The fragment of skillet-handle illustrated (FIG. I) was found during the 1973 excavations in Goss Street, and is the first example of a Roman bronze vessel with a manufacturer's stamp to be found in Chester. Unfortunately the handle occurred in a medieval robber-trench, but is likely to be derived from Roman military levels. Bronze skillets would appear to have been used by legionaries and the civilian population for mulling wine, for cooking and as capacity-measures. It has been suggested by Wright that a group of legionaries would each have carried one of slightly different size which belonged to a graduated set, and often there are internal markings within the bowl to measure a known amount. Skillets of this type were brought into Britain during the first and second centuries. Most of the earlier examples were probably made at the Campanian centres of bronze-working in Southern Italy, at Capua and Nola, but after about 60 it would appear that Gaulish manufacturers progressively captured the market. Campanian metal-workers produced a wide range of vessels, but it is mainly skillets that are stamped with the maker's name. To date, forty different vessels are known with stamps from the British Isles (see Appendix).