SOLDERING ROMAN SILVER PLATE

Summary. Nineteen Roman silver objects, mainly from the British Museum's collection, with traces of solder, were examined by microscopy and analysed by x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. The results are discussed in relation to work on soldered objects from earlier periods and to the contemporary literary sources which are reviewed, and the solder recipes listed. Pliny's recipes for stagnum, a solder for silver, and the evidence of soldering techniques provided by later texts are discussed in detail.
Silver-tin solders and a silver-mercury solder have been identified for the first time, and predate their first appearance in the literature. Experiments were made with tin and silver-tin solders and the results are discussed.