Registered Designs

	Diamond Registration Marks. Design Registration Numbers Country of Origin. References.

	Diamond Registration Marks (Lozenge 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

Diamond Marks dating details ri2208.gif (28164 bytes)

Key to Diamond Registration Marks

Letter	First Series	Second Series	Months for both Series
A	1845	1871	December
B	1858		October
C	1844	1870	January
D	1852	1878	September
E	1855	1881	May
F	1847	1873
G	1863		February
H	1843	1869	April
I	1846	1872	July
J	1854	1880
K	1857	1883	November
L	1856	1882
M	1859		June
N	1864
O	1862		January
P	1851	1877
Q	1866
R	1861		August
S	1849	1875
T	1867
U	1848	1874
V	1850	1876
W	1865		March
X	1842	1868
Y	1853	1879
Z	1860

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 It superseded the previous 'Diamond' registrations.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.

However, once a number was included in a mould or pattern, there may have been no reason to remove it. Some reproductions are being made now that include the original design registration number from many years ago.

The numbers can be used to assess the first year of manufacture from these approximate figures showing the first numbers issued each year :-

Year	From	Year	From	Year	From	Year	From
		1901	367,628	1921	676,491	1941	837,000
		1902	380,979	1922	685,412	1942	838,000
		1903	401,944	1923	691,571	1943	839,000
1884	1	1904	422,489	1924	695,944	1944	841,000
1885	18,993	1905	422,489	1925	705,943	1945	843,000
1886	39,547	1906	428,004	1926	716,386	1946	846,000
1887	61,207	1907	469,160	1927	723,430	1947	848,000
1888	87,266	1908	486,464	1928	725,899	1948	853,000
1889	111,664	1909	516,375	1929	740,459	1949	857,000
1890	140,481	1910	533,561	1930	741,336	1950	860,000
1891	160,613	1911	546,084	1931	757,945
1892	183,259	1912	561,570	1932	767,110
1893	203,348	1913	585,707	1933	777,000
1894	223,861	1914	608,541	1934	788,000
1895	244,726	1915	627,887	1935	793,000
1896	266,237	1916	642,613	1936	808,000
1897	288,848	1917	651,079	1937	817,000
1898	309,956	1918	662,576	1938	825,000
1899	328,527	1919	665,728	1939	833,000
1900	349,120	1920	664,869	1940	836,000

(Dating of numbers derived from lists of files held by the British Library (http://www.bl.uk/collections/patents/designs.html#desnum) 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.

The 1860 Companies Act established 'Limited' companies. The use of 'Ltd' after a company name gained favour after 1880. The use of 'Trade Mark' dates any time from the Trade Marks Act of 1862 until the present.

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.

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

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