288 JEWELLERS. CHAP. XXVI. 



greater or less degree of gold and silver, some 

 portions of which are again used by even the 

 savage tribes which are in contact with them. 



From this extensive spread of ornamental as 

 well as of useful articles, it must be obvious that 

 no calculation, with whatever care or research it 

 may have been preceded, can be of such a nature 

 as to be more than an approximation to accuracy. 

 The task, however, must be undertaken, and the 

 reader be left to give that credit to the result that 

 shall be presented to him which in his judgment 

 it may merit. 



As the only fields of minute investigation at 

 hand on the subject of the trade of the jewellers 

 were London and Birmingham, what refers to 

 that trade in the following pages is chiefly con- 

 fined to those places, though they may, perhaps 

 with justice, be extended to Liverpool, Derby, 

 and the other towns where jewellery is fabricated. 



In London the most costly articles of jewellery 

 are devised and completely finished by the same per- 

 sons ; and, exclusive of the precious stones, which in 

 some of the ornamental products are the chief costs, 

 the greatest expenditure on them is the gold. That 

 metal is rarely used in a pure state, though in 

 some of the more delicate parts, such as the filigree 

 work, it is mixed with but a very small portion of 

 alloy. This fine gold is commonly supplied to the 

 jewellers by the refiners, and that worked up by 

 them consists of the fifty-eight thousand ounces 



