Early in the eighteenth century the lathe began to be developed, so any specimens of pewter disclosing lathe marks would suggest a date subsequent to that period. The pewter formed by the “spinning” process is the most modern of all. The pewter collector should be careful how he polishes his pewter, as this ware should never be subjected to rubbing with brick-dust and like vigorous usage. [Illustration: _Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art_ Chinese Pewter Jar with Bronze Cover. Early 18th Century A Swiss Pewter Wine-Flask, Zurich, Dated 1766] [Illustration: American 18th Century Sampler] [Illustration: A Dated English or Welsh Sampler, 1787] CHAPTER VIII SAMPLERS Before the age of machine-made things, and of attire much more conventional than in many of the earlier periods, there was, of course, great need of skilled needlewomen, not only professionally but at home as well, for it was in the home that most of the “finery” of our forefathers originated. Stubbes’s “Anatomy of Abuses,” which appeared in 1583, tells of the raiment of the men of the author’s time who were “decked out in the fineries even to their shirts, which are wrought with needlework of silks,” etc. The good Stubbes also complains that it was difficult to tell who were gentlefolk, because all men of that time affected silks, velvets, “taffeties,” and the like, regardless of station. Thus we may see how important it was that the little misses of the days of long ago should be taught stitchery at the early age of nine or ten years. Samplers are among the most intimate of collectable old things. ...Bookless and pictureless Save the inevitable sampler hung Over the fireplace.