There were advertisements in the journals of the days of Charles II. In Anne's day in the _Spectator_ we find on June 2, 1712, advertisements concerning a preparation for "polishing and setting Razors, Penknives, and Lancets, not to be paralleled, being much more durable and smooth, never growing rough by using, but setting Razors with greater Fineness and Exactitude than any other sort possibly can. Price 1s. each. Sold only by Mr. Allcrafts, a Toy Shop at the Blue-Coat Boy against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill and Mr. Paishon, a Stationer at the Maypole in the Strand." Sheffield goes back to 1624, when the Cutlers Company was incorporated by Act of Parliament. Cutlery and tools were the great features, but later there grew up a special branch known as "steel toys." Button-hooks, corkscrews, key rings, nut-crackers, swivels and spring hooks, and many other articles. Here then was the foundation of trade long established and trade customs long in operation. It is not therefore surprising to find that when the great impulse came with factories and mills arising on every hand for rolling plate and manipulating it into shapes acceptable to the world of fashion, that Sheffield rose to the occasion. Her catalogues, beautifully engraved and costly to produce, were embellished with designs of examples she was prepared to export to the Continent. From these Pattern Books we get a very interesting sidelight into the intricacies of the business side of the undertakings which were evidently on colossal proportions. [Illustration: DESIGNS OF SALT CELLARS. From an old Pattern Book issued by eighteenth-century Sheffield platers to Continental markets. Of the 86 copper engraved plates, many were designs made by J. Parsons & Co. Date about 1784. (_At the Victoria and Albert Museum._) (_Reproduced by permission of the Board of Education._)] In the examination of the designs each by each it will be observed that as is usual in modern trade publications every variation is given of designs differing from each other although in apparently unimportant details to the public. But this peep behind the scenes shows how exact were the traders in illustrating such differences in design.