from Norfolk parishes.

Silver was assayed in Norwich during three periods between 1565 and 1702 and a wide range of domestic and church plate was produced. Norwich Castle and the Norwich City Regalia and Civic Plate Collections hold the great majority of all the secular silver produced by the Norwich goldsmiths. As Charles Oman wrote in his introduction to Barrett 1981: 'When English silver first began to be studied seriously in the middle of the last century, it became obvious that the work of the Norwich goldsmiths had been outstanding. This conclusion was easy, since most of the finest pieces of secular silver were safe in the possession of the City of Norwich.' This opinion of the status of Norwich silver is confirmed by Barrett in Pickford (ed.) 1989: 'As regards the ascertained antiquity of its plate Norwich approaches York very closely. With reference to quality, the work of the sixteenth century goldsmiths of Norwich is entitled to a place of still higher rank, for in point of design and finish much of the Elizabethan Norwich-made plate is fully equal to the best London made plate of that period'.

The collection at Norwich Castle includes the only known survival of some forms and examples of the work of all the major makers including Arthur Haselwood the Elder, William Cobbold and Thomas Havers. Key objects include the Cobbold Flagon, which is recognised as probably the most important piece of Norwich silver after the Reade Salt (Norwich City Collection) and a beaker of c.1575-80 by William Cobbold, one of a set of four from the Dutch Church (Blackfriars Hall, Norwich). Two of the other beakers are in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford and the fourth is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Norwich Castle also holds around four hundred pieces of church silver belonging to the Diocese of Norwich. These objects are administered by Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service at Norwich Castle in association with the Diocesan Plate Officer and the Cathedral Treasury (where many pieces are put on display) . The Norwich Diocesan plate is some of the finest in Britain. Outstanding features include a large number of Norwich silver items and an exceptional group of pre Reformation patens unparalleled in other Dioceses. The collection dates from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries and highlights include the splendid seventeenth-century Oxnead plate, the St Andrew’s steeple cup of 1617 and the West Acre flagon of 1607.

: Elizabethan Norwich silver beaker by William Cobbold, 1570 - 1595.

The Collection
From 1565 until 1702, the city of Norwich had its own assay office, which stood on the site now occupied by the Jarrolds’ department store in London Street. Of the silver made during this period and stamped at the Assay Office, over seven hundred pieces survive, and Norfolk Museum and Archaeology Service cares for about one hundred of these. Of this number, just over half are pieces of church plate which are on loan to the Service from the churches which own them. Under a loan agreement with Norwich City Council, the Service also now holds the collection of Civic Regalia, which includes several pieces of Norwich Silver.

Between 1565 and 1570 many churches in and around Norwich replaced their pre-reformation cups and chalices with cups and covers which complied with new church regulations. The majority of pieces of this date held by Norwich Castle Museum are church plate.

After 1570, more secular pieces were produced, and the collection includes beakers, bowls, flagons, tankards and spoons.


Makers of Norwich Silver
For the first five years following the creation of the Norwich assay office, maker’s marks were usually in the form of a symbol. Only eight such marks have been recorded on the numerous pieces that survive from 1565-1569. They are known as the sun in splendour, flat fish, maidenhead, trefoil, orb and cross in lozenge, orb and cross in shield, estoille and IV over heart. Of these, only four can be linked with certainty to a particular maker.

Thomas Buttell used the flat fish mark. The records of the London Goldsmiths, who fined him for producing inferior work, confirm this. The mark IV over heart is almost certainly that of Valentine Isborne. The maker Peter Peterson used the mark of a human face surrounded by rays of light, known as the sun in splendour. This is known because the Churchwardens’ books for the parish of St Margaret, Norwich, contain an entry reading “Paid to Peter Peterson the Goldsmith for making the Communion Cup and for making the Cover”. The cup survives, and bears the sun in splendour mark. Finally, William Cobbold used the mark of an orb and cross in a shaped shield. A cup in the Civic Regalia collection, given by Peter Peterson but made by Cobbold, is marked in this way.

A few of the goldsmiths responsible for pieces produced between the 1570s and the 1640s are identifiable by the use of their initials as maker’s marks. For example, the monogram TS is ascribed to Timothy Skottowe, and AH in a shaped shield to Arthur Haslewood. However, the use of a symbol rather than initials remained more usual until the 1650s. The makers who used the symbols of a pelican, Pegasus, lion rampant and crowing cock have not been identified, but it is suggested that Richard Shipden used the mark of a ship.

Once the use of initials as the maker’s mark became more common, it is easier to identify makers. For example, AH in a plain shield is for Arthur Haslewood II and TH over a star for Thomas Havers. The combination of the letters AH and WE within a plain shield was probably the mark of William Edwards in partnership with Arthur Haslewood. Other makers known from their monogram marks are Robert Osborne, James Daniel, Lionel Girling. There is also a mark of EH crowned, which was used by Elizabeth Haslewood. She carried on the business of her husband Arthur after his death in 1684. She probably employed craftsmen to carry out the work, but the silver produced by her workshop bore her own personal mark.

Norwich silver beaker by Arthur Haselwood, 1670

Marks on Norwich Silver.
In 1565, the Goldsmith’s of Norwich petitioned the Mayor and council to allow them to mark their work with the City arms and a maker’s mark. This right was granted, and Norwich became only the second provincial town, after York, where goldsmiths could use a town mark.

Silver made in Norwich from 1565 to 1624 was stamped with three marks - the city arms of the castle over a lion, an individual maker’s mark, and a date letter.

From 1624, the marks changed slightly. Two years earlier, the trades of the city were formed into twelve ‘Grand Companies’. Following the creation of their ‘Grand Company’, goldsmiths’ stamped their wares with a different version of the city castle over lion mark, a crowned rose, an individual maker’s mark and a date letter.

During the Civil War of the 1640s, and the Commonwealth period that followed, some pieces of Norwich silver were marked with irregular stamps. Instead of the rose and crown, a small crown and separate seeded rose were used, and a stamp resembling a pineapple replaced the town mark.

Following the coronation of Charles II in 1661, the goldsmiths’ used the marks of a castle over lion, a crown, a rose sprig and the maker’s mark, each enclosed within a plain shield.

In 1688, another set of marks came into use, this time being the castle over lion, a rose crowned and the maker’s mark.

In 1697 the Britannia Silver Act was passed, preventing the assaying of silver anywhere other than in London. Following protests by the cities which had previously had their own assay offices, the law was amended in 1701, allowing many of these cities, including Norwich, to resume stamping their own plate.

Despite this, there are very few pieces stamped with Norwich marks after 1701. By this time, the Company of Goldsmiths of Norwich had a very small membership. The actual production of silver articles had all but ceased, and the members of the company were retailers rather than makers of silver ware.

Laura Stewart : 2002

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