拍品專文
Matthew Boulton and his partner John Fothergill, makers of small silver items such as buttons, decided to expand the production of their Birmingham factory in the late 1760s to include larger silver objects. In order to have these wares legally hallmarked, Boulton had to send each piece a good distance to Chester for assay. By incessant lobbying and joining forces with the silversmiths of Sheffield, Boulton received Royal assent for the establishment of assay offices in both towns on May 28, 1773. The Birmingham Assay Office opened on August 31, 1773, with Boulton and Fothergill the first to enter their maker's marks, and silver struck with both their marks, as on the present candlesticks, is rare. (See Kenneth Crisp Jones, ed., The Silversmiths of Birmingham and their Marks, 1750-1980, 1981, pp. 27-19.)