The Australia Times - Antiques magazine. Volume 1, issue 2

ANTIQUES

Vol. 1 No. 2

June 2015

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ANTIQUES

WELCOME NOTE

Independent Media Inspiring Minds

Welcome, everybody, to the second

edition of The Australia Times – ANTIQUES

magazine!

In this issue of TAT Antiques, we will be

covering one of the trickier elements of

antiques – gold and silver. How to identify

gold and silver, how to read marks, how

to distinguish gold and silver from similar-

looking metals, and how to discern what’s

real, what’s fake, and what the dierences

are between the various grades and levels of

gold, silver and types of imitations which are

to be found out there in the world.

The cover-image for this issue of TAT

Antiques is the entrance to the London

Silver Vaults, a vast, underground storage-

facility holding millions of pounds in sterling

silver tableware, jewellery and other items

made of silver.

We aim to inform, entertain, teach, encourage, educate and support the community at

large by facilitating communication between all Australians. By providing the opportunity

for all opinions to be shared on a single website.

What Are Gold and Silver? ....................................................8

Solid Gold and Solid Silver .....................................................10

All That Glisters is Not Gold (or silver!) .............................16

Making your Mark: Hallmarks of All Kinds ......................20

Collecting Antique Gold and Silver .................................... 26

TAT Antiques - Featured Antique - Reader

Information! ................................................................................ 28

TAT Antiques - Featured Antique! .....................................30

Conclusion ...................................................................................38

Sources and References ........................................................38

Shahan Cheong

Editor

TAT Antiques

Independent Media Inspiring Minds

WHAT ARE

GOLD

WHAT ARE

GOLD

and

SILVER

and

SIL VER

TAT Antiques

Featured Antique

TAT Antiques

Featured Antique

EDITORS

NOTE

I think most people have at least a minimal fascination in gold and silver, and I consider myself to be

no exception to this. As expensive as some of it can be, it can be a big thrill as a collector to say that you

own pieces of antique gold and silver. The thrill of nding out more about a particular piece and tracking

down its possibly exciting history, is all part of what makes this stu so appealing and alluring.

I started getting interested in antique gold and silver a few years ago, when I was given a few small

pieces of vintage jewellery as gifts. I got interested in studying and learning about things like levels of

purity, hallmarks and so-forth, and it’s an interest that has only grown over time. I hope to share some

of that with you in this issue.

Shahan Cheong

Editor

TAT Antiques

Independent Media Inspiring Minds

WHAT ARE

GOLD

WHAT ARE

GOLD

and

SILVER

and

SIL VER

By Shahan Cheong

Independent Media Inspiring Minds

What is Gold?

Gold is an elemental metal, famous since ancient times

for its bright, yellow sheen, malleability, weight and

beauty. Mankind has sought gold for thousands of years

and have used it to make all kinds of items. Although

most famously used for jewellery and currency, it is also

used in certain industrial and manufacturing processes.

Gold tarnishes very little (if at all), it is inert, and does

not rust. This means that the uses for gold can be

surprisingly varied.

20g bar of 24kt (99.9% pure) gold.

While industrial uses for gold (such as in watchmaking

and electronics) is steadily rising, one of the largest areas

of gold-use remains in personal jewellery, and nance.

In this issue, we’ll be looking at antique gold jewellery,

how to identify it and how to tell what is solid gold, and

what is not, as well as the terms used to dierentiate

them.

What is Silver?

Silver is another elemental metal, the less impressive

brother of Gold. Never as valuable as gold, silver is

nonetheless highly prized. It has been used in currency

for centuries, and has been used to make all manner of

household objects, from the useful, to the beautiful, the

novel, to the absurd! All kinds of idioms exist for silver.

To be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth, the family

silver, a silver tongue…the list goes on.

Silver has been used in the currency of countless

countries around the world. The United States (the

silver dollar), Spain (the piece of eight), Great Britain

(the pound sterling) and the Netherlands (the silver

guilder) to name but a few. But most people these days

are mostly interested in silver which they can use and

hold, not count and spend! Antique silver!

