jan 1, 1503 - swage

Description:

The noun ‘swage’ is on record from 1374, descriptive of the grooving or moulding on metal objects such as basins, candlesticks and salt cellars. e.g. 1503 <i>an ewere of silver, the swages gilt,</i> Stoke Rochford (SS53/216). Then from 1680 the word was also associated with anvils and tools which were used for shaping or bending metal, and the term ‘swage-anvil’ occurred in 1854 (OED). According to Wright a ‘swage-anvil’ was used for making agricultural implements (EDD). One early example in the inventory of a Yorkshire goldsmith seems likely to refer to a specialist tool capable of producing decoration on metal, a link in the word’s semantic history: 1490 <i>De ij lez spoyn tayses xd. De ij lez stampis xiiijd. De iij lez swages vjd</i>, York (SS53/58). A glossary of words used in claims after the Sheffield flood of 1864 defines it as a tool used in bending or shaping cold metal, or a stamp for marking metal (online).

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