210

INCREASED USE OF

CHAP. XXIV.

in twenty years. The application of gold to theseveral branches of the water-gilder’s art felt asimilar increase, and the practice of gilding manyof the larger articles of silver plate was ex-tended. The gilding in the interior of houses hadcommenced, and absorbed much gold, though theprogress of that particular kind of ornament hadnot been so great as in more recent periods. Sincethe fabrication of porcelain in Europe has sur-passed that of China both in beauty and in use,the fashion of profuse gilding has been generallyextending among the potteries in England, aswell as in those of France, Prussia, Saxony , andother parts of the continent. This absorbs avery increasing quantity of fine gold, which islost when the pieces they ornament are broken.

The most rapid increase in the application ofgold during the reign of George III. , and thatwhich absorbed a greater portion of the metalthan all the other modes of consumption, was themanufacture of trinkets and jewellery. Broaches , ( 'T!)r&clasps, lockets, bracelets, breast-pins, necklaces,chains, earrings, and a thousand nameless orna-ments which the London jewellers and goldsmithshad formerly produced, were imitated at Birming-ham , and reduced so much in price as to comewithin the reach of a much more numerous classthan had before indulged in the use of them.

It is true the gold was of a lower fineness,much of it consisting of scarcely one half of that