Celebrating Sheffield's Civic Silver

On Friday 13th September at Sheffield Town Hall, Curator and Librarian Emma Paragreen joined Sheffield City Council's Heritage Champion and Councillor Janet Riddler to showcase Sheffield's Civic Silver.

The event was very well attended and was a wonderful chance for the public to see the collections held by the Town Hall and hear unique stories about how the collection was acquired, designed and made and the relation between the Lord Mayor, Town Hall and the Sheffield Assay Office over the centuries.

Sheffield has received many gifts since the establishment of the mayoralty in 1845, much of this in the form of silverware for the table or as presentation pieces given by individuals and organisation in the City and further afield. The majority of silverware in the collection have passed through one of the five Sheffield Assay Office's from Fargate, Leopold Street, the Portobello Office or Beulah Road, Hillsborough.

This was the first public event in the 251st year of the Assay Office's history. Many pieces in the collection were gifted by the Sheffield Assay Office to past Mayors and were available for the visitors to see, with objects including a piece of silverware gifted when the British Hallmarking Council visited Sheffield, the first piece of Platinum to be marked in 1975 and a cup made by the Assay Master Ashley Carson in the 1970s, when he won a design competition.

The visitors were able to visit the parlour, with kind permission of The Lord Mayor Jayne Dunn, to see the mace and to view other significant pieces of silverware gifted to the City from major manufactures James, Dixon and Sons, Mappin and Webb, Walker and Hall, and more recent jewellers and silversmiths H L Brown, Keith Tyssen and Brett Payne; all registered customers of Sheffield Assay Office.

The Sheffield Assay Office was established in 1773, under an Act of Parliament and today the company assays and hallmarks the precious metals - silver, gold, platinum and palladium. Sheffield Assay Office is one of only four UK assay offices who all work to uphold the Hallmarking Act of 1973 and continue to ensure consumer protection for customers purchasing precious metals.

To find out more about the whole range of services offered by Sheffield Assay Office, such as our hallmarking and analytical services, please email us at info@assayoffice.co.uk or complete the contact form on our website at http://www.assayoffice.co.uk/contact-us ,

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