as been found in Spain showing that craftsmen
were supplied with the necessary materials when engaged to make
valuable figures for the decoration of altars. It is dated May 12,
1367, "I, Sancho Martinez Orebsc, silversmith, native of Seville,
inform you, the Dean and Chapter of the church of Seville, that it
was agreed that I make an image of St. Mary with its tabernacle,
that it should be finished at a given time, and that you were to
give me the silver and stones required to make it."

In Spain, the most splendid triumphs of the goldsmith's skill were
the "custodias," or large tabernacles, in which the Host was carried
in procession. The finest was one made for Toledo by Enrique d'Arphe,
in competition with other craftsmen. His design being chosen, he
began his work in 1517, and in 1524 the custodia was finished. It
was in the form of a Gothic temple, six sided, with a jewelled
cross on the top, and was eight feet high. Some of the gold employed
was the first ever brought from America. The whole structure weighed
three hundred and eighty-eight pounds. Arphe made a similar custodia
for Cordova and another for Leon. His grandson, Juan d'Arphe, wrote
a verse about the Toledo custodia, in which these lines occur:

"Custodia is a temple of rich plate
Wrought for the glory of Our Saviour true...
That holiest ark of old to imitate,
Fashioned by Bezaleel the cunning Jew,
Chosen of God to work his sovereign will,
And greatly gifted with celestial skill."

Juan d'Arphe himself made a custodia for Seville, the decorations
and figures on which were directed by the learned Francesco Pacheco,
the father-in-law of Velasquez. When this custodia was completed,
d'Arphe wrote a description of it, alluding boldly to this work
as "the largest and finest work in silver known of its kind," and
this could really be said without conceit, for it is a fact.

A Gothic form of goldsmith's work obtained in Spain in the 13th,
14th and 15th centuries; it was based upon architectural models and
was known as "plateresca." The shrines for holding relics became
in these centuries positive buildings on a small scale in precious
material. In England also were many of these shrines, but few of
them now remain.

The first Mayor of London, from 1189 to 1213, was a goldsmith,
Henry Fitz Alwyn, the Founder of the Royal Exchange; Sir Thomas
Gresham, in 1520, was also a goldsmith and a banker. There is an
entertaining piece of cynical sa