5g bar of Sterling Silver

Some people are lucky enough to literally own ‘the

family silver’, which they might have inherited. Some

people collect silver, some people like to buy and use

antique silver jewellery. But how to determine what’s

silver and what isn’t? Given how many people want it,

there have been numerous methods devised in the

past to fake silver. How do you determine what’s real

silver and what’s an imitation? And even if you have

silver – how do you learn more about it? Stick with me

and nd out!

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SOLID

GOLD

SOLID

GOLD

SILVER

SIL VER

By Shahan Cheong

Independent Media Inspiring Minds

One of the biggest issues with antique gold and silver is knowing

what is real solid gold or silver, and what isn’t. How do you nd

out? What does ‘solid’ mean? What things do you look for in

dierentiating solid and plate?

What is ‘Solid Gold’?

Antique jewellery is often described as being ‘solid gold’. As in

a solid gold watch-chain. A solid gold ring. A solid gold set of

earrings. What is ‘solid gold’?

First. Let us not confuse SOLID GOLD with PURE GOLD.

PURE GOLD is 24kt gold. 100% gold.

Pure gold is almost never used in the manufacture of jewellery,

brand new, or antique. It’s too soft and delicate to be worked

eectively. It would bend and dent and warp too readily for

wearable jewellery to be crafted from it.

This is why jewellery is made from the next step down:

SOLID GOLD.

Solid Gold is represented as karats, and percentages. The

common ones are: 22kt, 18kt, 15kt, 14kt, 12kt, 10kt and 9kt gold.

Marks such as these on a gold object will tell you how much

pure gold is inside an item. These purities may be marked as

percentages. For example: 375, 410, 500, 535, 750, etc. This

means that they are a certain percentage of gold. 500 = 50%

gold, or 12kt.

9ct gold Edwardian cuinks

Let’s say you have a gold ring. On it is a mark that says:

18k, 18kt, or 18ct. This means that the ring is 18kts out of

a possible 24kts pure gold. Or 75% gold. Alright, three

quarters of this ring is gold. What’s the rest of it? The

‘rest of it’ is other metals. Usually nickel, copper, silver

or some other metal, poured into the gold when it

was melted, and mixed around. This creates an alloy (a

mixture of two or more metals), which makes the gold

less pure, but stronger as a result, and therefore, better

for jewellery-making.

How much an antique gold item will cost depends on

its size, rarity, condition and the amount of gold in it.

A fountain pen nib which is 14kt gold may not be worth

much, because while it’s more than half gold…it’s only a

pen nib! And it’s tiny! A pair of antique glasses with 9kt

gold on the frame might be worth more, because while

the gold content is lower, it’s a more widely practical

item, and it’s larger! Or, it might be harder to nd, driving

the value up.

What is ‘Solid Silver’?

An item which is said to be ‘solid silver’ is usually an item

which contains a high majority of silver in its makeup,

usually between 80 to 92.5%. The remaining 20% or

7.5% is another metal which has added into the silver

for strength, since pure silver, like pure gold, would be

too weak to be of any practical use.

To make it stronger and more versatile, copper is added

to silver, which gives us ‘solid silver’, as opposed to ‘pure

silver’. Most items that we’d call ‘solid silver’ are what’s

known as ‘Sterling Silver’, that is, 925 parts silver, per

1,000 parts, and 75 parts copper.

The term ‘sterling silver’ is the basis of the Pound

Sterling, the British currency. Originally a ‘pound

sterling’, was quite literally a pound in weight of sterling

silver shillings. In old money, it took twenty shiny silver

shillings to make one pound in weight. Which is why

one pound sterling was twenty shillings.

While sterling silver is the standard in Britain, this is not

the same in other parts of the world. Certain European

countries have dierent laws on what may legally be

termed ‘silver’ within their borders. In Germany, ‘solid

silver’ must be at least 80% (800/1000) silver. In the

Netherlands, it must be at least 93% (930/1000).

Percentages vary around the world, but are usually

between 80-95%.

Sterling silver antique thimble. American-made

silver is more likely to have ‘STERLING’ stamped on

it, rather than a series of hallmarks.

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What is ‘Coin Silver’?

In collecting antique silver, you may occasionally come across the term ‘Coin Silver’, or variants thereof. What is

this?

