Rose (Sheffield hallmark)
The mark of the Sheffield assay office: the piece was tested and hallmarked in Sheffield.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The UK’s Hallmarking Act gives a rose as the mark of the Sheffield assay office. Older Sheffield silver carries a different mark: Chaffers’s 1922 list of assay office marks gives Sheffield’s as a crown. Jackson dates the Sheffield assay office to 1773.
Also searched as: rose hallmark, Sheffield assay office mark.
A stamp is a claim about the metal, made by whoever struck it. This page says what each mark means under the rules that define it; it doesn’t test or value anything.
A crown on older Sheffield silver
The crown Chaffers lists for Sheffield is easy to confuse with the crown that the Hallmarking Act uses as its picture mark for gold.
More jewellery marks
Sources
- Hallmarking Act 1973, Schedule 2: Approved Hallmarks, Hallmarking Act 1973 (c. 43), Sch. 2, legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives), Sch. 2, Pt. I, para. 1
- Hall Marks on Gold & Silver Plate (Chaffers, 1922), William Chaffers, Hall Marks on Gold & Silver Plate, 1922 edition, Internet Archive (scan), Assay office marks
- English Goldsmiths and Their Marks (Jackson, 1905), Charles James Jackson, English Goldsmiths and Their Marks, 1905, Internet Archive (Cornell University Library scan), Chapter XVII
Last reviewed September 27, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research