280 GILDING. CHAP. XXVI. 



which it is used. The trade in gilt buttons is 

 chiefly carried on in Birmingham, but extensively 

 also in London. In the first town there are 

 upwards of fifty large, and many small establish- 

 ments ; in the latter a much smaller number, but 

 these are calculated to expend about three times 

 the quantity of gold on the same number of buttons. 

 From the influence of fashion within the three or 

 four last years the number of gilt buttons fabricated 

 has somewhat declined, though the whole produce 

 is still very large. Many of those for the use of 

 the officers of the navy and army and other 

 gentlemen are made at Birmingham, as are those 

 destined for foreign markets, whilst the trade in 

 London supplies a portion of them to the higher 

 classes, and has an almost exclusive monopoly of 

 such livery buttons as have arms or crests stamped 

 on them. 



Communications received from ten of the largest 

 manufacturers in Birmingham led to the con- 

 clusion that their weekly consumption of fine gold 

 had till within the last three years amounted to 

 two hundred ounces weekly, and that the several 

 smaller houses, from their greater number, might 

 use about three hundred ounces. Within the 

 last three years the demand has declined, and the 

 consumption of gold is estimated not to exceed 

 three hundred and sixty ounces. The quantity 

 used in London is not supposed to amount to 