‘Coin Silver’ is a term used exclusively in American silversmithing. It means that the item has been made of the

same level of silver as legally required in American coins, generally between 800-900 parts per thousand. This

was a common silver standard in the United States before the 1870s.

However, the term ‘Coin Silver’ may have a more literal meaning, depending on the context. It may may also mean

that the item is quite literally made of silver coins. That is to say, silver coins which are out of circulation, and which

have been melted down to reclaim the metal, and which were then cast into new items (such as silver cutlery, etc).

Antique silver manufactured by this means will also have ‘Coin Silver’ or a similar term, marked onto it.

In modern times, American silver marked ‘COIN’ or similar, must be of a purity of at least 90%.

Silver coins

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ALL THAT

GLISTERS

IS NOT GOLD

(OR SILVER!)

ALL THAT

GLISTERS

IS NOT GOLD

(OR SILVER!)

By Shahan Cheong

Independent Media Inspiring Minds

When electroplating was developed in the early 1800s,

this metal was plated in silver to make it look even more

like the item it was simulating, giving us electro-plated

nickel silver. Using this method, cheap, silver-plate

objects could be manufactured on a large scale, ranging

from cutlery to tableware, wine-cups, platters, coee-

pots, salt-cellars and countless other items.

If you see an item marked “EPNS” on its base, then

it’s not solid silver. And even before you see the mark,

if an item feels light for its size, or has strong, green-

blue tarnishing on it, then it is unlikely to be silver. The

discolouration comes from the tarnishing of the copper

and zinc inside the alloy.

Nickel silver is also called ‘Alpaca’, and a whole host of

other names.

Base of a nickel-silver teapot with “EPNS” “A1” (high-

est grade) stamped upon it.

For as long as there’s been gold and silver, there

have been people who have tried to make cheaper

alternatives to the real thing. A signicant amount

of antique gold and silver is not solid, and countless

people have been duped into buying things, or selling

things which aren’t what they appear to be.

From the 1700s onwards, various methods of simulating

gold and silver, and of plating objects to give them the

appearance of gold and silver have been devised. How

do you gure out the dierence between what’s gold,

what’s silver, and what’s white metal or plate?

Electro-Plated Nickel Silver

One of the most common things you’ll nd is Electro-

Plated Nickel Silver. Or E.P.N.S.

EPNS is exactly what it sounds like. It’s an alloy of metals

(nickel, copper and zinc), which is then plated with a thin

layer of silver. Most items made of EPNS are marked

“EPNS” on the bottom.

Originally, this alloy was just called “Nickel Silver”, and

was made of nickel, copper and zinc, without any silver

plating. Polished up, it could pass, supercially, for silver,

but had no actual silver in it. It was developed in China

during the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and by the

1700s had spread to Europe. Germany was one of the

main areas of manufacturing this imitation silver, and so

it was sometimes called ‘German Silver’.

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Electro-Plated Britannia

Metal

Related to EPNS is its cousin, EPBM. Electro-Plated

Britannia Metal. Britannia metal is mostly tin, with small

amounts of antimony and copper thrown in, and then

plated in silver. Strictly speaking, Britannia metal is a

form of pewter (high level of tin, low levels of copper

and antimony), which has been plated in silver. Like

EPNS, it’s been used to make all kinds of things which

look like they’re made of silver, such as platters, shaving

scuttles, teapots and coee-pots.

Gold-Filling/Rolled Gold

Rolled gold or gold-lling is another form of ‘gold plating’,

except no electricity is used in the process. It is where a

sheet of gold is bonded (essentially, welded or melted)

onto an item made of a base metal (usually brass). As

the gold is thicker, gold-lling produces a much better

quality item than gold-plating, and will last a lot longer,

but given enough time, the gold will eventually rub

away to expose the brass underneath (called ‘brassing’).

Rolled gold or gold-ll is usually marked as such and will

say ‘rolled gold’, ‘gold lled’ or ‘rolled gold plate’. These

terms are not to be confused with ‘gold plating’ which is

the electronic method of plating a microscopically thin

layer of gold over something else.

