There is also tutenag, an obscure metal, an alloy of antimony and zinc which was known to the Chinese, though not much has been written concerning this alloy and its employment in this country for articles of artistic excellence. But candlesticks and fenders have been made of pleasing appearance and having good wearing qualities. Then there is the Britannia metal period where pewter and Britannia metal met. In fact, during the latter days of Sheffield plating there were many minor competitors offering substitutes for the silver plating at a lower price. Commercialism was in the air, and at the flood the old methods of plating by fusion were swept away. =The Factory System.=--Looked at from all points of view the Sheffield plating industry betrayed the rise of the factory system, as did also the great Wedgwood and other Staffordshire firms. The factory system, by reason of its systemization, apportions set tasks to a chain of individuals, so that no one individual can be said to be an artist-craftsman in the same sense that he would have been in the old days. The old Italian masters compounded their own pigments and carved and gilded their own frames. Life was then more crystallized. The viciousness of the factory system was that it destroyed the personality of the craftsman. In latter days strong movements have been inaugurated to attempt to revive art industries where the artist craftsmen will not be obliterated under the name of a firm or a syndicate. =The End of the Story.=--It has been shown throughout this volume that old Sheffield plate by reason of its artistic excellence, should be treasured and loved. Its fashioning is most certainly a lost art. The old methods have disappeared for ever. It would be impossible to procure workmen nowadays with the fine instinct shown by those under the old _régime_. If a return were made to the old process in lieu of the solid plate; if, let it be granted, that electro-plate were superseded by a freak of fashion which demanded Sheffield plate in the old manner, the operation would still be impossible. The cost of producing Sheffield plate by fusion and rolling would be greater than if it were solid silver. Hence collectors have realized the value, not only æsthetically but the actual value of a fine series of wonderful works of art produced in an artistic manner which can never come again. It has been collected by far seeing enthusiasts, and they have bought at prices which will never occur again. Recently at Christie's a set of four Adam style candlesticks brought thirty-two pounds. But this was not too much for so splendid a technique. And without doubt old Sheffield plate, especially in examples that are not forthcoming as having been made in silver plate, will command much higher prices in the future. English earthenware in some instances has eclipsed porcelain in regard to prices under the hammer, and engravings after paintings in oil finely executed in a masterly technique, never again