CHAP. XXVI.

JEWELLERS.

303

clocks, partly of gold, partly of silver gilt, andpartly gilded on inferior metal. Chaptal remarks,that the price of watches has so fallen, and theprogress of luxury and the easier circumstancesof the country have so increased, as to extend theuse of watches, and the consequent fabrication ofthem.

It appears by this account that the weight ofgold and silver respectively, in the watches madein France , is not more than half the averageweight of those made in England. It is rare tosee double cases to French watches; whereas inEngland it is nearly general with those of silver,and very extensively the case with those of gold.Besides this, the English watches with a singlecase are much more substantially framed thanthose which are manufactured in France .

Of late years many of the internal parts of theFrench watches have been manufactured in thedepartments, chiefly in the Doubs , the Jura, andthe l’Ain . They are sent in an unfinished stateto Paris , where the movements are polished andadjusted, and the whole workmanship finally com-pleted.

The labour employed in making the largerarticles by the gold and silversmiths in France isstated by Chaptal to be no more than an eighthpart of the cost of the precious metal; whilst onthe jewellery, the gilding, and the embroidery,“ the fabrication of which in Paris is immense,