William Chaffers (28 September 1811 – 12 April 1892) was an English antiquary and writer of reference works on hallmarks, and marks on ceramics.
[1][2] He was attracted to antiquarian studies while a clerk in the city of London, by the discovery of Roman and medieval antiquities in the foundations of the Royal Exchange during 1838–9.
At the same time he began to concentrate attention upon the study of gold and silver plate and ceramics, especially in regard to the official and other marks by which dates and places of fabrication can be distinguished.
Chaffers was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1843, and he was a frequent contributor to Archæologia, to Notes and Queries, and to various learned periodicals upon the two subjects of which he had particular knowledge.
[2] About 1870 he retired from Fitzroy Square to a house in Willesden Lane, and later moved to West Hampstead, where he died on 12 April 1892.