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SHEFFIELD PLATE

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 824 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SHEFFIELD See also:PLATE , the name applied to a variety of articles of domestic use or See also:ornament, made of See also:copper coated with See also:silver by a See also:special and now abandoned See also:process. Many of them were actually manufactured in See also:Birmingham, but as the See also:secret of producing the material was discovered and brought to perfection in Sheffield, the name of that See also:town was naturally connected with it, and thence transferred to articles constructed from it. In 1942 a workman named See also:Thomas See also:Bolsover was mending the handle of a See also:knife made of silver and copper, when, See also:accident-ally overheating it, he caused the metals to fuse and flow, and found that as a consequence the silver adhered to the copper as a thin coating. Being an intelligent See also:man, he perceived the commercial value of his See also:chance See also:discovery, and began the manufacture of articles which, with all the See also:appearance of silver, were both cheaper and stronger than those made of the pure See also:metal. He apparently, however, confined himself to applying the silver See also:direct to the See also:surface of the copper after the latter had been given the shape destined to it, and was thus limited to the See also:production of small articles such as See also:snuff-boxes, knife handles, See also:toilet articles, &c. It was reserved to See also:Joseph See also:Hancock to realize that by making the plate first and working it into the desired See also:form afterwards he could almost indefinitely extend the possibilities of the material. The process in its final and highest development was as follows. The groundwork was a mixture of copper and See also:brass, either metal alone having serious defects. This was See also:cast into an oblong See also:ingot, 1 to 11 in. in thickness, 2; in. in breadth, and of a length regulated by the See also:size of the plate desired. The surface of this was brought by planing, grinding and other means to the highest possible See also:pitch of smoothness and evenness. A See also:sheet of silver of a finer quality than See also:standard, ranging in thickness from 3~- in. to nearly 1 in. according to the quality aimed at, and of the same superficial extent as the copper See also:bar, was levelled and polished in the same way and accurately fitted to it, neither surface at any See also:time being soiled by contact with the workman's fingers. A sheet of copper, rather smaller than the other two and h- in. thick was laid upon the silver, and on the See also:top of all was added a piece of See also:iron, 4 in. thick, 1 in. wide, and a little shorter than the three others, to protect them from the direct contact of the strong iron See also:wire with which all were firmly See also:bound together.

The junction of the edges of the silver and copper-blend was treated with a See also:

flux of See also:borax and the whole was submitted to the See also:heat of a See also:furnace until the silver was seen to be melting, when it was instantly removed, care being taken to avoid pressing upon the upper or See also:lower surfaces, as the liquid silver in that See also:case would have been squeezed out from between the two enclosing plates and the operation ruined. It was then See also:left to cool, and after being thoroughly cleansed presented the appearance of a copper ingot with one silver See also:side. This was passed again and again between gradually approximated rollers, with occasional See also:annealing, until the desired thickness had been attained. The See also:great See also:extension of surface thus produced had the See also:drawback of exaggerating any small defect in the See also:union of the two metals, increasing it to a See also:blister of an See also:inch or more in See also:diameter. It was, however, fortunately found easy to remedy this. The blister if unbroken washeated, pricked, and then rubbed level with a burnisher; if, as sometimes happened, the silver had flaked away it was replaced by coatings of pure See also:leaf silver rubbed in with a. burnisher. The plate when passed as flawless was cut into the desired form and moulded as far as possible into shape, the edges where necessary being soldered. At first only one surface of the copper was plated with silver and thus its usefulness was necessarily restricted, but it was a See also:simple See also:matter to apply the silver to both sides and thenceforward whatever was made in solid metal could be reproduced in plate, and See also:firm after firm went into the business, ever and anon introducing further improvements. The possibility of See also:embossing the metal beyond a certain point without fracturing the coating of silver was got over by casting or stamping the raised ornament in silver, filling the hollows with a form of See also:pewter and soldering the result to the appropriate See also:part of the See also:general See also:design. Another difficulty, the concealment of the inner core of copper which was seen as a thin red See also:line when a cut edge was exposed, was met about 1784 by See also:George Cadman, who adopted the practice of soldering on an edging, generally ornamented, of solid silver so as to See also:cover the junction, and the presence of this is one of the trustworthy tests by which genuine Sheffield plate may be recognized. The labour of See also:rolling the metal by See also:hand was done away with about 1960, by the firm of Tudor, See also:Leader & Sherburn, who first employed See also:horse-See also:power, and for more than See also:half a See also:century the See also:trade both in Sheffield and Birmingham continued to flourish. In 1736 there were under 10,000 inhabitants in the former See also:city; in 176o when See also:Horace See also:Walpole passed through it, buying for two guineas a pair of candlesticks of the See also:local plate, which he thought " quite See also:pretty," and pronouncing it to be " one of the foulest towns in See also:England," there were two-and-twenty thousand who remitted eleven thousand pounds a See also:week to See also:London.

It would be impossible, were it desirable, to enumerate all the varieties of the articles turned out, or to overpraise the beauty and elegance of most of them. The designs were identical with those in favour with the See also:

gold- and silver-smiths of the See also:period, which was happily one when exceptionally See also:good See also:taste prevailed. The appreciation of See also:light and well-proportioned curves and the skilful employment of well-contrived pierced See also:work are conspicuous features. The success was, however, doomed to be See also:short lived and to come to an end as swiftly as it had grown up. In the See also:year 1800 W. See also:Cruikshank was already experimenting with a process of electro-plating, and in 1839 Mr See also:Spencer in England, and in 1838 See also:Professor M. H. See also:Jacobi (18(31—1894) in See also:Russia, working independently, succeeded in contriving methods which could be made commercially profitable. Two years later Messrs See also:Elkington in London and M. de Ruolz of See also:Paris started in business on those lines, and the slower and consequently more costly manufacture at Sheffield and Birmingham rapidly died out. Of See also:recent years old Sheffield plate after See also:long neglect has come into See also:fashion again, and genuine articles in good See also:condition have greatly gone up in value, often exceeding in cost those of more See also:modern date in See also:sterling silver. Concurrently fraudulent See also:imitation has regrettably increased. In some cases the whole See also:object is a modern See also:reproduction in electro-plate, but more often really old articles from which the See also:original plating has been worn off in course of time have been replated, both equally being in the eyes of the connoisseur' unworthy of serious See also:attention and comparatively valueless.

The difference after a little experience is not difficult to detect, though inexpressible in words. The pressure to which the Sheffield plate was submitted produces a definite See also:

colour and texture which is absent from the surface produced by the See also:deposit of silver in a liquid See also:medium by See also:electrical means, and the coat of silver is spread by the latter uniformly over the whole surface without a break, while in the former the junction between the embossed ornaments and the silver strips covering the cut edges may often be detected on careful examination. See Sheffield Plate by Bertie Wyllie; H. N. See also:Veitch, Sheffield Plate: its See also:history, manufacture and See also:art (London, 1908). (M.

End of Article: SHEFFIELD PLATE

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