From 1821 until well into the 1840's large cap plates were mass-produced by manufacturers in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and perhaps other cities of the New England metal manufacturing area. The few early platemakers, such as Crumpton and Armitage of Philadelphia and Peasley of Boston, were joined by a number of others. Prominent among these were Charles John Joullain, who made plates in New York during the 1820's, and William Pinchin of Philadelphia. Joullain is first listed in New York directories, in 1817, as a "gilder," and so continues through 1828. Sometimes his given name is listed as Charles, sometimes as James, and finally as Charles James. From 1820 to 1828 his address is the same, 32 Spring Street. There is a William Pinchin (Pinchon) listed in the Philadelphia directories as a silverplater or silversmith almost continuously from 1785 through 1863, indicating the possibility of a family occupation. It is believed that some of the New England makers of uniform buttons also manufactured plates. Among such buttonmakers of the 1820's and 1830's were R. and W. Robinson, D. Evans and Co., Leavenworth and Co., Benedict and Coe, and others in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Buttonmakers often stamped their names or easily recognizable hallmarks on the back of their products. In most cases it is virtually impossible to ascertain the precise units for which these different plates were first designed, and the problem is further complicated because the maker would sell a specific plate design to several different units. Those designs that incorporate all or part of a state's seal were originally made for Militia organizations of the particular state, but in several instances these plates were sold--altered or not--to units in other parts of the country. Militia organizations that were widely separated geographically purchased cap plates from distant manufacturers who had perhaps a dozen or more stock patterns to offer at a cost much lower than that involved in making a new die from which to strike custom-made ornaments. It made no difference to the Savannah Greys, in Georgia, that their new cap plates were the same as those worn by organizations in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Toward the end of this period of large cap plates, manufacturers came out with two-piece ornaments. After 1833, when the Regiment of United States Dragoons was authorized its large sunburst plate with separate eagle ornament in the center, insignia makers introduced a veritable rash of full sunburst, three-quarter sunburst, and half-sunburst cap plates with interchangeable centers. And for the first time small Militia units could afford their own distinctive devices at little extra cost. Shoulder-belt and waist-belt plates underwent the same evolution, and by the late 1830's such plates had become a mixture of either single die stampings or composite plates made of several parts soldered or otherwise held onto a rectangular or oval background.