 An artifact , said to be part of a vase , made of antimony dating to about 3000 BC was found at <unk> , <unk> ( part of present @-@ day Iraq ) , and a copper object plated with antimony dating between 2500 BC and <unk> BC has been found in Egypt . Austen , at a lecture by Herbert Gladstone in 1892 commented that " we only know of antimony at the present day as a highly brittle and crystalline metal , which could hardly be fashioned into a useful vase , and therefore this remarkable ' find ' ( artifact mentioned above ) must represent the lost art of rendering antimony malleable . " 