Britannia metal (pewter) is not to be confused with

Britannia Silver (which is 95% solid silver).

The underside of a pewter vessel with “E.P.B.M”

(Electro-Plated Britannia Metal) on it.

Gold-ﬁlled pocketwatch case

Gold Plating

Gold plating is much like silver-plating. Electroplating,

that is. An item made of a base metal is lowered into

a gold-bath and an electric current is passed through,

plating the item in a thin layer of gold. Gold-plating is

not hallmarked in any way and the plating can usually

be removed quite easily just from daily use.

Items such as pocketwatch cases, fountain pen barrels

and caps, and pieces of costume jewellery were often

made of gold-ll over brass. In the United States, a

gold-lled pocketwatch case will have words such as:

“Guaranteed to Wear…Years” stamped on it.

Cheaper gold-lled cases were guaranteed to wear

(last) for 5 years. More expensive gold-lled cases were

guaranteed to last for 20 or 25 years, before the gold

would start to wear o, and the brass would show

through underneath.

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Gilding

Another way of simulating the look of gold is called gilding

– covering something in a thin layer of gold through a

chemical process. Gilding involved manufacturing an

item out of another metal (brass or bronze), and then

rubbing a paste of gold onto the metal and then ring

the item in a kiln in order make the gold adhere to the

metal.

Called re gilding, due to the heat needed for this

process to work, it could produce items which had the

look of gold, but not the cost! At least, not monetarily.

Also called ormolu, re gilding was a phenomenally

poisonous method of dressing an item of brass or

bronze in a sheen of gold. The crushed gold was mixed

with mercury before it was applied…by hand…to the

object, all over. The kiln heating burned o the mercury,

causing it to evaporate as mercury fumes, and bonding

the gold to the bronze or brass.

The poor gilder, who had to be nearby to ensure that

the process was working properly, would have inhaled

the fumes of mercury, which led to nerve damage,

brain damage and eventual death. A similar process

(called ‘carroting’) was used to treat the fur pelts of

animals used to make felt hats. The constant exposure

to mercury fumes would send the manufacturer…mad

as a hatter.

Ormolu was outlawed in the 1830s, although its use

continued for up to a century afterwards. Electroplating

replaced re gilding, although the results were never

quite as spectacular.

Silver items gilded over with gold (silver-gilt) is also

known as vermeil. Gilding silver with gold followed the

same dangerous mercury-process as gilding any other

metal. It was such a dangerous process that long-term

inhalation of mercury fumes meant that many gilders

died extremely young by modern standards – most

would be lucky to live beyond the age of 40.

The body of this clock is made of bronze, which was

then gilt, to give it the appearance of gold.

The process of covering base metals with gold led to

the coinage of the term, by Mark Twain, of the ‘Gilded

Age’, a period of Western (mostly American) history,

from the late 1800s to the rst decade of the 20th

century. It was a term used to describe the sheen of

glamour, progress and respectability (gilding) which hid

from view the harder realities of life for working people.

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Making your Mark:

Hallmarks of

All Kinds

By Shahan Cheong

In purchasing antique gold and silver, nothing is more important than understanding hallmarks. Hallmarks

usually tell you all that you need to know about the item you’re purchasing. Who made it, when it was made,

where it was made, and what it’s made of! Understanding what hallmarks mean and what they signify

is important. Below is a simple guide about hallmarks. What they are, where they came from, what they

mean, and how to read them.

e History of Hallmarks

Hallmarks have been around for thousands of years

and can be dated back to the Byzantine Empire. It is the

oldest existing form of buyer-protection in the world.

The current system of hallmarking was established

in France in the 1260s. English hallmarking started in

1300, by order of King Edward I. Regardless of country

or date of enactment, the purposes of hallmarking have

not changed since medieval times: To prevent fraud

and ensure quality.

To prevent people from being cheated about the level

of gold or silver in their coinage and jewellery, and to

keep metalsmiths honest, national governments have

insisted that items manufactured of gold and silver be

independently tested by a trusted body, and stamped

with marks that attest to the item’s purity and quality.

These are the marks that we still have today.

