[Illustration: Fig. 175.—Cup with Cover, Silver-gilt; French; Seventeenth Century. (J.)] The English silver tankards were straight-sided, with naturalistic decoration. Modern tankards for beer-drinking uses are made in pewter or Britannia metal. [Illustration: Fig. 176.—Silver Casket; Seventeenth Century.] [Illustration: Fig. 177.—Nuremberg Tankard.] In the Rhine Provinces, in Germany, and in Switzerland stoneware tankards with metal covers and mountings are still in use. Tankards in the seventeenth century were made with pegs inserted in the sides at regulated distances, so that each drinker might quaff his measured portion when the vessel was handed round. [Illustration: Fig. 178.—Cup of Gold, _circa_ 1660-70, at Exeter College, Oxford. (C.)] In the reign of James I. many sumptuous objects in services and toilet furniture were made in gold and silver. The baronial halls in England were extremely rich in large pieces of plate: huge salvers, vases, basins, jugs, cups, toilet services, and even tables, chairs, mirror-frames, and fire-dogs were made in silver. [Illustration: Fig. 179.—English Tankard; Seventeenth Century.] In France, during the reign of Louis XIV., similar gold and silver vessels and sumptuous furniture were made in the rich and massive style of the period. Balin and Delaunay are mentioned among others who were skilful goldsmiths to that monarch, and who worked under the directions of the chief painter and tapestry designer, Lebrun. England not only made a good deal of this silver furniture, but also imported it largely from France; most of it, however, was melted down to pay for the wars of Charles I. A few remaining examples are still at Knole Park, in Kent, consisting of silver tables, mirror-frames, fire-dogs, &c. (Fig. 180). Similar objects of this period are now at Windsor Castle (Fig. 181), of which copies in electrotype are in the Kensington Museum. Some of the gold plate preserved in the Tower of London with the regalia is of this period. After the date of 1660 gold and silver-smithery becomes fluted and less florid in decoration, but some of it still keeps the gadrooned and bulbous character. [Illustration: Fig. 180.—Silver Fire-Dog at Knole Park.] Towards the end of the century, in the time of William III., the flutings were less in number, and consequently became larger in scale, and in the early part of the eighteenth century the metal work in England became plainer, depending more on the lines of its contour for effect than on its decoration (Fig. 182). Mouldings were plainer, and broad spaces of convex and concave shapes producing a massive and, in many cases, an elegant appearance (Figs. 182, 183), which gave to the Queen Anne plate a mark of great distinction. [Illustration: Fig. 181.—Silver Table at Windsor Castle.]