We give the inscription on Ellis Gamble’s shop card, which is in a frame, termed by bookplate collectors “Chippendale.” There is a full-length figure of a winged angel standing on a scroll, and the lettering is somewhat crowded below in English and in French:--
“Ellis Gamble, Goldsmith at the Golden Angel in Cranbourn Street, Leicester Fields, Makes Buys and Sells all sorts of Plate, Rings and Jewells, etc.”
An interesting sidelight on makers’ names is afforded by the various copper tokens which they struck, bearing their names and addresses. We append a short list of goldsmiths’ tokens of the seventeenth century. They come from various parts of the country and from Ireland, and readers having seventeenth century silver bearing these initials may be able to identify the maker.
The Hermitage (Wapping) John Mayhew. Gouldsmith His Halfepeny Neare the Armitage Bridg. I.M 1666
West Smithfeild Euodias Inman. his halfe Peny In Smithfeild Rounds. Gouldsmith.
Beech Lane (Barbican) (on a farthing). Elizabeth Wood (with the Goldsmiths’ arms) In Beach Lane. 1656. E. W.
Seacole Lane (Snow Hill) (on a farthing). Samuell Chapell in Seacole Lane, 1671. The Goldsmiths’ arms on reverse.
Samuell Calle (with design of a man smoking) Gouldsmith in Exon (with design of covered cup).
Geo. Reve. Goldsmith (with Goldsmiths’ arms) In Bath. 1658. G. M. R.
Will Robinson 1668 (with Goldsmiths’ arms) Gouldsmith in Oxon W. M. R.
Willian Keylocke (with the Goldsmiths’ arms) In Dover. 1667. W M K
Dublin (on a penny). Io. Partington. Gouldsme. (Arms: on a bend cotise, an eagle). Kinges head. Skinner Row, Dublin, 1d.
William Keovgh 1d. Kilkeny. Goldsmith (with design of a mermaid).
Among the eighteenth century American silversmiths there are some that stand out prominently, and the exhibition of old American plate held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1906 brought them to notice. There is the work of John Dixwell from 1680 to 1735 who was the son of Colonel John Dixwell, one of the regicides who fled to America in the early years of the Restoration. But the historic punch bowl made by Paul Revere was the _pièce de résistance_, and was shown together with some forty other of his creations. It was made for the fifteen “Sons of Liberty.” The inscription runs: “To the memory of the glorious Ninety-Two members of the Honourable House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay, who, undaunted by the insolent menaces of villains in power, from a strict regard to conscience and the Liberties of their constituents, on the 30th June, 1768, Voted Not To Rescind.”