Goldsmiths’ Hall, London. The punch-mark stamps hammered into precious metals sent to this institution gave rise to

the term ‘Hallmark’.

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Hallmarks: What’s in a Name?

The word ‘hallmark’ comes from Goldsmiths’ Hall in

London, the home of the Worshipful Company of

Goldsmiths, London’s ocial goldsmith’s guild.

Situated on the same spot since 1339, Goldsmiths’ Hall

is the institution where all items made of gold or silver in

London and its surrounds, were sent for independent

testing starting in 1478. This was to ensure that they

were actually made of gold, or silver, and to determine

their purity. An item which had satised the legal

requirements to be called ‘solid gold’ or ‘solid silver’

were stamped with the Hall’s mark of certication – a

hallmark. Goldsmiths’ Hall remains the Assay Oce for

London hallmarking to this day.

Reading the Marks –

What’s What?

Understanding what hallmarks are for is pretty easy.

Understanding what they are saying is signicantly

harder! Marks vary signicantly by age, manufacturer,

location and country. Knowing how to read hallmarks

properly is an important part of purchasing or collecting

antique gold and silver.

To make things simple, what follows will be a detailed

breakdown of the various types of hallmarks, and what

they mean. In this case, I’ll be using silver marks, as

they’re the type that most people are likely to see more

often. For the sake of simplicity, I will be using British

silver hallmarks.

A full set of silver marks will typically contain the

following elements:

Fineness Mark. The Fineness Mark is a legal mark

which all pieces of silver crafted in Britain must contain.

This mark indicates the purity of the metal. In Britain, for

something to be called ‘Silver’, it must be at least 92.5%

pure, also called Sterling Silver. The neness mark is

the mark given by an independent examiner (an assay

oce) which states that they have tested the metal and

that the item is indeed sterling silver.

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Goldsmiths’ Hall, London. The punch-mark stamps hammered into precious metals sent to this institution gave rise to

the term ‘Hallmark’.

Silver needle-case. A ﬁneness mark of a Lion Passant (second

from left) indicates Sterling Silver in antique British silverware.

More modern silver would have a ‘925’ hallmark.

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In Britain, the traditional neness mark is the symbol

of a lion walking to the left, called a ‘Lion Passant’. In

modern silver, the hallmark ‘925’ is also used, and the

Lion has become optional, but some silversmiths still

like to have the lion passant on their silver, for the sake

of tradition. In older British silver, only the Lion Passant

Silver cutlery-stand. Hallmarks read: Thomas Freeth [TF]. Duty Mark (Monarch’s Head, indicating tax paid on silver. Abolished

1890). Lion Passant (Sterling Silver - 92.5% silver), [M] date-letter of 1807, and Lion’s Head Erased (Britannia Silver - 95% silver)

Silver card case. Shield assay mark (second from right) for

Chester. This indicates the oce where this piece was assessed

to determine its silver content.

Silver and ivory pen-holder. Maker’s mark of Mappin & Webb

(extreme left). Maker’s marks I.D who manufactured this piece

of silver. Mappin & Webb is a London jewelry ﬁrm.

will be visible. In some pieces, the neness mark may

be the image of a woman (“Britannia”). This is the

neness mark for Britannia Silver (95% silver). Another

silver hallmark was the image of a lion's head ('Lion's

Head Erased' is the proper term), which also indicated

Britannia Silver.

Assay Mark. The next mark which you will nd is the

Assay Mark, also called a City Mark. This is the mark

(signature, if you will) of the assay oce, and the city

which carried out the independent silver testing.

Each assay oce has its own symbol by which it can

be identied. There were once several British assay

oces. London, Sheeld, Birmingham, Edinburgh,

Dublin, Exeter, Chester, Glasgow, Newcastle, Norwich

and York. Today, only London, Sheeld, Birmingham

and Edinburgh are still operational.

Of the four remaining assay oces, their symbols are

the Leopard’s Head (London), Anchor (Birmingham),

Crown (Sheeld) and a Castle (Edinburgh).

If your Leopard has a crown on his head, then I’d be

putting that silver in a safe! It means that it’s made

before 1820 in London!

