'Dating English Registry Marks'

Diamond Registration Marks.

The Copyright of Design Act 1842 initiated the use of the diamond registration mark used to confirm that a design has been registered in Britain .  This confirmed that a design had been registered and gave three year’s copyright protection.  The diamond contained enough information to allow identification from the official records held by the Patent Office.  There was a letter to represent the year so the first series ran from 1842 to 1867.   Other letters identified the day and month of registration, the material and bundle number.  By shifting the positions of the identifiers, a second series was started and lasted until 1883.  The 'Patents, Designs and Trade Marks Act' of 1883 rationalised the system and thereafter only a number series was used.

National Archive Link

Key to Diamond Registration Marks

Design Registration Numbers

The system of registering designs with a specific number was introduced at the end of 1883.  It superseded the previous 'Diamond' registrations.  Where used, such Registered numbers (Rd No.........) give an accurate date for when a design was first produced.  Such designs could then be produced in quantity for as long as needed or fashionable and numbers therefore only give the earliest date in which an object could have been produced.  Since improvements in design have always been a driving force in the industrial societies, many of the numbers would only have been used for a few years and therefore do give a helpful guide.   

(Dating of numbers derived from lists of files held by the British Library (Designs collection) and The Public Record Office. 

Numbers after 1933 are taken from the graph below, plotted from PRO files.  Other sources may vary.)

Country of Origin

From the passing of the 1891 McKinley Tariff Act, any products imported into the USA were required to show the country of origin.  The word ‘England’ was used from 1891 to c1909.  Thereafter ‘Made in England’ was used and this was gradually succeeded by ‘Made in Britain’.  Manufacturers frequently applied these marks to all products rather than just those destined for export. 

Purchase Tax.  This was a sales tax levied first on the 19th October 1940 on all goods sold in Britain with a few exceptions such as food, 'Utility' CC41 furniture and trade tools. It followed from the budget of the 23rd July.  Price lists produced thereafter frequently mentioned that purchase tax was, or was not, included. The government's idea was to discourage luxury goods during wartime and later post-war shortages.  The tax rates were a fixed percentage of the wholesale price.  Catalogues that do not mention purchase tax may well be pre- 1939.

Islamic Calendar

 Islamic metalwork may be dated and if so it is likely to use the Moslem calendar.  This starts in the year of Mohammed’s flight from Mecca to Medina in the Western year AD 622 and the years are based on the lunar calendar of 354 days.  To convert and adjust for the number of days in the year, the Islamic script can be read for the year using the following number conversions:

 The conversion formula to use is: 

 Y_AD  =   622  +  Y_M  -    Y_M /33

where    Y_AD is the Western year

and       Y_M  is the Moslem year

References

The data used has been abstracted from:

 Jones, Ian, ‘Design Registration Marks’  Ironbridge Gorge Museum Information Sheet No 7, 1981, and

 http://www.patent.gov.uk/design/index.htm  (Page now not available)

 The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU, United Kingdom
tel: +44 (0)20 8876 3444; fax: +44 (0)20 8392 5286.

Dating of American Patent Numbers

1859          22,477

1860          26,642

1861          31,005

1862          34,045

1863          37,266

1864          41,047

1865          45,685

1866          51,764

1867          60,685

1868          72,958

1869          85,503

1870          98,460

1871        110,617

1872        122,304

1873        134,504

1874        146,120

1875        158,350

1876        171,541

1877        185,813

1878        198,733

1879        211,078

1880        223,210

1881        240,373

1882        254,836

1883        269,820

1884        291,016

1885        310,168

1886        353,494

1887        355,291

1888        375,720

1889        395,306

1890        418,665

1891        443,987

1892        466,315

1893        488,976

1894        511,744

1895        531,619

1696        552,502

1897        574,369

1898        596,467

1899        618,871

1900        640,187

1901        664,827

1902        690,385

1903        717,521

1904        748,567

1905        778,834

1906        808,618

1907        839,799

1908        875,679

1909        908,436

1910        945,010

1911        980,178

1912        1,013,095

1913        1,049,326

1914        1,083,287

1915        1,123,212

1916        1,166,419

1917        1,210,389

1918        1,251,458

1919        1,290,027

1920        1,329,352

1921        1,364,063

1922        1,401,948

1923        1440,362

1924        1,478,996

1925        1,521,590

1926        1,568,040

1927        1,612,790

1928        1,854,521

1929        1,696,897

1930        1,742,181

1931        1,787424

1932        1,839,190

1933        1,892,663

1934        1,941,449

1935        1,985,878

1936        2,026,516

1937        2,066,309

1938        2,104,004

1939        2,142,080

1940        2,185,170

1941        2,227,418

1942        2,268,540

1943        2,307,007

1944        2,338,081

1945        2,366,154

1946        2,391,856

1947        2,413,675

1948        2,433,824

1949        2,457,797

1950        2,492,944

1951        2,536,016

1952        2,580,379

1953        2,624,046

1954        2,654,562

1955        2,698,434

1956        2,728,913

1957        2,775,762

1958        2,818,567

1959        2,866,973

1960        2,919,443