In the sixteenth century the trade sprang up in Scotland, many excellent pieces of the ware being produced here, and during the seventeenth century Dutch and German pewter came to the fore, being considered, during this period, the best made. Nuremberg and Ausberg were the centers of the industry in Germany, while in Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow appear to have been the chief trade centers. The ware made in Spain never seems to have attained any great degree of perfection, and records of its progress in this country are extremely scarce. Barcelona seems to have been the center of the industry, but just when or where the craft had its inception, research has been unable to disclose. Certain it is that no trace of any corporation or guild has been found prior to the fifteenth century. English pewter dates back as far as the tenth century, though few pieces are now in existence that antedate the seventeenth century. Here, as in other European countries, the ware was at first made solely for ecclesiastical purposes, its manufacture for household use not becoming popular until many years later. From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, the ware gradually grew in importance through northern Europe, though domestic pewter was used only by the clergy and nobility up to the fourteenth century. Just when it became popular for table and kitchen use is not definitely known, though it is certain that it supplanted wooden ware some time in the fifteenth century. Pewter reached the height of its popularity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though its use for household purposes continued throughout the eighteenth and the first part of the nineteenth centuries. In the sixteenth century the artistic quality of the ware was greatly improved, for by an act of James VI the ware was divided into two grades, the best to be marked with a crown and hammer, and the second with the maker's name. Specimens of this century are to-day extremely scarce, those few examples that do remain being for the most part found in museums or in old English castles, where they have remained in the same family from generation to generation. No doubt, specimens would have been more plentiful had not the greater part of the church plate in England and Scotland been destroyed during the Reformation. After 1780 pewter was but little used among the wealthy classes, except in their kitchens and servants' quarters, where it held sway for a considerable length of time. In fact, in some of the larger establishments, it continued to be used regularly until within the last thirty-five years, and even now it is used in the servants' hall in two or three of the large old country houses. It lingered longest in the taverns and inns, and in the London chop-houses, being used in the last named until they were forced out of business through the introduction of coffee palace and tea rooms.