Maker’s Mark. Next is the Maker’s Mark, also called

a Sponsor’s Mark. This is the ocial mark of the

manufacturer of this piece of silver (or gold). Maker’s

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Silver pencil-holder. Date-letter [g] for Birmingham,

indicates 1906.

Marks were made compulsory in England in

1363. In older times, a maker’s mark was a symbol

of some kind, but as this could quickly get

confusing, a law was passed in the 1600s that the

silversmith’s initials would suce.

As some names might still get confused, dierent

fonts, sizes of letters, uppercase and lowercase

letters, and dierent borders were used around

the letters, to dierentiate the various silversmiths

and companies.

Date Letter. Another mark is the Date Letter

or Date Mark. These are single letters, cycling

through the alphabet, diering every cycle by

size, style, upper or lower case, and by the border

around each letter. By this method, accurately

narrowing down the year when an item was

hallmarked (and therefore, manufactured), can

be very easy. Date-letters were made compulsory

in France in 1427, and 1478, in England.

Duty Mark. Some pieces of silver may have

what’s called a Duty Mark. In England, this was

typically represented by a monarch’s head in

prole. This hallmark symbolises that tax on the

item has been paid to the Crown. Duty Marks in

England ceased in 1890. If you have a duty mark,

then it’s older than 1890. Narrowing down the

monarch’s head makes it easier to date an item.

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COLLECTING

ANTIQUE GOLD & SILVER

COLLECTING

ANTIQUE GOLD & SIL VER

By Shahan Cheong

Great care should be taken when collecting antique

gold and silver. Using it, storing it and cleaning it should

be done with delicacy. Polishing gold and silver should

be done sparingly, and with as ne a polish

as possible. Aggressive polishing

with unsuitable substances can

damage the silver, wear away

patterns and ne details, and

even scrub o hallmarks! Once

cleaned, however, they can

be stored or displayed almost

anywhere, unaected by sunlight or

temperature.

My Item Doesn’t Have a Hallmark!

Occasionally you may come across an item which does

not have a hallmark on it. What to do? Who to ask?

If you do have an antique piece of gold or silver which

isn’t hallmarked, then you can take it to an auction

house or a reputable jewellery establishment, and have

it tested. This will conrm if the item is, or is not

gold, or silver. But it cannot (or should

not) be hallmarked, if the piece

doesn’t already have marks, as this

would damage the originality of

the piece. A certicate or other

documentation can be provided

to attest to the metal being gold or

silver, and what percentage.

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TAT Antiques

Featured Antique

Reader Information!

By Shahan Cheong

Each issue of ‘e Australia Times – ANTIQUES’ magazine will include a ‘Featured

Antique’ section. Due to the possibly random nature of ‘Featured Antique’ submissions,

the items showcased in this segment of the magazine may or may not be

related to the theme for the issue in which it appears.

If you would like to showcase one of your prized antiques in a future

issue of TAT Antiques, please contact the Editor (Shahan Cheong) on

his TAT email address with the necessary information, as outlined in

the form below.

*Please note that all photographs must be of the actual featured antique, and must be taken by the owner. ey cannot be

photographs of an identical item lied from an online source (such as Google Images).

Photographs should show all sides and elements of the antique and any interesting features. ey should be clear and easy to

see, not blurry, too close/far away, and as numerous as possible. e best photos of the item will be used to display it in the

magazine.

Name of Owner:

Featured Item: Railroad Chronometer

Date of Manufacture: Ca. 1950

Place of Manufacture: Switzerland

Name of Manufacturer: Ball Watch

Company.

I love pocketwatches. I’ve never enjoyed wristwatches. I hate the weight-imbalance

on my hands, the sweat in the summertime, the cold in the winter, the irritation…

the list goes on. at, and when I did wear a wristwatch, I had a nasty habit of always

Gold-ﬁlled Ball railroad chronometer. Ca. 1950

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Ba 435-c Railroad Chronometer Pocketwatch

– In-Depth Prole

e Ball 435 series of railroad chronometers were manufactured in the company’s

Swiss factories in the 1950s. It was a railroad-standard pocketwatch (as were all Ball

pocketwatches), meaning that it was of sucient quality to be used as a timekeeping

and safety-device on railroad networks around the world, most commonly in

Britain, Canada and the United States.

e 435 series manufactured by Ball was one of the last models of pocketwatches

approved for use on the Canadian Pacic Railroad, and was one of the last mass-

produced railroad pocketwatches, before they stopped being produced in the

1960s. By that time, wristwatches had attained sucient levels of accuracy that

railroad pocketwatches (which, by law, had to be carried by railroad personnel),

were being phased out. Advances in technology started phasing out the need for

railroad watches of any kind, soon aer.

taking it o and putting it in my pocket

or leaving it in some random place and

forgetting about it.

