214 pliny's natural iiistoet. [Book XXXIV. 



CHAP. 48. (17.) — STANNUM. AEGENTAEIUM. 



When copper vessels are coated with stannum,^^ they pro- 

 duce a less disagreeable flavour, and the formation of verdigris 

 is prevented ; it is also remarkable, that the weight of the 

 vessel is not increased. As already mentioned,^'' the finest 

 mirrors were formerly prepared from it at Brundisium, until 

 everybody, our maid-servants even, began to use silver ones. 

 At the present day a counterfeit stannum is made, by adding 

 one-third of white copper to two-thirds of white lead.^^ It 

 is also counterfeited in another way, by mixing together equal 

 parts of white lead and black lead ; this last being what is 

 called ^* argentarium."^^ There is also a composition called 

 '' tertiarium," a mixture of two parts of black lead and one of 

 white : its price is twenty denarii per pound, and it is used 

 for soldering pipes. Persons still more dishonest mix together^ 

 equal parts of tertiarium and white lead, and, calling the com- 

 pound *' argentarium," coat articles with it melted. This last 

 sells at sixty denarii per ten pounds, the price of the pure un- 

 mixed white lead being eighty denarii, and of the black seven.* 



White lead is naturally more dry ; while the black, on the 

 contrary, is always moist; consequently the white, without 

 being mixed with another metal, is of no use'^ for anything. 

 Silver too, cannot be soldered with it, because the silver be- 

 comes fused before the white lead. It is confidently stated, 

 also, that if too small a proportion of black lead is mixed with 



^^ A compound metal, probably, somewhat like pewter. See Note 95 

 above. He evidently alludes to the process of "tinning." 



^'^ In B. xxxiii. c. 45 : where he says that the best mirrors were 

 formerly made of a mixture of stannum and copper. — B. See Beckmann, 

 Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 60-62, 72. ss Or tin, 99 " Silver mixture." 



^ Such a mixture as this would in reality become onore valuable than 

 "argentarium," as the proportion would be z!?/;o-^/«r^s of tin and one of 

 lead. How then could the workmen merit the title of dishonest? Beck- 

 mann suggests that the tinning ought to have been done with j)tire tm, but 

 that unprincipled artists employed tin mixed with lead. It is most 

 probable, however, that Pliny himself has made a mistake, and that we 

 should read " equal parts of black lead" (our lead) ; in which case the 

 mixture passed off as "argentarium," instead of containing equal parts of 

 tin and lead, would contain Jive-sixths of lead. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. 

 Vol. II. p. 221. JSohn's Edition. 



2 AH these readings are doubtful in the extreme. 



^ As being too brittle, probably ; the reason suggested by Beckmann, 

 Vol. II. p. 221. 



