PLATE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

PLATEAuthored

The Law Mind • 952 words

Definition

In legal usage, PLATE refers primarily to vessels, utensils, and domestic articles wrought from gold or silver. This meaning distinguishes plate from plated ware (base metal coated with a precious metal) and from flatware as a modern consumer category. The legal significance of plate historically centered on its status as a form of wealth subject to taxation, valuation in estates, and regulation of trade in precious metals.

Household plate: Gold and silver articles used in domestic service — dishes, flagons, cups, bowls, and similar utensils. Distinguished by the metal itself, not the form. A silver candlestick qualifies; a silver-plated one does not.

Plate as taxable property: In English law, plate was singled out as a category of personal property subject to specific duties, reflecting its role as a store of wealth among propertied households. The tax imposed by 29 Geo. 2, c. 14 and later repealed by 17 Geo. 3, c. 39 treated plate as a proxy for taxable wealth, similar in function to modern wealth or luxury taxes.

Plate in estate and probate contexts: Inventories of decedents' estates historically enumerated plate separately from other personal property, both because of its intrinsic value and because its valuation required assay or appraisal distinct from ordinary chattels.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A slightly curved, almost flat dish for serving or eating food; also vehicle license plates, taxi permits, plate armor, or any flat object of uniform thickness.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A flat or nearly flat piece of metal; also domestic vessels and utensils wrought in gold or silver; also plated metalware.

The legal meaning tracks the historical domestic-utensils sense closely but narrows it materially: legal plate requires actual gold or silver, not merely a metallic appearance or coating. The modern common meaning — the ceramic or porcelain dish on a dinner table — diverges entirely from both the legal and historical senses.

Common Confusion

Plate versus plated ware: A critical distinction in historical legal sources. Plated ware (base metal given a surface coating of silver or gold) did not qualify as plate for purposes of taxation or estate valuation. Researchers working with probate inventories or customs records must note whether a source uses "plate" precisely or loosely. Some 18th- and early 19th-century inventories conflate the terms, which can distort valuation analysis.

Plate versus bullion: Plate is worked metal in a useful or decorative form. Bullion is unworked precious metal. The distinction mattered in trade regulation and in determining applicable duties.

Why It Matters in Research

This term is largely dormant in modern American legal practice but appears frequently in historical legal materials: English statutes, colonial and early American probate records, customs and excise documents, and treatises on personal property law. Researchers working in those areas need to recognize "plate" as a technical term of art, not a generic reference to dishes.

In probate and estate research, plate entries in inventories signal assessable wealth. The valuation method — typically by weight and purity — differs from how furniture or clothing was appraised. When inventories list "plate" alongside "silver" or assign a per-ounce value, the record is using the term correctly. When plate appears with household items valued at low amounts, the inventory may be using the term loosely to mean plated goods or metalware generally.

In statutory and tax research, the English plate taxes are the primary legal context. The repeal of 29 Geo. 2, c. 14 by 17 Geo. 3, c. 39 is the key legislative transition. Researchers tracing the history of luxury or wealth taxation in Anglo-American law may use these statutes as early examples of personal property taxation by category.

In American legal sources, "plate" in this sense appears most reliably in materials before roughly 1850. Later sources increasingly use the term in its modern generic sense or in reference to license plates, printing plates, or photographic plates — none of which carry the historical legal meaning.

Cross-corpus note: Entries in property treatises and estate administration guides from the 18th and 19th centuries are the most reliable sources for legal usage. General commercial or culinary references should be treated with caution.

Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier's entry is brief but technically precise: "vessels and utensils of gold and silver," with a direct reference to the English taxing statutes and their repeal. Bouvier relies on Tomlin (a British legal dictionary) for the statutory history, signaling that this was English law absorbed into American legal reference — not a concept with independent American statutory development.

What Bouvier does not address: the distinction between plate and plated ware; the role of plate in probate and estate valuation; or the assay and hallmarking systems that attached to genuine plate in England. Researchers needing those dimensions must look beyond Bouvier to probate practice guides, customs records, and goldsmiths' regulations.

Webster's 1913 confirms that the domestic-utensils meaning was still understood in ordinary American usage at the turn of the 20th century, though Webster also registers "plated" ware as a distinct (if subordinate) category — consistent with the legal distinction.

Jurisdictional Note

The English statutory history is the primary legal context; there is no direct American federal or state equivalent to the English plate taxes. In American jurisdictions, plate would fall under general personal property or tangible personal property categories for estate and tax purposes. Researchers should not assume that English statutory definitions of plate were adopted wholesale into American law without independent authority.

PLATEmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

Vessels and utensils of gold and silver. By the act 29 Geo. 2. c. 14, a tax was laid on all persons possessed of plate; but that act was repealed by the 17 Geo. 3. c. 39. Tomlin.

PLATEn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A flat, or nearly flat, piece of metal, the thickness of which is small in comparison with the other dimensions; a thick sheet of metal; as, a steel plate. Metallic armor composed of broad pieces. Mangled . . . through plate and mail. Milton. Domestic vessels and utensils, as flagons, dishes, cups, etc., wrought in gold or silver. Metallic ware which is plated, in distinction from that which is genuine silver or gold. A small, shallow, and usually circular, vessel of metal or wood, or of earth glazed and baked, from which food is eaten at table. A piece of money, usually silver money. [Obs.] "Realms and islands were as plates dropp'd from his pocket." Shak. A piece of metal on which anything is engraved for the purpose of being printed; hence, an impression from the engraved metal; as, a book illustrated with plates; a fashion plate. A page of stereotype, electrotype, or the like, for printing from; as, publisher's plates. That part of an artificial set of teeth which fits to the mouth, and holds the teeth in place. It may be of gold, platinum, silver, rubber, celluloid, etc. A horizontal timber laid upon a wall, or upon corbels projecting from a wall, and supporting the ends of other timbers; also used specifically of the roof plate which supports the ends of the roof trusses or, in simple work, the feet of the rafters. A roundel of silver or tinctured argent. A sheet of glass, porcelain, metal, etc., with a coating that is sensitive to light. A prize giving to the winner in a contest.

PLATEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To cover or overlay with gold, silver, or other metals, either by a mechanical process, as hammering, or by a chemical process, as electrotyping. To cover or overlay with plates of metal; to arm with metal for defense. Thus plated in habiliments of war. Shak. To adorn with plated metal; as, a plated harness. To beat into thin, flat pieces, or laminæ. To calender; as, to plate paper.

platenoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten. | Such dishes collectively. | The contents of such a dish. | A course at a meal. | An agenda of tasks, problems, or responsibilities | A flat object of uniform thickness. | Vehicle license plates, registration plates. | A taxi permit, especially of a metal disc. | Plate armor. | A layer of a material on the surface of something, usually qualified by the type of the material; plating | A material covered with such a layer. | An ornamental or food service item coated with silver or gold or otherwise decorated. | A weighted disk, usually of metal, with a hole in the center for use with a barbell, dumbbell, or exercise machine. | An engraved surface used to transfer an image to paper. | An image or copy. | An illustration in a book, either black and white, or colour, usually on a page of paper of different quality from the text pages. | A shaped and fitted surface, usually ceramic or metal that fits into the mouth and in which teeth are implanted; a dental plate. | A horizontal framing member at the top or bottom of a group of vertical studs. | A person's foot. | Home plate. | A tectonic plate. | Any of various larger scales found in some reptiles. | A flat electrode such as can be found in an accumulator battery, or in an electrolysis tank. | The anode of a vacuum tube. | A prize given to the winner in a contest. | Any flat piece of material such as coated glass or plastic. | A metallic card, used to imprint tickets with an airline's logo, name, and numeric code. | The ability of a travel agent to issue tickets on behalf of a particular airline. | A VIN plate, particularly with regard to the car's year of manufacture. | One of the thin parts of the brisket of an animal. | A very light steel horseshoe for racehorses. | Skins for fur linings of garments, sewn together and roughly shaped, but not finally cut or fitted. | The fine nap (as of beaver, musquash, etc.) on a hat whose body is made from inferior material. | A record, usually vinyl. | trauma plate. | Any of the potential romantic or sexual partners with whom a person keeps in touch as part of plate spinning. | A Lego piece that is thin, 1/3 the height of a brick, and has studs on top.

plateverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To cover the surface material of an object with a thin coat of another material, usually a metal. | To place the various elements of a meal on the diner's plate prior to serving. | To score a run. | To arm or defend with metal plates. | To beat into thin plates. | To specify which airline a ticket will be issued on behalf of. | to categorise stamps based on their position on the original sheet, in order to reconstruct an entire sheet. | To identify the printing plate used.

platenoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Silver or gold, in the form of a coin, or less often silver or gold utensils or dishes. | A roundel of silver or argent.

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

Subscribe Encyclopedia Sign In