I got this watch as a 21st birthday present

for myself. I never thought I’d own a

real, railroad chronometer pocketwatch,

purely because they’re so expensive

($300-$500+ retail). But I got lucky,

and managed to nab this for less than

half retail price at a ea-market! I got it

overhauled by the watchmaker, and I’ve

been carrying it every day ever since.

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e 435 series boasted a 21

jewel manual movement,

with shock-absorption

technology, temperature

compensation,

isochronism

compensation (that’s the

watch’s ability to keep

time accurately, regardless

of the mainspring’s

level of tension), as well

as adjustments to the

movement so that it would

keep time accurately in at

least six dierent positions

or orientations – Dial up,

dial down (if the watch

was placed face-down on a at surface), crown up (watch standing upright), crown

le, crown right, and crown down (watch hanging upside-down).

e watch is lever-set (as was mandatory on railroad watches). To set the time, you

need to unscrew the bezel, remove the bezel and the crystal from the face of the

watch, pop out the setting-lever at the 11 o’clock position, and then turn the crown

to set the hands. is was a safety-feature, to ensure that the watch-crown didn’t

accidentally pop up if it was jostled inside the owner’s pocket.

e watch also has bold hands and numerals, another mandatory feature, so that it

could be read easily in low-light conditions, or on a rocking, rolling train travelling

at high speed. Every minute is clearly marked, as well as every second on the sub-

dial at the 6 o’clock position.

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Since this watch was manufactured for

the Canadian Pacic Railroad, it also

features a 24-hour dial (something

which was not mandatory for American

railroad watches). e watch runs for

about 36 hours on a full wind, and I

wind it up every morning when I get out

of bed.

I have no doubt that this watch had a

very active working life on the railroads.

One hand has been replaced. e dial has

a couple of small chips and two cracks,

the bow at the top of the watch has been

replaced, and the 10kt gold-lled case

shows signicant wear across the crown,

bow and winding-stem. is means that

it was wound up every day, day aer day,

for years! Nothing else would cause the

gold-lling to wear away like that.

This tiny setting-

lever at the 11:00

position has to

be pulled out like

this, before the

crown may be

turned to set the

time. The lever

is then popped

back in and the

bezel (top left) is

screwed back on.

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Manufacturer Prole

e Ball Watch Company is one of the most famous American-established watch

companies in the world. From 1891 to 1969, it produced some of the nest

pocketwatches of the best quality to be found anywhere. e Swiss might be famous

for their watches today, but only because the Americans got there rst, forced to

innovate and improve due to the necessity of accuracy and quality required on the

vast American railroad network.

e original Ball company folded in 1969, when it moved permanently to Switzerland.

ey don’t produce pocketwatches anymore, but you can still buy Ball wristwatches

modelled on the company’s railroading past.

Item Insight: Railroad Chronometers

Railroads changed the world, starting in the 1830s. For the rst time in history, a

person could travel faster than a galloping horse, faster than a sailing ship! But they

also forced people to work together and come to certain agreements. Specically,

agreements about time.

ere was a time when there were dozens of time-zones across the United States.

And there were also loads of time-zones across Great Britain…and a whole heap

of other countries where railroads were introduced! In the days of the stagecoach,

none of this mattered, because it took days to get anywhere at all! But in an age

when a steam locomotive could whip you from New York to Chicago overnight,

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or a trip from London to Southampton took just a few hours, suddenly the time-

dierences were a pain in the neck!

Your train leaves the station in London at 12:00 noon.

