# What the Word Signed Hides > A British hallmark fixes a year exactly, because the punch is destroyed at the end of it, and the mark people call a maker's mark names a sponsor. The autograph signature, the mark the market trusts most, is the only one nobody ever regulated. > The Study - 2026-09-01 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/what-the-word-signed-hides/ ## Key points - The London Assay Office states that the sponsor's mark, informally called a maker's mark, exists to establish responsibility rather than to identify the manufacturer, and that it can be applied to items made by others. The PL punch on a piece of Paul de Lamerie silver is a sponsor's mark. - The date letter on a British hallmark changes on 1 January, the font, case and shield shape all change with it so that each can indicate only one year, and every date punch is destroyed at the end of its year. That makes it the most exactly dated mark on any object in this archive, and it is the one part of the hallmark that is not compulsory. - The Getty's own catalogue says of its pair of commodes that without the B.V.R.B. stamp they would not be attributed to Bernard II van Risenburgh on the basis of their design and quality. The museum records that the mounts are unlike his and clumsily attached, and keeps the attribution because of the mark. - Toulouse-Lautrec's monogram on Moulin Rouge: La Goulue is drawn into the lithographic design, so it prints on every impression and identifies no individual sheet. A mark that reproduces is a mark that cannot single anything out. - The Galle firm added a star beside the signature of a dead man to indicate posthumous production. Samuel Provost has shown that the chronology usually given for that star rests on the recollection of a former employee and is mistaken, so even the mark for not by him is unreliably dated. - The most rigorously examined signature here is still reported in hedged language. Heritage Science reports that 3D digital microscopy at 140 times magnification appears to support the theory that the IVMeer of Girl with a Pearl Earring lies on top of the background glaze. ## The word signed covers at least five different kinds of evidence ## The hallmark dates an object to a year and does not name its maker ## A guild stamp can outrank a museum's own reading of an object ## A printed monogram is a property of the plate and identifies no sheet ## One mark in this archive was designed to say not by him ## The autograph signature is the one mark nobody regulated ## Five marks, and what each one actually fixes ## Why this archive is free to read The market has the order of confidence exactly backwards. It pays a premium for the autograph signature, which is unregulated, unrecorded, addable by anyone at any time and verifiable only through stratigraphy that few objects will ever receive, and it treats the assay punch as a technicality of the trade in old silver. The punch is the better evidence, and it is better for a reason worth holding onto: somebody other than the interested party applied it, under an obligation, and then destroyed the tool. That is what makes a mark hard to fake and easy to date. So when a description says an object is signed, the first question is not whether the signature is genuine. It is who was required to put it there, and what they were required to be telling the truth about. ## Questions **Is a maker's mark on British silver the same as a signature?** No. The London Assay Office states that the mark commonly called a maker's mark is a sponsor's mark, whose purpose has always been to establish responsibility rather than identify the manufacturer, and that it can be applied to items made by others. **How exactly can a British hallmark date an object?** To a single year. The date letter changes on 1 January and its font, case and shield shape change with it so that each can indicate only one year, and all date punches are destroyed at the end of the year they stand for. **What does the B.V.R.B. stamp on French furniture prove?** It identifies the workshop of Bernard II van Risenburgh, whose identity behind the initials was not published until Jean-Pierre Baroli's article of 1957. The Getty states that without the stamp, its own pair of commodes would not be attributed to him on the basis of their design and quality. **Why does a star beside a Galle signature matter?** The firm added an asterisk or star after Emile Galle's death on 23 September 1904 to indicate posthumous production. The chronology of that practice is disputed, because the standard dating rests on the recollection of a former employee that Samuel Provost has shown to be mistaken. **How can anyone tell whether a painted signature is original?** By establishing where its paint sits relative to the layers beneath it. On Girl with a Pearl Earring this required macroscopic X-ray fluorescence, optical coherence tomography and 3D digital microscopy at 140 times magnification, and the published conclusion is still expressed as what the images appear to support. ## Sources - [1] Goldsmiths' Company Assay Office, London, 'What is a hallmark'. Read 1 September 2026 for the composition of the full traditional UK hallmark, for the statement that the sponsor's mark exists to establish responsibility rather than identify the manufacturer and can be applied to items made by others, and for the date letter changing annually on 1 January with all date punches destroyed at the end of the year. - [2] Hallmarking Act 1973, section 1, on the prohibition of describing unhallmarked articles as precious metal in the course of trade. The statutory basis for the mark being applied by a third party under obligation rather than by the maker at will. - [3] J. Paul Getty Museum, French Rococo Ebenisterie in the J. Paul Getty Museum, catalogue entry 7, pair of commodes, accession 71.DA.96.1 and .2. Read 1 September 2026 for the B.V.R.B. stamp on the top of each front leg, for the commentary on the mounts, and for the statement that without the stamp the commodes would not be attributed to Van Risenburgh on the basis of their design and quality. Also the source for the citation of Jean-Pierre Baroli, 'Le mysterieux B.V.R.B. enfin identifie', Connaissance des Arts 61 (March 1957), pages 56 to 63. - [4] Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection record for Moulin Rouge: La Goulue, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1891, accession 32.88.12, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932. - [5] Samuel Provost, 'The Galle signatures on glass after 1904: a tentative chronology, part I, 1904-1920', Newsletter on Art Nouveau Craftwork and Industry, 28 December 2020. Read 1 September 2026 for the adoption of the asterisk or star after Emile Galle's death on 23 September 1904, and for the demonstration that the 1904 to 1906 chronology resting on Rene Dezavelle's testimony is mistaken. - [6] Musee d'Orsay, collection record for Emile Galle, La Main aux algues et aux coquillages, 1904, partly blown and hot-modelled crystal, 33.4 by 13.4 cm, given in 1990, on display on the median level, Salle 63. Read 1 September 2026, in a browser, after the page refused a direct fetch. - [7] Abbie Vandivere and others, 'Fading into the background: the dark space surrounding Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring', Heritage Science 7, article 69 (2019). Read 1 September 2026 for the imaging methods, for 3D digital microscopy at 1.1 micrometres per pixel and 140 times magnification, and for the hedged conclusion that the images appear to support the theory that the signature is on top of the glaze. - [8] Mauritshuis, The Hague, collection entry for Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, inventory 670, with the technical examination summary from the Girl in the Spotlight project.