The illustrations of marks found on French silver plated articles are interesting. The authorities were strict in regard to an exact definition in the mark to denote to the public the exact nature of the ware offered for sale. In contradistinction to the slovenliness of English marking this exhibits the logical and protective system devised under French laws. The articles had to be stamped _Doublé_ (replica) or _Plaqué_ (plated), and as is shown in the illustration in no illegible manner. There was no simulation of the French silver plate marks allowed, and the quantity of silver was duly stamped 10M or 20M, as the case might be. The maker, as will be seen, had his mark, but it took a subsidiary place. The public had to be protected first. In regard to Close Plating, which as a process came about the beginning of the nineteenth century, and was applied to smaller articles where the rolled sheets were not applicable, there are a number of marks found on forks and spoons, snuffers and skewers, on spurs and buckles, dessert knives and forks, and other articles of a like nature. Electro-plating was discovered about 1840, and a patent was taken out by George and Henry Elkington of Birmingham at that date. The electro-plated marks are imposing. In worn examples the row of five stamps is not decipherable. What they were originally it is not easy to say, but they have been designed to appear more important than they are. [Illustration: MARK OF MATTHEW BOULTON, SOHO PLATE WORKS, BIRMINGHAM.] [Illustration: SHAM MARKS STAMPED ON SHEFFIELD PLATED WARE TO SIMULATE THE HALL MARKS ON SILVER PLATE. (Found on late Eighteenth-Century Hot Water Jug.)] [Illustration: IMITATION MARKS STAMPED ON SHEFFIELD PLATED WARE TO SIMULATE HALL MARKS ON SILVER PLATE. (Found on Salt Cellars in date about 1815.)] [Illustration: MARKS ON FRENCH SILVER PLATED WARE, _PLAQUÉ_ OR _DOUBLÉ_, CLEARLY SHOWING THAT IT IS PLATED, AND NOT SILVER PLATE. The upper mark (_Plaqué_) is on a Tureen about 1816. The lower mark (_Doublé_) is on the Coffee Pot illustrated (p. 211).] A great number of marks appear on close plated articles. Horday & Co., S.G., E.S., S.J. and others. But their identity is not known. Nor is it very significant. An interesting mark, Sly. Dublin, is found on a skewer in the early period. Probably seventy-five per cent. of examples of old Sheffield plate are unmarked, though they exhibit fine craftsmanship which any maker might well have been proud to have stamped with his initials had the Act of 1773 been framed sufficiently clear to enable makers to venture stamping plated ware at all with safety. Anonymous, therefore, as most of the best Sheffield plate of the best period is, it bears on the face of it the hall mark of exquisite workmanship.