The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths is one of the Livery Companies

Livery Company

The Livery Companies are 108 trade associations in the City of London, almost all of which are known as the "Worshipful Company of" the relevant trade, craft or profession. The medieval Companies originally developed as guilds and were responsible for the regulation of their trades, controlling,...

 of the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

. The Company, which has origins in the twelfth century, received a Royal Charter

Royal Charter

A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...

 in 1327. It ranks fifth in the order of precedence

Order of precedence

An order of precedence is a sequential hierarchy of nominal importance of items. Most often it is used in the context of people by many organizations and governments...

 of Livery Companies. Its motto is Justitia Virtutum Regina, Latin for Justice is the Queen of Virtues. In 1891, the Worshipful Company established Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute, which became Goldsmiths, University of London.

Purpose

The Company was the medieval guild

Guild

A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...

 for goldsmith

Goldsmith

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...

s, as well as silversmith

Silversmith

A silversmith is a craftsperson who makes objects from silver or gold. The terms 'silversmith' and 'goldsmith' are not synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product varies greatly as does the scale of objects created.Silversmithing is the...

s and jewellers. Only "masters" of the company could trade in these fields in the city. The Company was originally responsible for hallmark

Hallmark

A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of precious metals — platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium...

ing platinum

Platinum

Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...

, gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 and silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

. (The word hallmarking arises from the fact that precious metal

Precious metal

A precious metal is a rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value.Chemically, the precious metals are less reactive than most elements, have high lustre, are softer or more ductile, and have higher melting points than other metals...

s were officially inspected and marked in Goldsmiths' Hall, the Company's official home.) Today, the Company is one of the few Livery Companies that continues to carry out its ancient functions. The Company operates the London Assay Office, where objects made of precious metals are tested for purity, and then marked with an official symbol if they pass the necessary tests. At a Trial of the Pyx

Trial of the Pyx

The Trial of the Pyx is the procedure in the United Kingdom for ensuring that newly minted coins conform to required standards. Trials have been held from the twelfth century to the present day, normally once per calendar year; the form of the ceremony has been essentially the same since 1282 AD...

, they are responsible for checking the validity of British coinage

British coinage

The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom is denominated in pounds sterling , and, since the introduction of the two-pound coin in 1998, ranges in value from one penny to two pounds. Since decimalisation, on 15 February 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence...

.

Goldsmiths' Hall

The company's livery hall, Goldsmiths' Hall is located at the junction of Foster Lane

Foster Lane

Foster Lane is a short street within Cheap Ward, in the City of London. It is situated north-east of St Paul’s Cathedral and runs northwards from Cheapside to a junction with Gresham Street....

 and Gresham Street

Gresham Street

Gresham Street, in the City of London, is named after Thomas Gresham and runs from St. Martin's Le Grand near St Paul's Cathedral in the west, past Guildhall, to Lothbury in the east...

, north east of St. Paul's Cathedral. The company has been based in the same location since 1339, and the present hall is the third on the site. Little is known about the first hall. The second hall was built in 1634-36 and restored after the Great Fire of London

Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...

 in 1666. It was eventually demolished in the late 1820s. The third and present hall was designed by Philip Hardwick

Philip Hardwick

Philip Hardwick was an eminent English architect, particularly associated with railway stations and warehouses in London and elsewhere...

. In 1941 a bomb exploded inside the south-west corner but the building largely survived and it was restored after the war. Goldsmiths' Hall is not usually open to the public but there are a few open days each year.

External links

• The Goldsmiths' Company