Britannia metal

It was originally known as "Vickers White Metal" when made under contract by the Sheffield manufacturers Ebenezer Hancock and Richard Jessop.

In 1776 James Vickers took over the manufacturing himself and remained as owner until his death in 1809, when the company passed to his son John and son-in-law Elijah West.

Britannia metal was generally used as a cheaper alternative to electroplated nickel silver (EPNS) which is more durable.

For many years, britannia metal was used to make the solid core of the Oscar statuettes, which are 8½ lb (4 kg) and plated with 24-karat gold.

For the first few years,[2][9][10] they were gold-plated bronze, then later (perhaps starting in the 1930s,[11][12][13] 1945,[14] or 1982/1983;[15][16][17] different sources disagree), they were made of britannia metal plated with copper then nickel silver then gold, except for three years during WWII, from 1942 to 1945, during which they were made of painted plaster due to metal shortages.