202

USE OF GOLD AND SILVER, chap. xxiv.

process of manufacturing. This ordinance was,indeed, only the renewed promulgation of one ofthe year 1602. The whole number of makers anddealers in gold and jewellery was restricted to threehundred persons in Paris and the suburbs, and theyformed a guild endowed with privileges and pro-perty in houses\

The application of silver in France to variouspurposes of dress, furniture, and ornaments at thebeginning of the eighteenth century must have beenvery considerable. This may be inferred from thenumber of articles which are specified in the ordi-nance of 1703, in a catalogue framed for the pur-pose of fixing the parts of them on which theassay mark which indicated the fineness of themetal was to be stamped. These articles are morethan eighty in number, and show in some degreewhat was the fashion of the age and country.Besides ewers ( aguieres ), porringers ( tcuelles ),snuffers, saltcellars, chafing-dishes ( rechaux ),perfuming-pans, warming-pans, standing waiters( soucoupes ), are among the domestic utensils.Those connected with the religious practices ofthe age are numerous, and many of the articlesmust have been heavy. Among these are cru-

1 See Bazinghen, vol. ii. p. 370. It appears that similarrestrictions existed in London , where the goldsmiths all workedin open shops near each other on the south side of Cheapside,near St. Paul’s, in houses that now are the property of theGoldsmiths’ Company.