Is that 12:00 noon London time? Or 12:00 noon Southampton time? Or if you were

going somewhere else, perhaps, 12:00 noon Bristol time?

See where this is going? Nobody knew! To keep things on track, railroad companies

forced their governments to enact the standard time-zones which we have today.

is was to prevent confusion, but more importantly, to keep things safe! In the

days before radio, wireless telegraph and telephones, the only way for trains to avoid

danger was to keep to a VERY strict schedule! To do this, they required highly-

accurate pocketwatches.

For most of the 1800s, railroad engineers, remen, conductors, stationmasters etc,

all carried their regular, everyday pocketwatches. But there was no standardisation.

No regulations. In 1891, an engineer’s pocketwatch stopped for four minutes. A jolt

probably got it ticking again, and it started keeping time…four minutes slower. e

result was that he le his station four minutes slower. Which was four minutes too

slow for another train heading into the station!

e resulting train-wreck forced railroad companies to do something about their

pocketwatches. Webster Clay Ball, a jeweller and watchmaker, was given the task of

setting up guidelines for what he believed, should be mandatory in a pocketwatch

used on the railroads for safety and accuracy purposes!

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e Ball Watch Company (established in 1891 in Cleveland, Ohio), was one of the

most famous American watch-companies of the rst half of the 20th century. e

original company folded in 1969, but the brand is still alive and kicking today, and

they produce watches in Switzerland.

e thing is that Ball didn’t

actually PRODUCE many

railroad pocketwatches at

all. What the company did

was produce the rules and

regulations which railroad

pocketwatches had to

adhere to, and then other

watch-companies produced

pocketwatches to those

guidelines. And if they

passed muster, Ball would

put their stamp of approval

on the watch. So you might

nd a pocketwatch with

‘BALL’ on the dial, but with

something else (Hamilton

or Waltham or Elgin)

inside the movement – it’s

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not a mistake – that’s how they were

made! Ball eventually did start making

pocketwatches of its own, but not until

later.

Railroad chronometer regulations

changed constantly from the 1890s

until the 1950s. Jewel-counts went up

higher and higher. Starting originally at

17, but by the 1920s and 30s, had risen

to 21 or even 23 jewels. Diesel electric

trains forced the introduction of anti-

magnetic testing, so that watches would

not become magnetised, which would

aect accuracy. For the most part, only

American watches were allowed, for

ease of nding spare parts.

Regulations on railroad chronometers

extended far beyond features and

functionality. Among other things,

you were not allowed to set the watch

yourself! Your only job was to keep it

running! You had to wind it every day. If

it stopped running, you had to send it to

a railroad-approved watchmaker, who

would set the watch’s time according to

the master clock which was calibrated

daily via electric telegraph!

Spot checks on watches were also

carried out. At a station, the engineer,

reman and conductor (and maybe the

station-master) would all get together

to compare watches. At least two out

of three (or three out of four) watches

had to display the correct time. e men

whose watches did not, had to send them

to be serviced or re-calibrated.

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CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

This concludes our second issue of TAT Antiques. Hopefully here you’ve learned what gold and silver is. What they

mean, how to identify them, how to read the marks stamped onto your pieces of gold and silver, and a bit of the his-

tory of gold and silver. Beware of items that look like gold, or silver, and learn to tell the difference between what is

real gold, what’s real silver, what’s plate, nickel silver, lling, gilding and all the other methods used over the centu-

ries to simulate gold and silver, on top of a much cheaper base metal.

I hope that you’ll be joining us next time when we look at another facet of antiques, which will be antique ivory!

Photographs used in this issue of The Australia Times – Antiques, came from Wikimedia Commons, or were taken

by the TAT Antiques Editor.

Sources used in this issue of TAT Antiques included:

Documentary: “Metalworks!” – Episode 01 – “The Golden Age of Silver”. BBC.

www.925-1000.com – The Online Encyclopaedia of Silver Marks. Accessed 12th of May, 2015.

YouTube Channel: ASSAY OFFICE BIRMINGHAM – Birmingham Assay Ofce’s ofcial YouTube Channel (https://

www.youtube.com/user/BAO1773) Accessed 10th of May, 2015.