698 PEWTER AND THE REVIVAL OP ITS USE. 



tions were recognized as existing for the benefit of all. The records 

 show, indeed, in a very striking manner the absence of privilege and 

 mere influence, the very master or wardens of the company, in their 

 capacity of craftsmen and dealers, sometimes falling luider its 

 discipline. 



During the hundred and thirty years which elapsed between the 

 formation of the old body of the Craft of Pewterers and the incor- 

 poration of the Pewterers' Company the guild had no hall, but 

 rented premises for their feasts and business meetings from the 

 House of the Austin Friars, Special religious services were ob- 

 served by the brethren at Christmas, Easter, and the Feast of the 

 Assumption, generally at the Church of the Grey Friars. The ex- 

 pansion of trade and the consequent increase of wealth and influence 

 of the city of London generally during the fifteenth century doubt- 

 less excited the ambition of the craft for incorporation as a regular 

 city company, and after delays, probably due to the disturbed state 

 of the government through the Wars of the Eoses, a charter was 

 granted by King Edward IV in 1473 creating the existing Pewterers' 

 Company. This charter is still preserved in the archives of the 

 guild, and is a beautifully written and illuminated document in 

 Latin. The jDOwers already de facto possessed by the craft were 

 by this instrument confirmed and extended, one of the most valuable 

 new concessions being that of the right of search for inferior goods 

 and metal below the proper standard of purity. This right not 

 only was to extend over London and its suburbs, but over the whole 

 country, and all provincial mayors and sheriffs were enjoined to 

 assist the company's officers in the work. All such inferior goods or 

 metal was to be seized and sold, the proceeds to be divided between 

 the company and the Crown. These searches, besides fulfilling the 

 primary object of protecting the trade against fraud and bad work, 

 had the result of greatly strengthening the company's importance, 

 and consequently attracting numbers of provincial pewterers into 

 its ranks. The officers of the company who undertook the country 

 searches were accustomed to entertain the provincial master pew- 

 terers while on circuit at the expense of the guild, and the country 

 members when in town also enjoyed the hospitality of the city. 

 Hawking goods by peddlers at fairs or markets was strictly forbid- 

 den, under pain of fines and confiscation of the articles, the shop- 

 keepers, Avho of course were at the charge of rent, taxes, and other 

 dues, claiming and enforcing the privilege of keeping the trade in 

 their own hands. 



Soon after the establishment of the company and its consequent 

 expansion the need began to be felt for a hall of its own, and accord- 

 ingly a site was found for the same in Lime street, v.'here the present 

 hall now stands. From wiv earlv times it had been the custom for 



