ABSTRACT
During the eighteenth century, metal objects for domestic and personal use played a special role in the European novelty market. The advances in techniques for working metal alloys, improvement of design and inventive abilities of the artisans all contributed to the establishment of these products as ‘fashionable’ items for the decoration of houses and people. By making small variations in the products and in the techniques for working materials which could now imitate precious ones, European entrepreneurs in the sectors of fancy goods, utensils and small metal objects for personal use proposed a range of items which were able to satisfy vanity and the craving for novelty products among men and women from different social classes. 1
