PEWTER
There are many persons--some of them collectors of other antiques and
curios--who ask what the fascination of old pewter can be, frankly
declaring that to them it has no attraction. Perhaps to some the mention
of pewter suggests battered up, dingy, leaden-hued objects of metal,
more suitable for bullets than suited to buffets. Again, there are those
who, unacquainted with pewter lore, do not guess the wealth of
historical interest that invests the subject.
Relics of any age that are so damaged as no longer to command respectful
attention have no real excuse for perpetuation unless some highly
important historic association attaches to them, for surely mere age or
antiquity is not a raison d’être with the sensible. Pewter in a state of
dilapidation is no exception to the rule governing the forming of any
collection of quality, and no matter what its antecedents, it should
present good form to be worthy a place in the worth-while collection, if
it is to be regarded with other than the sentiment bestowed upon a
chipping from the Great Pyramid or a bottle of dust from Pompeii.
But truly fine pewter has attributes to justify its collecting. In the
first place, its decorative quality commends it to notice. Here,
however, one must remember that an esthetic taste will recognize this,
where one to which the artistic does not appeal will overlook it.
Secondly, the story of old pewter, as recorded by Welch Massé and other
authorities on the subject, authorities to whom the collector-student is
bound to be indebted for much information, is one that lends
entertainment to the pursuit of the hobby.
A few years ago a rage for old pewter swept over England and America,
following a notable exhibition--the first of its sort--held at
Clifford’s Inn, London. This was in 1904. To be truthful one must record
the “slump” that followed a few years later. But the true collector who
had taken up with pewter remained loyal and enthusiastic, and with the
appearance of a number of exhaustive and authoritative works on the
history of pewter in America and in Great Britain, there has been a
revival of interest in the subject which is bound to be permanent.
English pewter was much simpler than the pewter made in other parts of
Europe. This latter often attained to an ornateness from which,
fortunately, the pewter of England of the best period is free. The
manufacture of pewter in England was governed by the strict rules of the
Pewterers’ Company, which, as early as 1503, made it compulsory for the
pewterers of England to mark their wares, just as the French pewterers
of Limoges had been compelled to do a century earlier. Some of the early
English pewter was marked with the heraldic Tudor rose with crown above,
although the rose-and-crown is to be found on Scottish and on some
Flemish pieces also.
As for the individual marks of the pewterers, these marks were called
touches. Each pewterer was compelled to have his separate touch, which
was recorded at the Pewterers’ Company halls by impressions struck on
sheets of lead. Nearly all the plates of touches in London so formed
prior to 1666 were destroyed in the Great Fire, which also consumed
nearly all the records, although some of the audit books of the company,
dating from 1415, were saved. However, on the lead plates that have
survived we find some eleven hundred pewterers’ touches impressed. The
earlier touches were somewhat smaller than those of later date; some of
them, in fact were tiny. The mark X on old English pewter was permitted
on metal of extra quality, as one may learn from one of the company’s
rules of 1697, which gives notice that “none may strike the letter X
except upon extraordinary ware, commonly called hard metal ware.” The
various instances of misdeeds on the part of pewterers who tried to
evade the regulations kept the company busy for several centuries. The
very last regulation of the Pewterers’ Company concerning touches
directs that “all wares capable of a large touch shall be touched with a
large touch with the Christian name and surname either of the maker or
of the vendor, at full length in plain Roman letters; and the wares
shall be touched with the small touch.” A penalty of one penny per pound
was exacted from those pewterers who neglected to observe this rule.
While all the facts concerning the marking of old pewter should be
diligently studied by the collector, as he gathers them from this source
and from that, and will prove of great help, be of interest, and lend
zest to collecting, one must not forget that much imitation old pewter
has been fabricated with intent to defraud. However, such “fakes” (many
of them are very attractive!) usually unblushingly bear upon them the
ear-marks of their spurious nature, and the collector soon comes to have
command of the knowledge necessary to detect such reproductions.
The material of old pewter is variously compounded. Old fine pewter
consisted of 112 pounds of tin to 26 pounds of copper, or--in place of
the cooper--of brass. Again, a fine, hard resonant metal was made of 100
parts of tin to 17 of antimony. Distinguished from the fine pewter was
common pewter--or “trifle” pewter, as it was called. This was made of 83
parts of tin to 17 parts of antimony, or, with slight variations, of 82
parts of tin to 18 parts of antimony. These various alloys are
susceptible of a high polish and of retaining it well in ordinary
circumstances some time. This pewter, too, has a good measure of
hardness and possesses durability.
Britannia metal must not be confused, as often it is, with the real
pewter. It was a late eighteenth-century invention of tin, antimony,
copper, and zinc, which lent itself to fashioning on the lathe (a
process called “spinning”), having in this respect a decided advantage
over the less easily worked pewter. Naturally it did not take long for
the new Britannia metal to supersede pewter when it was discovered that
Britannia metal could be electroplated.
However, the general use to which pottery and porcelain, tinware and
enamel attained had come to have much, too, to do with banishing pewter
from general use, though it remained longer in favor in Scotland than in
England. “A whole garnish of peutre,” such as a lady of 1487 bequeathed
to one of her heirs, no longer came to be deemed fashionable. The master
pewterers suffered and, as time went on, found themselves forced out of
their trade.
