Woven wirework with gadroon border, with handle in plain double bands and hinged. Date 1800.] (_At the Sheffield Public Museum._) (_Reproduced by permission of the Corporation of Sheffield._)] [Illustration: OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CAKE BASKET.] With circular base: having wire body surmounted by a broad lip heavily decorated with floral ornament: massive handle with hinges. Date 1810. Diameter 9½ in. Base 4 in. (_At the Sheffield Public Museum._) (_Reproduced by permission of the Corporation of Sheffield._)] =Cake Baskets.=--The cake or bread basket offered a fine field for free manipulation of the sheet silver, for fine pierced-work, or designs classic and severe, or urn-shaped and massive. All these are found, and Sheffield plate cake baskets are always sought after by collectors as offering something delectable in design and exquisite in detail. The example illustrated (p. 163) is composite in its technique. The broad solid band as a rim has pierced ornament, as has also the foot. The body of the basket is wire work. The hinged handle is a solid band. A fine woven wire example, in date 1800, has a gadroon border, with handle with double bands and hinged. This is in simple basket form. The woven wire follows the technique or simulates the character of a plaited straw basket, just as Wedgwood ware baskets and dishes simulated the plaited and interlaced rush baskets. One must compare Sheffield plate with the silver examples by Edward Romer and William Plummer about 1760. A later example, in date 1810, illustrated (p. 163) has a circular base from which springs a wire body surmounted by a broad lip or rim heavily decorated with floral ornament, and having massive handle with hinges. The touches of extraneous ornament indicate the departure from the wire worker's reticence and simplicity. The design is debased from such simplicity as is found in pure wire work by these added floral ornaments. Lightness and grace are the keynotes in wire work and here they are destroyed by the unwanted additions. =Decanter Stands or Coasters.=--This is a great family. At first glance it would not seem that there was much room for variation in articles designed for so simple an object as holding a bottle or a decanter and preventing it staining the polished mahogany table. But an examination of various types shows how inventive was the Sheffield designer in producing original shapes of great diversity of character. In regard to ornament they received the elaborate attention of the piercer who allowed his designs to attain a rich quality only excelled by the dish rings to which reference is made later. They were circular, they had broken tops with flowing curves, or they were octagonal. They had richly gadrooned edges or fine bead-work, or in some examples they had four handles reminiscent of decorative ornament of an earlier period. [Illustrations: OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED COASTERS.