Apart the well known Assay Offices, many other provincial Offices has been operating in UK. Most of them are known only for little articles like spoons and tongs..

Search and collection and identification of provincial marks may result very exiting. It is my personal guess that if something about British silver has not yet been discovered, this belongs to this field. 

It is quite common to find small articles (mainly teaspoon) bearing the maker marks of some provincial silversmith but hallmarked in one of the main Assay Offices with the marks.

In this page only a few general and not exhaustive indications about the most known English, Scottish and Irish provincial Offices  will be given.

English provincial Offices

Before 1696 only the maker marks was in use, often impressed twice. A date letter is sometime used, but probably to give the impression of a complete set of hallmarks as one could find on silver marked in London. Between 1696 and 1701, due to the formal interdiction of marking silver in provincial towns, difficulty in interpretation of some hallmarks may occur. The presence of guilds in the districts of Lincoln (1155-1163), Shrewsbury (1482) and Hull (1499) is documented.

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Scottish provincial Offices

Crafting of silverware in Scotland is likely more dated that in England. The Guild of silversmiths is cited in one act of Jacob II of Scotland dating 1462. During the XVIII and the beginning of the XIX century, only the maker mark was in use, often twice impressed and sometime accompanying the town mark. Scottish provincial silver are more common than the English and Irish ones and quite simple to interpretation: they often report the abbreviation of the town where they has been crafted and hallmarked (e.g. ABD for Aberdeen, BAF for Banff, INS for Inverness, etc.). As for Irish silver the use of the word sterling was quite common (not to be misunderstood with the mark in use in the North America). In the attribution of the provincial hallmarks take care of very similar marks used in British colonies, mainly in India. This is due to the fact that most of the immigrates were Scottish and they continued to use their hallmarks in oversees Countries.

From the left side: marks from Aberdeen 1850;  Aberdeen 1859 with marks from Edinburgh; Dundee 1809 by  William Young

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Irish provincial Offices

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List of the main provincial Offices in England, Scotland and Ireland

The following table reports a non exhaustive list  of provincial assay Offices. Most of them has been operating since long times but was cessed before 1800 (some Scottish and Irish Assay Offices operated until the half of the XIX century). Dates can refer to the first documentation of the activity, to the age of the few known articles or to registered silversmiths operating there.

For some example see British provincial hall-marks.

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