With the waning of the popularity of pewter, vast quantities of it were
melted up for solder and for other purposes, which accounts for the
scarcity of really fine old pieces. Indeed, such articles as pewter
spoons are exceptionally rare; not, as some suppose, because they were
so small, but because they were especially serviceable to the traveling
tinkers, who could convert them into solder. The English pewter spoon
was seldom a small affair, if it ever descended in scale to the size of
a dessert spoon. In passing it is well to call the collector’s attention
to the fact that pewter spoons are imitated and often placed before
buyers as antiques. One needs especially to familiarize himself with the
shapes of the bowls and of the handles of the English ones, and with
other _minutiæ_, in order to determine intelligently the authenticity of
a piece of pewter of this sort. Other objects are much more common, and
ten genuine English pewter spoons would form a goodly collection,
considering their exceptional rarity.
The London pewterers guarded their trade secrets jealously. They
permitted no outsiders to loiter and watch them at work. As the various
molds for pewter objects were made at great expense, it was the custom
for the guilds of the Pewterers’ Company to own these and to let them
out. This accounts for the various standard shapes of articles, made by
quite different pewterers. Lists of such molds, dating as far back as
1425, have survived the vicissitudes of time and throw much interesting
light on the subject. Let the pewter-collector remember that pewter
objects appear to have come into vogue as a substitute for silver, and
that pieces of old pewter usually follow in form the shapes of the
contemporary silver objects of like use. Indeed, a study of old English
silver will prove of great help to the pewter-collector in solving
problems of chronology. One may not attempt to collect a whole garnish
of pewter of a single period--a complete garnish consisting of twelve
platters, twelve dishes, and twelve saucers--but it is quite possible,
without an appalling outlay. On the other hand, unless it is a “find,”
one may have to pay forty or fifty dollars for a fine and authentic
early English pewter spoon.
Whatever one collects in the way of old pewter of any period and of any
country, it should be displayed by itself and not mixed with silver,
glass, and other objects. As to what dealers sometimes call “silver
pewter,” let not the unwary collector suppose that it is more than
pewter of a fine quality (if the object proves to be that!). Silver
cannot enter into the composition of true pewter, as it takes 950° C. to
melt it, while the tin, melting at 230° C., would volatilize too greatly
to combine with the precious metal before the silver even reached the
melting-point. Perhaps because the finest pewter takes a silver-like
polish it was originally called “silver pewter,” without intent to
mislead.
Another point worth remembering is that, although all sorts of objects
have been fashioned of pewter--even a copy of the Portland Vase has been
fashioned in this metal--the collector will find very few old English
pewter tea-pots. Fully eighty-five per cent. of the tea-pots passing as
pewter are, I should say, either Britannia or Ashberry metal. Very early
ecclesiastical pieces of English make are rare, too. The Council of
Westminster forbade the fashioning of church vessels of pewter, as it
was thought not sufficiently precious to be dedicated to such use. But
in poorer communities exceptions must have been made, as we know of its
use in churches in 1194. The Council of Nîmes (1252) and the Council of
Albi (1254) in France had later to take up a like matter, then
permitting pewter in the manufacture of objects for church use under
certain restrictions.
Not only in early times (by the year 1290 Edward I had accumulated three
hundred pieces of pewter of fine quality) but as late at 1820, when
George IV had pewter placed upon the table at the coronation feast,
pewter has enjoyed the protection of royalty, which fact adds not a
little to its historic interest. But let the collector beware of certain
pewter plates with arms, portraits, etc., stamped in high relief, which
are now and then to be met with, marked with a crowned rose and N. D. in
the upper part of the crown, as well as a pellet in the center of each
petal (except in the center of the upper one, where there is a
six-pointed mullet). And let him beware of the marked pieces
distinguished by a St. George or by a St. Michael and a dragon in a
beaded circle and the letters A. I. C., as these are not old pieces but
appear to have been fabricated as “ornamental” antiques.
Of course there are many other tricks resorted to by the unscrupulous,
but the real collector, generally speaking, happily possesses that
instinct which enables him to learn his lessons quickly and
inexpensively; and there are plenty of reputable antique shops wherein
genuine things are to be found. As a matter of fact, the writer has
found that even where certain dealers have offered spurious objects as
genuine, they have done so through ignorance rather than through
cupidity. A dealer will usually be only too glad to have a collector who
knows point to him mistakes in attribution. Most of the small shops are
run by men who have little time for study, and who are far more likely
to be imposed upon themselves than to attempt to impose upon their
customers. After all, the dealer could not live without customers, and
the only safe way to hold any customer is to treat him honestly.
Early in the eighteenth century the lathe began to be developed, so any
specimens of pewter disclosing lathe marks would suggest a date
subsequent to that period. The pewter formed by the “spinning” process
is the most modern of all. The pewter collector should be careful how he
polishes his pewter, as this ware should never be subjected to rubbing
with brick-dust and like vigorous usage.
[Illustration:
_Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art_
Chinese Pewter Jar with Bronze Cover. Early 18th Century
A Swiss Pewter Wine-Flask, Zurich, Dated 1766]
[Illustration: American 18th Century Sampler]
[Illustration: A Dated English or Welsh Sampler, 1787]