The collectable curios in metal include many which cannot be classified. They are isolated specimens of copper and brasswork representing some special household utensil or workshop appliance which, in the course of time, has become obsolete or has been superseded by more modern contrivances of other materials. Copper was almost exclusively used in works where acids and other chemicals prevented the use of iron until enamelled wares, aluminium, and zinc were available; but such workshop appliances are not usually very attractive, and seldom come within the scope of the collector except as museum specimens. Among the various sundry objects of interest, those mentioned in the following paragraphs are worthy of notice, especially as many of them are quite inexpensive, and can readily be obtained from curio-shops and occasionally picked up cheaply from cottages and farmhouses in out-of-the-way places. Tobacco-boxes and Pipe-stoppers. Smokers' sundries include many objects in brass, especially boxes for storing tobacco. Most of the larger receptacles for the storage of tobacco were in olden time of lead or pewter, or, in more recent times, of japanned tin, followed in the present day by pottery and wood. The small boxes in the days before rubber pouches were known were nearly always of brass or other metal, such boxes being often elaborately ornamented. Dutch metal-workers produced some very decorative boxes in the seventeenth century. In some instances the sides are made of copper and the covers or lids of brass, the two metals in contrast presenting a very pleasing appearance. Several of these boxes are to be seen in the Guildhall Museum; on one there is the representation of a bear-pit, on another scriptural subjects, a third being more appropriately covered with tavern scenes. Needless to say, Dutch artists were then--as they have been in after years--famous for their scenic views. The engravers appear to have divided their favours between religious pictures and rural scenes. Battles, too, came in for a share of the engraver's skill, and such pictures are noticeable on many of the larger boxes, some of which possibly were not used as tobacco-boxes. The picture scenes were continued until the close of the eighteenth century, and in some instances a few years in the next. Then there came a time of undecorated metal-work, and the engraving, if any, was stiff and formal. Ornamental borders came into vogue, and the more elaborate boxes were engraved with the crests or monograms of their owners. Some show portraits, such as an eighteenth-century box on which is a portrait of Frederick the Great.