Roman invasion, being rude imitations of the Greek and Roman coins, and some of finer work, like the coins of Cunobeline, struck at Camulodunum (Colchester), with the King on horseback, perhaps struck by workmen from Rome.

Holinshed states that collars of gold and silver, for the necks of women, made part of the tribute which Augustus imposed upon the Britons.

The Goldsmith's art may be deemed the favourite art of princes, and the brilliant symbol of glorious reigns, as well as the result of civilization.

Its artificers have proved that, as a trade, it may be reckoned one of the most distinguished professions, combining more or less the talents of the artist, statuary, architect, engraver, and chemist, as well as the most noble. The axiom Orfèvre ne déroge pas is true in this respect, and, so far from degrading them in the status of society, they can claim a high acknowledgment in the scale of consequence in these realms, as progenitors of some of the most dignified members of the ancient and present aristocracy, as evidenced in the houses of Shaw, Childs, Viner, Ward, Hoare, Drummond, Coutts, Gosling, &c.; so true is it in England that trade and commerce enrich nobility. From the Goldsmiths' Company alone might be obtained a list of founders of peerages, containing some of England's greatest

names.

PLATE.

The designation Plate means, strictly speaking, wrought silver, and is derived from the Spanish word Plata, although it is frequently wrongly applied to vessels or utensils of gold as well as silver; hence Gold plate is erroneous, and Silver plate a pleonasm.

Another derivation may be traced in the Greek word Tλar's (flat), or flattened silver before it is beaten into shape, subsequently applied to all vessels as well as plates and dishes. "A plate of ale," is an expression at Trinity College, Cambridge, used for the silver drinking-cup with which every commoner was supplied for his own use and at his own expense, but was, on his departure, left to augment the store of cups in the college plate-closet; a practice reminding us of the boarding-school "silver fork and spoon" custom. The beercups, with two ring-handles, were frequently called college cups, but the names of cups are so diversified that we can only, in this place, simply allude to them.

PLATING.

Plated means, actually, metal vessels or utensils covered with plates of silver or gold. Arbuthnot says, "M. Lepidus's house had a marble doorcase; afterwards they had gilded ones, or rather, plated with gold." The silver plating practised formerly at Sheffield was of this character, but it must not be confounded with the modern silvering by the electro process adopted principally at Birmingham, which merely deposits a thin tissue of the precious metals on the surface. A comparison of the fine old Sheffield plated ware with the modern electro-silvering is a convincing proof of this fact.

Plating, properly so called, consists in covering a clean sheet of copper with a thin plate of silver, by washing over it a solution of lunar caustic. A plate of fine silver, rather larger than the sheet of copper, is laid upon it, and the edges turned over; the two are heated to a dull redness and passed through powerful rollers. By this process, as the two metals extend equally, both are considerably reduced in thickness; the plated metal is then manufactured to the required shape, and the different parts soldered together. The handles, edges, and ornaments of vessels, or other objects, are made. of silver, rolled to about a square foot to the ounce, and then struck in a die, the hollow parts being filled in with an alloy of lead and tin. The dies used in these operations at some manufactories are stated to have cost many thousand pounds.

The Sheffield method of plating copper with silver was first adopted about 120 years ago.

Horace Walpole, in a letter to Mr. Montagu, dated 1st September, 1760, writes: "As I went to Lord Strafford's I passed through Sheffield, which is one of the foulest towns in England, in the most charming situation; there are 22,000 inhabitants making knives and scissors. They remit eleven thousand pounds a week to London. One man there has discovered the art of plating copper with silver. I bought a pair of candlesticks, for two guineas, that are quite pretty."

ELECTRO SILVERING AND GILDING.

This process may be thus described:-The solutions employed are the argento-cyanide and auro-cyanide, the former to deposit silver, and the latter gold. The silvering solution, or argento-cyanide, is dissolved with cyanide of potassium; the most useful and economic method of preparing this is by use of the battery. To make a

depositing liquid, containing one ounce of silver to the gallon, by this process, make a solution of cyanide of potassium, of the strength of one ounce and a quarter to the gallon of water employed.

The positive and negative poles of the battery are carried over the top of the open bath; from the positive rod a plate of silver is suspended, and to the negative rod the article to be silvered is attached by a wire, both being immersed in the chemical solution of the same metal, opposite each other. During the progress of deposition, the same quantity of metal that is deposited from the liquid is restored from the silver plate, and the solution is maintained at the same strength. Any thickness of silver may be deposited by continuing the process; but about an ounce and a half to a square foot of surface is considered a full quantity. The portions on which no silver is required to be deposited are covered with varnish or

wax.

The metal generally used to deposit silver upon is what is called German silver, an alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel, so as not to show when the silver is worn away; care is required to remove every particle of grease and oxide, by acids and alkalis, before the object is placed in the bath. In the course of a few hours a coating of the thickness of tissue paper will be deposited upon it, giving it a granulated appearance, like matted or dead silver. If a bright surface is required, it is burnished by a steel or blood-stone burnisher; but a few drops of sulphuret of carbon being added to the solution, the silver may be precipitated perfectly bright.

