~A~ to ~Z~ (1701 to 1724) }in pointed shield. ~a~ to ~z~ (1725 to 1748) } ~A~ to ~Z~ (1749 to 1772) in square shield. ~A~ to ~Y~ (1773 to 1796). The letter I was used for two years, 1781 and 1782. ~A~ to ~U~ (1797 to 1816) in square shield. ~a~ to ~u~ (1817 to 1836) in square shield with four corners cut off. ~A~ to ~U~(1837 to 1856) ditto ditto. ~A~ to ~U~ (1857 to 1876) ditto. ~A~ to ~F~ (1877 to 1882), when the office closed. Square shield with oval base. In regard to the marks illustrated on opposite page it will be seen that the Higher Standard Mark was used at Exeter after 1701. Examples are shown, 1706 and 1714. Collectors have sometimes stumbled into the belief that no silver was allowed by law to be assayed at any other office than London during the period 1697 to 1720. But it is only between 1697 and 1701 that the provincial offices were practically closed. From 1701 till 1720 such offices did assay and mark silver plate with the figure of Britannia, and the lion’s head erased. [Illustration: 1575 CHALICE (illustrated p. 67).] [Illustration: 1640 CHALICE (illustrated p. 71).] [Illustration: 1706 Maker, John Elston.] [Illustration: 1714 Maker, Pentecost Symonds.] [Illustration: 1748 TANKARD (illustrated p. 117).] Other Exeter Marks illustrated are =1705= (p. 115), =1707= (p. 209), =1728= (p. 273), =1729= (p. 81), =1733= (p. 117). PROVINCIAL MARKS CHESTER, NORWICH, AND YORK The old cathedral cities were the centres of art, therefore it is not surprising to find assay offices established there from the earliest times. Besides Exeter, which we have considered, there were assay offices at Chester, Norwich, and York. It is remarkable that no assay office appears to have existed at Canterbury, nor at Salisbury, nor at Winchester. Chester has a long history in connexion with the coinage and with assaying silver. In the sixteenth century there is a record of the assay of silver there, and Charles I struck some of his silver coinage there in 1645 with the mint mark of the three wheatsheaves of the city. Norwich was mentioned as one of the assay towns in 2 Hen. VI, _cap._ 17, in 1423, which honour it shares with York and Newcastle as being of such ancient lineage. The corporation of Norwich possesses several pieces of plate of the Elizabethan period, with the city arms, a lion, and a castle as a hall-mark. A Tudor rose with a crown above is the standard mark. The office ceased early in the eighteenth century. York is another office which is now extinct. At the end of the eighteenth century it was not mentioned among the other assay offices, but in the middle of the nineteenth century it had recommenced but did little business, and no plate seems to have been assayed there since about 1870.