The caster never attempted to be other than reticent. It was like a poor relation at the table in company with the magnificence of the centre-piece. The pierced work in subdued ornament pales before the elaboration in such a centre-piece as that illustrated on page 279, with the London hall-marks for 1761. The basket is of elaborate and graceful form, and the eight branching candlesticks mark it as a sumptuous specimen. The feet are elaborate and in rococo style. It belongs to the early years of George III, of Garrick, of Macklin, and of Foote. It was contemporary with the enormous head-dresses, the subject of so many caricatures, which followed the indecorous hoop-petticoats of the dissolute days of George II. Paste and plaster and powder raised these head ornaments to a superstructure representing chariots, and a _fureur des cabriolets_, related by Horace Walpole. Men had them painted on their waistcoats, and women stuck a one-horse post-chaise on the top of their elaborate head-dress, which said head-dress was not changed for some weeks. Medical men of the day speak of this in terms which we will not introduce here. Sir Joshua Reynolds had commenced to paint his immortal portraits, Handel had found congenial soil under the House of Hanover to settle here, providing satirists with subjects as to his gluttonous habits, and producing music that has become English to those who like oratorio. Thomas Chippendale had published his _Director_ in 1754, with its wonderful designs; and Robert Adam, in 1758, had put his screen and gateway across the Admiralty in Whitehall, and was translating dull London streets into classic style. These were the nights at the “Turk’s Head” with Dr. Johnson, the supporter of the Royal House, the upholder of purity and piety in an impure and irreligious age, Burke with his flashing conversation, and Goldsmith and David Garrick, and a circle of men who counted for more than the macaronis and the fops of Pall Mall and St. James’s Street. Wealth was pouring into the country from India, and with it came rapidly acquired habits of luxury--habits that quickly reflected themselves in the furniture and domestic appurtenances. This silver centre-piece of 1761, therefore, tells the story of these days of the eighteenth century, “remarkable for the great industrial revolution, which gradually transformed England from an agricultural to a manufacturing country, depending for food supplies on foreign countries.”