Hipoteza Francka‑Fischera, czyli o znakach probierzy gdańskich. Przyczynek do badań nad znakowaniem gdańskich wyrobów złotniczych

Abstrakt

The article discusses the assay marks of two goldsmiths from Gdańsk: Joachim Christian Franck (he held the assay office in 1778, 1782, 1784, 1788, 1794, 1798, 1802) and Johann Gottlieb Fischer (in office in 1792, 1796, 1800, 1804, 1808). In the previous literature, Franck was associated with the assay mark in the form of a capital letter ‘F’ in a negative. Fischer was assigned the assay mark in the form of a cursive capital letter ‘F’ in a rounded almost oval field. Based on the examination of several pieces of silver from Gdańsk (especially from the workshop of the goldsmith Carl Ludwig Meyer) marked with such marks, which also have historical inscriptions with annual dates, it can be concluded that the dates in the inscriptions and the assay marks do not coincide. The mark in the rounded field (previously assigned to Fischer) appears on silver items dated with an inscription to the years of Franck’s activity as the assay master and vice versa. Based on the examples of the items cited it can be concluded that the signs of the controllers Johann Gottlieb Fischer and Joachim Christian Franck were erroneously swapped and should be assigned the other way round.