Another Wedgwood piece, a Dessert Basket (illustrated, p. 33) proves that Josiah had his own back, for the pierced ornament is distinctly taken from the silversmith and is more proper to his art than to that of the worker in clay.[1] "One can trace the motives of much of his work, both as to form and decoration, in the collections of various kinds which he was amassing, and in his constant intercourse with the metal-workers of Sheffield and Birmingham. To the former source he was indebted for the designs derived from objects of natural history, particularly shells and plants; to the latter source he owed many shapes and methods of decorative treatment which were used for silver plated ware." His introduction of diapers and other conventional designs in pierced and perforated work come straight from the Sheffield silver platers, and this style of ornamentation done in the same county as Sheffield, at the Leeds pottery, was carried to its extreme limit by Messrs. Hartley Green & Co., who became the most successful imitators of Wedgwood's cream ware, about the year 1783. [Footnote 1: _Josiah Wedgwood_, by Professor Church, 1903.] [Illustration: WEDGWOOD CREAM WARE DESSERT BASKET. Showing fine pierced work. (_Reproduced by the courtesy of Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons._)] [Illustration: WEDGWOOD CREAM WARE DESSERT CENTREPIECE. Designed from Josiah Wedgwood's collection of shells. (_In the Museum at Etruria._) (_Reproduced by the courtesy of Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons._)] The illustration (p. 37) shows the competitive repetition of design contemporary with Sheffield plate. The potter found earthenware, covered with a fine platinum glaze, was a colourable imitation of silver plate. If the squire had his plate and persons of lesser degree more economically inclined had their Sheffield plate, the cottager could have a fine, glittering array of silver lustre vessels. Nor was the glass-worker behindhand in coming into the field, as the illustration shows.