discover the identity of any one counterfeiting their ancient marks. They have statutory powers to inflict fines on persons convicted of such malpractices, and in the public interest they would naturally prosecute inquiries as to how false marks came to be placed on silver purporting to be assayed by an old and honourable company. [Illustration: CIRCULAR SALT CELLAR. Silver-gilt. Dated 1638, and having London hall-mark of that date. Greatest height 6³/₁₆ in. Engraved with the arms of the Mercers’ Company and the arms of John Dethick, the donor. (See marks illustrated p. 365.) (_By courtesy of the Mercers’ Company._)] You may search the chronological tables of the statutes through and through, and you will find nothing relative to punishments specially laid down to meet the case of fabricators of old furniture or old china, but in regard to forging old silver marks there are a multitude of protective measures. There is reform needed in the laws relating to silver, and urgently needed. We offer this suggestion to some Member of Parliament bursting to distinguish himself. It was urgently recommended by the Committee of 1856, and a Bill was prepared by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue in 1857, but nothing came of it. The Select Committee of the House of Commons, again, in 1879 made further recommendations, but no restrictive measure has ever been laid before Parliament. “There is much to say for the old demand of the Goldsmiths’ Company for further powers of enforcing the law than the mere right to sue for penalties. Sales by auction now take place with practical impunity, no matter how spurious and debased the goods may be, and there is evidence and to spare to show that the general sense of the trade and the public is in favour of the preservations of the old guarantee.” The study of salt cellars suggests a flying word on the salt spoon. To quote from an essay by Addison, dated 1711, the _Spectator_ says, in an account he gives of dining with a fine lady: “In the midst of these my Musings she desires me to reach her a little Salt upon the point of my Knife, which I did in such Trepidation and hurry of Obedience, that I let it drop by the way, at which she immediately startled and said it fell towards her. Upon this I looked very blank; and, observing the Concern of the whole Table, began to consider myself with some confusion, as a person that had brought some Disaster upon the Family.” This is a pretty picture of eighteenth century “high life.” The superstition concerning the spilling of salt is still with us, but helping salt with a knife is no longer in fashion in “polite society.” In general salt cellars may be classified as follows, commencing with the Standing Salt, with its determination of rank as to those who sat above the salt and those who sat below it:-- =Standing Salts.=--The earliest are shaped like hour-glasses. These belong to the fifteenth and first half of sixteenth century.