Hence by the electro process, a smaller quantity of silver being required, and the operation more simple, the wares are produced at a much cheaper rate. The term, silver-plating, as applied to the electro process, is, therefore, erroneous. The value of electro-silvered articles. is deteriorated by the fact that they can be reproduced ad infinitum, we might say ad nauseam, and can claim no originality. The pretentious works which have been executed from designs by some of the best artists of the day, such as shields in emulation of the famous Cellini shields, and Flaxman's Achilles' shield (made in 1818), are undoubtedly of great merit as regards design; but, as is the case with all fine works of art, copies, however fine and closely imitated, never bear comparison in point of value to the originals. On their first appearance high prices are demanded and frequently obtained; but the numerous reproductions reduce the value from pounds to shillings, the material being valueless, with merely a superficial and infinitesimal

deposit of the precious metals, which scarcely allows the removal of dust or tarnish by the necessary friction.

POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE GOLDSMITH'S ART.

We cannot give better advice to purchasers of plate than is contained in the subjoined extract from a lecture delivered by Mr. Ruskin, on "The Political Economy of Art," especially applicable at the present day, when such quantities of plate are manufactured of tasteless design, as much the fault of the employer as the employed.

A prize is required for racing, shooting, rowing, running, or any athletic sport. The point principally considered is the intrinsic value of the cup, to be made at a limited price; a design or drawing of it being frequently dispensed with altogether, a stock pattern is produced, and the command, "Aye, that will do!" confirms the order. Art is quite a secondary consideration, or altogether ignored. In no other way can we account for the numerous abortions in the shape of prize cups, &c. displayed in silversmiths' shops at the present day. These remarks do not apply solely to prize cups, real talent is seldom displayed in the design of modern plate; the money's worth is the sine quâ non: How much will it weigh? The second, and more important question, How much for fashion? does not enter into the calculation. We are reminded of the business-like observation of Samuel Pepys, on receiving a present of a pair of splendid flagons, costing £100. His vanity was pleased with the display before his friends, when placed on his sideboard; but note the sequel: "Weighed my two silver flagons at Stevens's, they weigh 212 ounces, which is about £50 at 5s. per ounce, and they judge the fashion to be worth about 5s. per ounce more, nay, some say 10s. an ounce the fashion; sorry to see that the fashion is worth so much, and the silver come to no more."

At the present day the cost of fashion, doubled or trebled, would be gladly paid by a collector of old plate. Pepys, however, was not devoid of taste in the matter of plate. There are, preserved by the Clothworkers' Company (presented by him in 1677), a cup and cover nearly two feet high, and a salver as much in diameter, finely chased with flowers and scrolls, and engraved with his arms and those of the Company.

But let us hear what Mr. Ruskin has to say on the political economy of art, as applied to plate :

"The first idea of a rich young couple setting up house in London is, that they must have new plate. Their father's plate may be very

handsome, but the fashion is changed. They will have a new service from the leading manufacturer, and the old plate, except a few Apostle spoons, and a cup which Charles the Second drank a health in to their pretty ancestress, is sent to be melted down, and made up with new flourishes and fresh lustre. Now so long as this is the case-so long, observe, as fashion has influence on the manufacture of plate— so long you cannot have a goldsmith's art in this country. Do you suppose any workman, worthy the name, will put his brains into a cup or an urn which he knows is to go to the melting-pot in half a score of years? He will not; you don't ask or expect it of him. You ask of him nothing but a little quick handicraft-a clever twist of a handle here, and a foot there; a convolvolus from the newest school of design; a pheasant from Landseer's game cards; a couple of sentimental figures for supporters, in the style of insurance offices; then a clever touch with the burnisher, and there's your epergne, the admiration of all the footmen at the wedding breakfast, and the torment of some unfortunate youth who cannot see the pretty girl opposite to him through its tyrannous branches.

"But you don't suppose that that's goldsmith's work? Goldsmith's work is made to last, and made with the man's whole heart and soul in it; true goldsmith's work, when it exists, is generally the means of education of the greatest painters and sculptors of the day. Francia was a goldsmith: Francia was not his own name, but that of his master the jeweller; and he signed his pictures, almost always, 'Francia the goldsmith,' for love of his master. Ghirlandajo was a goldsmith, and was the master of Michael Angelo; Verocchio was a goldsmith, and was the master of Leonardo da Vinci. Ghiberti was a goldsmith, and beat out the bronze gates which Michael Angelo said might serve for the gates of Paradise. But if ever you want work like theirs again, you must keep it, though it should have the misfortune to become old-fashioned. You must not break it up, nor melt it any more; there is no economy in that; you could not easily waste intellect more grievously. Nature may melt her goldsmith's work at every sunset if she chooses, and beat it out into chased bars again at every sun-rise, but you must not. The way to have a truly noble service of plate, is to keep adding to it, not melting it. At every marriage, and at every birth, get a new piece of silver if you will, but with noble workmanship on it, done for all time, and put it among your treasures; that is one of the chief things which gold was made for, and made incorruptible for. When we know a little more of