"At Sheffield are actually cast and finished, most, if not all, the
parts of grates sold as their own make by the London furnishing
ironmongers. Their names are placed on them, but, in truth, they merely
put the parts together. I saw in Messrs. Picklay's rooms superior
castings for backs of grates, little inferior in delicacy to plaster of
Paris; and for grates connected with one of these patterns, I was told
100 guineas each was lately paid by a northern squire. Grates with
folding doors are made here as well as at Chesterfield. The doors are in
half heights, so as to serve two purposes, and grates so supplied sell
for about two guineas extra. Mr. Picklay has brought the kitchen range
to great perfection. With one fire he roasts, boils with water and
steam, and bakes. Economy and completeness were never more usefully
combined; and a public establishment in Sheffield is fitted with one
which has cooked a dinner complete for above three hundred persons. It
cost nearly L300, but such grates for small families may be had at ten
guineas.
"The mercantile part of the Sheffield trade is performed chiefly by
travellers, but the principal shops in London deal directly with the
manufacturers here. To humour public prejudice in regard to "_Town
make_," as it is called, and to serve as an advertisement for various
retailers in London and other large towns, their connexions in Sheffield
keep steel brands, with which their names are placed on the articles,
and they thereby pass with the public as the real manufacturers.
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