304 pp "This is a book for home connoisseurs who desire to know about their own treasures and the relics connecting them with good old families who were prosperous in the 18th century and earlier. Special prominence is given to silver because it is the metal mostly desired by the amateur collector, but Pewter and Sheffield Plate are also considered in this book in order to provide the reader with handy chapters of reference and to some extent explain the overlapping of domestic metal work of other materials and composite metals. This volume is a study of domestic silver as well as a review of earlier examples and those historic records of past peoples and ages almost forgotten, in which the beginnings of craftsmanship and commerce are found.".