Jeivelkrs. 355 



though gradual, has been the increased introduction of gold or- 

 naments in the decorations of females. This has been especial- 

 ly remarkable within the whole of the last twenty years, but, 

 perhaps, much more so within the last than the first ten years 

 of the period. 



Only a junta of jewellers, dressmakers, and ladies' maids, 

 could give a complete catalogue of the numerous ornaments 

 of gold and silver which have of late been added to the dress of 

 our females in the higher circles of society. Ornaments for the 

 head, including large combs of gold, necklaces, and brooches of 

 extended size, clasps and buttons of gold to fasten the bodies of 

 the gowns, bracelets and armlets additionally, numerous rings 

 on the fingers, gold hooks-and-eycs for the drapery of the gowns, 

 eye-glasses set in gold, and secured by chains of gold, and a 

 watch with gold seals, and trinkets too numerous to be men^ 

 tioned by one not professionally a master of dress. Such are 

 the additions recently made to the application of gold to pur- 

 poses of ornament. 



Whatever effect may be produced by such fashionable changes 

 when confined to the higher classes, it is not bounded by their 

 consumption alone. The ornaments of this kind are first fabri- 

 cated of fine gold, and commonly in London alone. They are, 

 however, soon imitated, by other workmen, in gold of inferior 

 quality, in some degree, of inferior workmanship, at Derby and 

 Liverpool, but more especially at Birmingham. At the latter 

 place much gold is so mixed with alloys, in the combination of 

 which so much chemical knowledge is applied, that it can be sold 

 at all prices from a half to even a quarter the cost of standard 

 gold. From metal of these several degrees of fineness, ornaments 

 are made which enable the more numerous class, a little below 

 the fashionable world, to rival their superiors in fashion, and with 

 no danger of their inferiority being detected, except by the very 

 small number who are critical judges of the metal. 



Another step has been made in the progress of suiting oiv 

 naments to the finances of a still more numerous class of 

 lovers of dress. Of late years the practice of plating with gold, 

 in a manner similar to that long practised with silver, has been 

 introduced. A thin plate of gold is fixed on a thicker one of 

 inferior metal, and then, by means of the powerful flattening 



A a2 



